Assistant vice president/lending relationship manager in private banking for Butterfield Bank, Talitha Davis recently completed her MBA through Liverpool University in the United Kingdom.

During the three year programme the 29-year-old not only juggled her full-time job at the Bank with her studies, but also had two children.

"All my electives in college were in business," she says. "I was searching for a programme that fit my schedule and I had a colleague who was in the management training programme at the bank who told me about his MBA online with Liverpool University."

She says it helped speaking to someone who was working and completing the course because it gave her some idea of what lay ahead.

"It was the admission process that was the most exciting. I kept saying if I can get through the admission process then I can do this," she says laughing. "It can be a nightmare, but a particular person was assigned to me and it was his objective to get all the necessary documents and he was very persistent. He helped me get through what can be a painful process."

Mrs. Davis decided to sign up for the monthly payment programme offered by the University and pay for it herself. "When the bank found out I was starting the course they insisted on paying for it because they saw it as part of my professional development."

The Bank has been very supportive of her decision and also gives her time off to study and complete assignments."

She started her first class in February 2006 and three months into the programme found out she was expecting her first son.

"I told my husband I had put this off for so long, I was finally in my dream programme and now I'm pregnant. I got a lot of feedback from people, but life throws you all sorts of things, I can choose to delay it, but there will always be something else standing in my way, so I decided to juggle it."

Her husband and family were very supportive.

"That's why it took me three years," she says smiling, adding that life through her another curve ball when she got pregnant with her second, soon after the birth of her first. "I just kept saying I'm going to do it and stick it out!"

She had to commit to over 23 hours a week and says she simply readjusted her life and her schedule with the help of her husband and family — making sacrifices along the way: "But it was worth it. The programme just broadened my foundation."