There were concerns regarding the decline in four-year college enrollment suggesting that fewer students persist to continue education beyond high school levels or two-year college levels. Despite the decline in four-year college enrollment, the persistence to graduation with an associate degree was stable. There was a gap in literature regarding student's persistence to pursue education past the associate degree level. While studies were conducted to ascertain the motivators for pursuing a 4-year college degree, all had focused on demographic groups such as ethnicity or gender; without considering those with associate degrees. The purpose of this study was to understand why associate degree students would persist to continue learning to a 4-year degree level. The study was intended to comprehend the motivators driving students with associate degree to persevere to a 4-year degree completion. Phenomenological design was used to explore the experiences of 16 participants who graduated with an associate degree and continued learning to a four-year degree attainment. The findings of this study showed that there were six and five emerging themes that respectively responded to the two research questions. The results of this study supported the literature that identified skills proficiency and professional knowledge as a supporter of academic persistence to a four-year degree completion. The findings further confirmed that academic persistence was a mixture of students' reasons for attending college and the accumulated experiences gained while in college. Based on the findings, the study strongly recommended a replication of the current study to three sites as a comparative study with a larger sample size, 20-30 at each of the three two-year technical college sites of the 22 technical college system of Georgia. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]