One
of my favorite memories from attending a community college right out of high
school was my Intro to Sociology class – 10 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mr.
Cherry was the instructor and he facilitated the class with the measured hand
of an orchestra conductor. He knew how to make the course content come to life
through the voices of the adult students in the class. He would begin each
class with a brief lecture and add a unique twist – he would first ask us 18-year-olds
questions to which we would work hard to summon the correct answers based on
what we had read from the textbook the previous night. After we provided our
often weak, simple answers, he would then ask the older students (who had lived
a little) how the particular subject matter applied to real life – think of the
difference between reading about
marriage, domestic violence, racism, and any other isms and living them. We’d then break into small
groups where all of us – younger and older – would devour the content.
I
couldn’t help but think how lucky I was to have chosen to attend a community
college and learn so deeply when so many of my friends attending universities
had to learn this same content in a 300-seat lecture hall with 299 other 18-year-olds,
taught by a teaching assistant who was still working on their master’s or
doctorate. I’m still grateful for what my older student peers taught me back
then and for the artful skill of Mr. Cherry, who worked his craft every day.
Here
at Mohawk Valley Community College, more than 33 percent of our students are 25
years or older. We welcome and embrace returning adult students. Our adult
learner services office provides tremendous support to our
older students. The wonderful staff in this office (and the rest of the
College) understand that the older you get, the more complex life becomes and
the more support you need. The Returning Adult Student Association (RASA) is a
key element to our support structure and is one of our most vibrant and active
student clubs. It provides peer-oriented support and activities for returning
adults and meets every Thursday at 3 p.m. in Room 212 of the Alumni College
Center on the Utica Campus.
Many
of our returning adults are only able to attend on a part-time basis, taking a
few classes at a time. The part-time tendencies of our students are why we have
maintained the lowest part-time tuition rate in the state for five consecutive
years. I personally find inspiration in every story of our returning adult
students – stress from raising children; caring for aging parents; working
multiple jobs; taking care of oneself; and then trying to fit in time for a
college education – a logistics dance for the ages played over and over again
on our campuses. To help understand the power of these stories, I encourage you
to take a moment to watch this brief two
minute video
of one our students.
The
other evening, I was leaving my office and encountered an older student in the
hallway. We struck up a conversation and I learned his story. He’s here to
switch careers and go into health care because he wants to prepare for a future
where he can see himself no longer being able to do the manual labor work he is
currently doing – he wants to have options in a few years. The focus he has on
his studies was inspiring – he knows what he wants to do and why he wants to do
it. The life he has lived thus far gave him a vision of how he wanted to change
his life by furthering his education and changing careers. Many older students
share this focus and add to the diversity of our learning environment and help
to make a MVCC an incredible place to learn, grow, and change your life for the
better.
