(Photo of Deborah Harris on the left and Jacklyn Robinson on the right discussing their future plans of educating the youth. In this Picture taken by me at St. Matthew A.M.E. church 12/13/09)
DETROIT--The economy and the needs of the community inspire two woman, and people all over the country to take their career and life to a new plateau, by retuning back to college.
Fifty-two year old Deborah Harris and 48-year-old Jaclyn Robinson, both mothers with close to 30 years of work experience in their current careers, have recently made the decision to return back to the long nights of essay writing, text-book reading, and note taking. Everything current traditional students are trying to get away from.
Both women however said that they are in need for a change, and with the society constantly changing; they want to reinvent themselves and pursue a profession that will help improve the lives of individuals in their environment.
“I felt that there was a need for more people to help in education due to the cities poor reading statistics. I prayed about it and in my search to find a different career path, I realized that it was now my mission to help improve their academic skills,” Harris said.
Currently Harris is an Address Management Specialist for the main post office downtown. She specializes in making sure the sequence of the mail is delivered properly. She is a graduate of University of Detroit Mercy with a degree in clinical psychology. Before she became an AMS specialist, she served as one of the supervisors at the branch for 24 years. She is now taking classes at The University of Phoenix to obtain a master’s in public administration. She wishes to start a non-profit organization that will offer a service to young children with the goal of improving reading skills.
Harris said she watched her own daughter struggle with reading and speech, and now wants to reach out to the community and help children and parents who may be fighting with the same struggle.
“Everything I looked at seemed to be directing me to help people with reading, the schools, even the mail I got told me teachers where needed, and I’m not even a teacher! But it said that students needed some assistance in reading. Plus we also had a reading program at church, and we had so many kids who could not read, and it was amazing to me that when you cannot read you really can’t function in society,” Harris said.
America.gov said that the typical traditional student who comes right out of high school, goes to college and graduates in four years is no longer the norm. More and more nontraditional students have been entering the classroom over the years, for different reasons, and making an impact on the college classrooms.
Statistics from the U.S. Department of Education and the University Continuing Education Association, say the fastest growing group of people who are taking college courses are people 25 and older and are working and/or raising a family. The National Center Of Educational Statistics, nces.ed.gov, and America.gov both said that the numbers of nontraditional numbers have increased over the past decade.
America.gov reported that, “In 2003 6.1 million nontraditional college-age students (age 25 or older) were enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities, composing about 37 percent of all college students, and has estimated to have doubled in 2005”
Robinson is currently in the transition stage from her previous job to entering the college classroom. She is a graduate of Michigan State University with a degree in journalism and plans on attending Wayne State University to obtain masters in Arts and Teaching.
For the last 25 years she worked as a journalist writing for various publications such as The Kalamazoo Gazette, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week just to name a few. She worked for a number of years for an African American publication called “On Wheels” where she hosted a radio show and interviewed people in the auto industry and wrote reviews. She later went back to free lance writing. What led her to the decision of returning back to school was the need to reinvent herself, an opportunity to make a difference, and her overlook of the current journalism field and its problems due to the economy.
“In the last two or three years we have seen a shift in print media particularly, as businesses have had hard economic times. Print media are based on advertisements, so when the advertisement dollars dry up, that means the amount of space or very life of a publication is affected,” Robinson said.
Robinson says education is an avenue she has always been interested in and wishes to teach the subject of English and English as a second language. Like Harris, she wishes to improve reading and writing skills, and to also gain a better understanding of the issues and problems the cities school system is facing. She wants to do more than just simply teach.
“Down the road, hopefully through grant writing, I hope to come up with some programs, curriculums, or actives that are tailored to complement of supplement with the schools. I hope to be more of a Director or visionary. Your limited in the schools, but you can contract through the schools, community, or church and offer programs that offer a positive impact. We are all part of the solution; we can’t leave it all to the teachers,” Robinson said.
Like Robinson, the current economic situation has led a lot of people back into the class room as wirf.com reports, “There are many flocking towards healthcare and business degrees, either to get news jobs or increase their chances of landing better ones when the economy turns around.”
USATODAY reported that Millions of laid-off workers are being forced to make tough decisions about their futures. Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost more than 5 million jobs. In March, U.S. employers cut 663,000 jobs.
“A lot of people see that there may have to change their career, and in order to survive now, you’re going to have to take a detour in the plans that you have, which is going back to school,” Harris said.
In order to increase their numbers, USATODAY reports that “many community colleges and technical schools are tailoring programs to appeal to adults who need new skills, working with local companies to match their needs and sending staff into factories and other workplaces to spread the word about state and federal retraining assistance.”
Although nontraditional students have been common for a while, the economy’s current state seems to be increasing the numbers. Some adults may be returning because of layoffs and hopes of just simply getting a better job, some people, like Harris and Robinson, who feel the pressure from the economy, see this as more of an opportunity to pursue a career that could make a difference and help benefit others. No matter what their reason, each nontraditional student is reinventing themselves and working towards bettering themselves as a person by continuing their education and exploring new talents.
Many Universities, such as Eastern Michigan, offers a lot of flexibility in order to accommodate the needs of the students and their schedules. Weekend classes, online courses, Independent learning courses, accelerated programs, night classes, online courses, and workplace courses have all different ways universities have responded to the needs of the non-traditional student.
There are now scholarships, and even programs, such as Jennifer Granholm’s No Worker Left Behind program that is giving way money to help people to go back to school to change their career.
Harris and Robinson are two of the many nontraditional student’s who plan to take their life in a whole new direction for the better, and hopefully make the best out of the countries bad situation.
Outside sources found on america.gov,usatoday.com,necs.ed.gov
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