Not all of the more than 24,000 students at West Virginia University are 18 years old and recent high school graduates. Many of our students return to higher education after their careers are established and their own children are attending school. These adult learners are a growing population at WVU. Some of these students take classes on campus while others take advantage of the many online courses the University offers. Believe it or not, some even take classes just for the fun of it.
Each nontraditional student has his or her own reason for coming back to college, but they all understand the true value of education. The two stories included here illustrate two different perspectives of what it's like to be a WVU student who is a little bit older and wiser than most freshmen.
Finding the
Time
By Juliana B. Frederick
Kelly Nelsen, a New Martinsville volunteer
firefighter, had been thinking about getting a college degree
for quite some time but did not know if it would be possible.
A friend told him about West Virginia University's Regents Bachelor
of Arts (RBA) program, but with a full-time job, a family with
three children, and his fire department service, he didn't know
if he had the time.
Fate intervened when his photograph appeared on the front page
of the Daily Athenaeum. He happened to be in Morgantown
for fire training. Next to the photograph was an article about
the Regents program, which allows adults to develop their own
undergraduate course of study. "It was a sign," he
said.
Nelsen began the RBA program in January 2003 and is happily enjoying
the life of a college student at age 42. He is currently taking
two classes, one in a traditional classroom setting and the other
online. He intends to take one or two more courses next semester.
Kelly Nelsen represents a growing number of nontraditional students
at WVU. A few come back to school for the pleasure of learning,
but most are motivated by the desire to advance their careers.
Tammy Bishoff, coordinator for adult learners in Extended Learning,
estimates there are 2,000 older students taking classes at WVU.
Nearly 40 percent are part-time students.
"Nationally, adult learners are the fastest growing segment
of the higher education population. Changes in today's workplace
mean education is a lifelong process," Bishoff said. "Not
everyone can come to Morgantown during the day. WVU is trying
to meet the needs of place-bound adults by developing online
courses and offering more courses on nights and weekends."
Lynn Price Reinke, a journalism instructor who teaches many adults
in her online class, says they are serious about their courses.
"At first, they're very hesitant and not sure they will
succeed after being out of the classroom for ten or 20 years.
However, they know the value of the education and what it means
in the workplace. They usually know a lot more than they think
they do."
When asked about any struggles he has had balancing his career,
school, and family, Nelsen replied, "I am a very driven
person who enjoys challenges." He acknowledges this schedule
isn't for everyone, but takes pleasure in keeping busy. In fact,
he is also teaching an emergency medical technician refresher
course in the middle of the semester.
One way adult learners benefit from the RBA program is the ability
to receive college-equivalent credit from previous educational
or professional activities that they can present in a portfolio.
Nelsen, who has taken and taught courses through the fire service,
hopes that this can serve as the basis for college credit in
his portfolio.
Summer School
By Maureen Crockett
I go to summer school for fun. So does
my husband. We learn at our pleasure, but never pull an all-nighter
studying because we are auditing classes. Auditing means there
is no pressure; when the other students take a test, my husband
and I take a nap. This means, of course, that we never actually
pass a class.
Recently, the class
we didn't pass was Vegetation of West Virginia, offered
by the Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Consumer Sciences,
for one intense week at Camp Caesar, a fine 4-H camp in Webster
County. The two professors were Bill Grafton and Ron Fortney.
We had already taken this class five times before.
This time the class included eleven serious students, mostly
undergraduates except for a couple of gals at the master's and
doctorate levels. My husband Bill and I were there as quasi students,
stirring up envy and resentment as we kept missing the daily
quizzes.
We also served as "gofers" for the others. We did a
small amount of work for the teachers, and we brought back items
from the grocery store at Cowen for the students. After two days
of slogging through the rain on field trips, one fellow requested
we bring back sunshine. Another muttered, "beer," but
Ron heard that request and quickly replied "This is a dry
campus."
The bottom line here, obviously, is that studying West Virginia
taxonomy is so much fun that we do it again and again. Besides,
Ron's tests are so tough we would never pass. He is the kind
of professor who teaches A and B, but asks C on a test, forcing
the test-taker to synthesize A and B. At test times, we look
over the exams before we leave, and are relieved we don't have
to take them. Ron is charming, affable, informal, has a good
sense of humor, and is approachable, but his tests are killers.
A weeklong summer class at WVU is a tour de force, with no one
keeping normal academic hours. We worked with the "real"
students, hovering over microscopes and plant specimens at 8:00
a.m. each morning. After supper, students worked at the lab set
up in Cantrell Hall until one or two the next morning, and the
professors were there to help. However, by midnight, Bill and
I could be found sprawling in our bunks reading and having something
nice to drink. Once in a while we would go up to the classroom
late at night to stir up trouble. Life is good when you audit.
At night, plants collected during the day are identified, a process
called keying out. We used taxonomy guides, hand lenses, and
microscopes to help, along with scrawled notes we made in the
field.
At the front of
most field guides are keys asking sequential either/or questions
that help you figure out the plant's name. A key wants to know
if the leaves are opposite or alternate. Are leaf veins parallel
or net veined? Are there five stamens or a whole bunch? There
are 2,400 different species of plants in West Virginia, almost
a quarter of which are not native, so sometimes keying out is
quite time consuming.
When we first started learning about flowers we were surprised
to find how active, varied, and quirky their sex lives were.
It's a male and female thing usually, but sometimes it's a matter
of love the one you're with, no morals or ethics need apply.
The collected flowers we bring back from the field go into plant
presses, then are slowly dried. Pressing plants is a messy process,
causing leaf litter, twigs, and dirt all over tables, students,
and the floor.
During daylight hours we had lectures or were out in the field
finding plants, learning nomenclature, and slogging through difficult
terrain. The lectures at Cantrell Hall discussed temperature,
moisture, elevation, plant communities, and the genus and species
of common plants we would be finding. There were distractions,
because the windows behind our teachers opened on a hillside
of rhododendron, and the open door led right onto a noisy, babbling
stream.
On our trips around Webster and Pocahontas counties, we took
backpacks, water, notebooks and pens, collecting bags, and our
Flora of West Virginia. We hunted for flowers, ferns,
trees, and shrubs almost over to the Virginia line. We tramped
through muck and scrambled up poison-ivy-covered inclines.
Both rain and sun hit our heads, and our days were either freezing
cold or sweaty hot as we hiked along boulder-strewn rivers flowing
through misty mountains. While we were doing this, most of the
world was inside working at desk jobs, but life for us was green
plants, laughter, learning, and companionship. We were sublimely
happy.
The week went by too quickly, and unfortunately we did not pass
the course. Guess we'll have to take it again.
