STUDENT SUPPORT

Back to School

Older undergraduates who fall outside of the standard 18-to-22 age bracket are known in higher education parlance as "non-traditional students." Their differences, in many cases, go beyond simple chronological definition. These "non-trads" often balance their college studies with work and family. Their study skills may be rusty, and their comfort level with new technology may fall short of the youthful majority of undergraduates. Then there's the potential awkwardness of being old enough to be a parent to most of your classmates.

For Gabryelle Kendall Poon, who began taking courses at UVM in 2006 with her previous college experience 20 years behind her, that last theoretical issue became a real one when she and her older son, a UVM junior, found themselves enrolled in the same psychology class. Asked how they coped, Kendall Poon laughs and says, "We pretended that we didn't know each other."

The challenge of sharing a classroom with your son or daughter, though, pales in comparison to the financial challenges that often accompany returning to school as an adult and adding tuition costs to the usual array of mortgage, car, and household bills. For Kendall Poon and 24 other non-traditional students at UVM, that burden was eased in the spring 2007 semester when they received help with college costs through the Osher Reentry Scholarship Fund, an initiative funded by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

The San Francisco-based Osher Foundation has been a strong supporter of lifelong learning initiatives at UVM and other institutions nationwide for years. The Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes, sponsored by the foundation and run through UVM's Department of Continuing Education, present lectures and educational events for seniors throughout Vermont.

For Kendall Poon, her own return to college made good on a personal commitment to lifelong learning, an example she's proud to set for her two sons. "It's good for both of them to see me going back, doing something that I really wanted," she says. "It shows them that you're never too old to learn or make your dreams come true."

Major life transitions helped motivate Kendall Poon's return to college when she divorced after 23 years of marriage and returned to the United States after seven years living in China. Her first experience in college, a semester studying accounting at Champlain College, was two decades in the past. She wanted to take a new direction, one that built on experiences in her own life and a desire to help others. Kendall Poon once suffered from stress-induced migraine headaches, but through bio-feedback techniques learned to better handle them. Bio-psychology courses have drawn her in at UVM, and she envisions pursuing the field for graduate school and a career.

Kendall Poon says those life experiences have also made her a better student. "I enjoy learning more now than when I was younger," she says. "I can relate what I'm studying to the things I've been through and, that helps me get more out of it."

Though she admits it took some time to get her note-taking speed back up to college pace, she's come to feel comfortable with the challenge of being a non-trad, and she's found her younger classmates to be welcoming. "They really do care about what is going on in the world and have a lot of great ideas," she says. "It's hopeful to see that."

Offering what she'd tell someone considering a return to school, Kendall Poon's advice is forthright: "Do it. Even though it may be intimidating, do it."