Back to school
By Daily Bruin Staff
June 11, 2000 9:00 p.m.
By Trina Enriquez and Amy Tay
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
They juggle studies with families, coping with isolation while
searching for a place to fit in. For many, the path to college
might have taken a bit longer, but earning a degree fulfills a
lifelong dream.
Non-traditional students, many of whom include returning
students, are usually older than the general student population and
often have families to support. This poses certain
challenges, but most are driven to
succeed.
Theresa Stevens, a graduating communication studies student and
mother of three, came to UCLA as a returning student determined
to
finish her degree.
“I knew that when I finally transferred to UCLA, nothing
was going to stop me from finishing, so it was just a matter of
getting over each hurdle as it arose,” Stevens said.
Randy Dingwall, a graduating chemistry student, said he too had
handled much stress to finish his
studies.
“I am so excited about graduating,” he said.
“UCLA has rather felt like an ordeal ““ everything has
seemed like an obstacle that I’ve had to overcome.”
Dingwall came to UCLA directly from high school in 1991. Four
quarters later, however, he left, frustrated by what he found
here.
“The impersonality was the most difficult thing to adjust
to ““ the courses weren’t that hard, and getting around
was pretty easy,” Dingwall said.
Coming from a small town in Idaho, Dingwall had expected to
encounter some culture shock at UCLA, but was surprised by the
extent of it.
“Some people worried too much about grades,” he
said. “They were unwilling to help other people out, and I
didn’t like that at all.”
Unable to fit into the Los Angeles lifestyle, Dingwall lost his
motivation to study and skipped classes. Finally, during winter
quarter of his second year, he decided to leave with the intention
of returning shortly.
“My grades were going down each quarter since I was
studying less and less and I decided that I had to get out of here
before it got any worse,” he said.
When spring quarter arrived, Dingwall decided to move out of the
residence halls and started working at the Fox Theater in
Westwood.
Eventually, thoughts of returning to school began to slip from
his mind, as other concerns entered the picture.
“Each quarter something else came up ““ I had these
bills to pay off and I was working,” he said. “I just
got lost in the cycle of living from paycheck to
paycheck.”
Money matters also kept Dingwall from finishing school in the
first place.
“Even if I wasn’t making a lot of money, at least I
wasn’t getting further in debt,” he said. “To go
back to school and have to borrow cash to pay off tuition was
really daunting.”
After four years in the work force, Dingwall came back to UCLA
determined to complete his degree and to find a better-paying
job.
“It was every bit as impersonal as when I left,” he
said. “But having worked at a minimum-wage job for four years
gave me a better reason to want to stay even if I hated
school.”
Having been gone so long, Dingwall found difficulty adjusting to
some aspects of college life.
“The amount of studying is just phenomenal if you
don’t remember the material because you’re out too
long,” he said.
Dingwall’s grades suffered because he worked long hours to
pay rent and to avoid borrowing more money. Eventually, he decided
that his education was more important.
“I realized that school had to be the main priority or it
would never get finished,” he said. “Borrowing money
now is OK if I can get a better job to pay it off.”
Being a part of the chemistry fraternity Alpha Chi Sigma has
helped him adust and to make friends at UCLA, Dingwall said.
“Joining the fraternity is what did it for me,” he
said. “It gave me my own little home in this city of a
campus.”
Like Dingwall, Stevens found difficulty in the road to
commencement as she balanced academics with her life outside of
UCLA.
“I care very deeply about my grades because it’s
taken lots of sacrificing on the part of my family for me to be
doing this at this time in my life,” Stevens said.
Stevens began her college career at Pierce College after
graduating from high school in 1975.
“I was not what you’d call a motivated college
student at that time,” she said. “After muddling
through school part-time for two years, I left at the first sign of
a decent job.”
At KABC-TV she delivered mail before turning to television
production. By the time she decided to return to college, her
children were in elementary school.
She returned to Pierce before leaving for Valley College to take
care of her general education courses and to enroll in the honors
program, which she knew she would need to gain admittance to
UCLA.
“Sadly, most students at two-year colleges never even
think about going to a UC ““ they assume they’ll go to a
CSU,” Stevens said. “I had to convince the counselors
that I could do it.
“The thought of quitting was never even an option,”
she continued. “It just became a matter of how I was going to
do it, not if I was going to do it.”
Academically, Stevens’ experience has been much like that
of other students. “I stress out over term papers and exams.
My face still breaks out during finals ““ there are some
things you never outgrow, unfortunately,” she said.
Her social life outside of school, however, has differed
markedly from the lives of other students.
“For some reason, I’ve not been invited to a single
fraternity party,” she said with a laugh.
Still, Stevens has come to accept certain aspects of her
situation.
“Some things are definitely better left for
traditional-age students,” she said.
Yet a dearth of information and support networks for
non-traditional students led Stevens to feel isolated on campus.
After about a year at UCLA, she found out about Alpha Gamma
Epsilon, a sorority/fraternity for non-traditional students,
through a professor.
According to Rosie Shatkin, a graduating political science
student and vice-president of AGE, outreach constitutes a major
goal for the
organization.
“For a lot of non-traditional students, college
wasn’t the thing to do,” she said. “We’re
starting a new tradition: we didn’t have to do it at
18.”
Mary Kairouz is one of four non-traditional students in her
igneous petrology class. She said being a mother, working and going
to school at the same time has been difficult.
“I missed my daughter’s prom, I’m not there
for them to help with homework, I only made three softball games
this quarter,” she said, adding that being a mother and a
student
doesn’t leave her a choice to live close campus.
“I commute 100 miles ““ you get tired of facing the
405 every day,” she said.
Her only advice to students is “just finish it.”
“I don’t recommend going back to school, leaving
your kids. You get a fuller college life when you are young and
single. You have a little bit more flexibility,”she said.
Although she knew that many students appreciate interaction with
their professors, Shatkin said many non-traditional students
develop a rapport with a particular professor so they feel more
connected to campus life.
Dingwall, too, befriended some professors who made him care more
about classes and studying.
“If you get to know them, you realize that they actually
do give a damn about you,” he said.
Because of her experiences, Stevens said she can relate more
easily to professors than other students; she called it “a
definite bonus” in helping her network on campus.
A supportive family also made the transition much easier, as
Shatkin can attest. Her husband has strongly
supported her pursuit of a college education.
Shatkin had briefly attended the City University of New
York’s Hunter College after spending several years as a
childcare provider, and transferred to Santa Monica College before
gaining admittance to UCLA.
“We’re coming back here to make a difference and
challenge ourselves,” Shatkin said.
With little time between juggling classes and family life, many
non-traditional students find there has been no “easing
into” college life.
“It has been more like putting on the blinders and
barreling ahead,” Stevens said. “It’s always been
about getting through it and keeping the rest of my life intact at
the same time.”
Despite the hard work, Stevens has no regrets about coming to
UCLA.
“It’s a constant struggle,” she said.
“It’s also been completely worth it.”
As for the students’ classmates, having Kairouz and others
in class is often a rewarding experience.
“They’re like our moms,” said second-year
geology student Kristen Ebert. “They bring us food, they
really unify the class.”
