Successful producer returns to school to become high school English teacher
After a career in documentary production, third-year English student June Dowad returns to school to in hopes of becoming a high school teacher.
By Nouschka van der Meijden
June 6, 2010 10:34 p.m.
Like many third-year English students, June Dowad, a transfer student from Santa Monica College, just finished the introductory English series and is working on her honors thesis.
Her housing situation, however, is not so conventional, as Dowad’s three roommates are her husband and two of her teenage children.
Dowad is a 49-year-old undergraduate who, after a successful career producing documentaries and raising three children, decided she wanted to go back to school.
She started taking online classes at the University of Phoenix but quickly moved on to California State University, Northridge and Santa Monica College, after which time she got accepted at UCLA.
Born in London, Dowad started her career directly after high school and traveled the world for the next decade, during which she met her husband, Bruce Dowad. The couple then moved to Los Angeles, where her husband pursued a career as a commercial director and she later started her own film corporation.
“The film industry was not giving me what I wanted anymore,” June Dowad said. “It took me away from my children.”
Now Dowad’s ambition has shifted to becoming a high school English teacher. After she completes her education at UCLA, she hopes to combine a master’s degree with teaching at a private school.
Dowad, though, is one of only a few older undergraduate students at UCLA. Out of the 26,687 undergraduates last fall, 451 were over the age of 30, said Claudia Luther, university spokeswoman.
Although most students are younger, Dowad has said she has never felt alienated, as students treat her exactly like she is one of them.
“I also don’t play the old lady,” Dowad said. “I talk about the same things they do. In discussions I sometimes raise a different point, but other times I have exactly the same thought as my neighbor.”
And while Bruce Dowad, who went to art school in London for four years, does not have plans to go back to school, he completely supports his wife’s decision.
“Her commitment is phenomenal. She has totally emerged in the college program,” he said.
However, June Dowad’s going to college did change some things within the family, and her husband admits that living with just students sometimes makes him feel a little left out. However, he said he knows this is only a temporary situation.
“We have less interaction with her because she is so busy studying and doing her homework, but I believe it is a means to an end. It is a path to a future she aspires,” Bruce said of his wife. “If she is happy, I am happy.”
June Dowad’s oldest son, Thadeus Dowad, is a second-year art history student at the University of Pennsylvania, so he and his mother are both current college students.
“We have some interesting discussions about grades,” Dowad said. “We are a bit competitive.”
In general, June Dowad said she feels her pursuit of a college degree only motivates her children. Even though her decision to delay going to college after high school brought her success, she still wants her children to get a degree before entering the workforce.
“Go have that college experience before you take over the world,” Dowad said.
Dowad said she does regret not being able to have the full college experience of living in the dorms and participating in student life.
“I would love to go abroad, but I have to pick and choose my activities,” Dowad said, adding that she goes to a lot of UCLA events.
“I just like learning,” she said. “There is something about it that keeps you young.”
