St. Leo University is
tucked into hills that roll across part of west central Florida. It is a small
campus; only 1,000 students live and study there in buildings designed to look
like a Spanish mission.
Many more students at St.
Leo are the non-traditional types who attend evening or weekend classes on
campus or at satellite locations. Over 13,000 of St. Leo’s students finish
their degrees in continuing education programs in seven states or through
online learning.
Most of these students
have families and jobs that won’t allow them to pursue their education the
old-fashioned way. Many of them return to school after hardship or initial
educational failures. Whatever the reason, all of them are making their
families proud.
When my mother passed
away from cancer at the very young age of 49, she left her youngest son at the
tender age of 16. It was a particularly devastating time for my brother, Michael,
although he did manage to finish high school and served in the U.S. Army.
Returning home in the
mid-1980s to a poor economy with few life skills, he floundered for many years,
abusing drugs and alcohol, and losing touch with his young son. In the 1990s he
ended up homeless in the San Francisco East Bay for over five years.
Repeated advice from
social workers and law enforcement warned us that only he could rise up from
the ashes of his life, so to speak, and help had to come from within.
After a painful visit
with me in 2000, he promised me that he would get his life together.
Amazingly, he did just
that. Shortly after our visit, he moved to Alabama with the help of a wonderful
Army buddy. Working for a minimum stipend and free rent as a maintenance worker
he slowly took the steps needed to support himself. Six years ago he found a
way to purchase a computer and learn to write and send e-mails. He visited his
local library and learned software for word processing.
His work hours and 24/7
responsibilities with the large apartment maintenance corporation allowed no
way to attend classes on a college campus. With the help of his faraway family,
he researched a way to pursue his education online and found St. Leo University
in Florida in 2005.
From remedial English
courses to basic math he worked from his tiny apartment at all hours of the day
and night. He found proctors at the local libraries who monitored his tests and
he threw himself into this quest for a college degree with amazing
determination.
In the early courses he
asked me for help writing sentences and then paragraphs and full papers. In
later years he sent me his final projects for a look-through before submission.
He asked his nieces for practical topics for business papers and case studies;
he asked his sister for suggestions for reading materials. He admitted he hated
my suggestion, “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, but that he loved
picking the book apart in his paper. I watched him grow from a timid,
self-conscious student into a confident, sometimes opinionated writer.
It was four years of
determination, discipline, strength and resilience for my youngest brother and
he finished his bachelor’s degree last fall. He did not attend his commencement
at St. Leo in Florida this month due to his work schedule and transportation
difficulties. He has, however, begun to research an advanced degree with the
hope of pursuing even higher educational goals and someday leaving his old job
behind.
While he claims us as his
inspiration, his sister, nieces and teenage son are so proud of him. We are so
inspired and so grateful that attending college in a traditional setting was
not required for his educational growth. He is proof that it is never too late
to learn.
If you know someone who
would like to return to school, there are several up-to-date books in the
Minuteman Library Network. The Morrill Memorial Library has several of them,
including “Adult Students: A Painless Guide to Going Back to College,” by Gen
and Kelly Tanabe. The Tanabes have written several books, including “501 Ways
for Adult Students to Pay for College” and “Adult Students: An Insider’s Guide
to Getting into College.”
Another title is “The
Adult Student’s Guide to Survival and Success,” by Al Seibert and Mary
Karr. They might also find some nuggets of wisdom in the
unfortunately-titled “Online Education for Dummies,” by Kevin Johnson and “The
Complete Idiot’s Guide to Going Back to College,” by Dolores Mize.
Visit us at the library.
We look forward to seeing you here. Be sure to visit our website, www.
norwoodlibrary.org or call 781-769-0200 for help with books on study aids,
college choices or computer learning. Call our literacy department for help
with reading, writing, GED preparation and citizenship preparation at 781-769-4599.
