QUESTIONS OF DIVERSITY
Heidi Harwick, SA-9084 Heidi Harwick completed her B.S. in Geology in 2018
and is currently a graduate student at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She also works at Educational Testing Service as a proposal production specialist in the business development group. Prior to moving to San Antonio in 2004, Heidi worked and lived in southern California and served in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Experiences
and Challenges of Being a
Non-Traditional Student
Most of my classmates are traditional students, attending
school full-time and focusing primarily on their studies before entering the workforce. I’m a non-traditional student, a little older than the average, working full-time and attending school part-time, and I wanted to share some of my experiences. There are fewer non-traditional students, though I’ve met other adults attending class while working, or starting their education later in life. There have been challenges and frustra- tions, but there have also been many good experiences, as well as plenty of helpful people along the way. Attending college has its ups and downs for everyone, so here are the things that I encountered and what I learned from them. I hope that my experiences and observations may be beneficial to other students (non-traditional or otherwise) pursuing their degree.
Working full-time during the day presents its own set of considerations when attending school. There is a limited number of classes that I can take per semester, so my pace is slower. On the other hand, my tuition and related costs are also limited, and having a job allows me to earn money to pay for school. Attending part-time means that it takes longer to graduate -- it took me ten years from my first undergraduate class until I completed my degree. I have just finished my first graduate semester, and have to keep in mind that I will not complete my master’s degree as quickly as will my peers. I’ve learned to think of attending school as a marathon versus a sprint, slow and steady with progress each semester. Going to school part-time also means that I spend a minimal amount of time on campus. I park, go to class, and then go to work or head home immediately afterward. This unfortunately means
48 TPG •
Jul.Aug.Sep 2019
that it’s a little harder to connect and stay in touch with my fellow students. Many geology students know each other and attend the same classes all day, and so probably feel more of a sense of belonging than I do, so that while I see a lot of same people, I don’t necessarily get a chance to get to know them very well. Fellow undergraduate students and friends have graduated and moved on, and while I am of course happy for them and proud of their accomplishments, I have been left feeling a bit isolated. Another challenge of working during the day is that many meetings and lectures are during the day when I am at work. For my classes, I arranged an alternate schedule with my employer, but it is often difficult to go to those lectures and seminars that are held in the afternoon.
There have been several times that I’ve thought of the
phrase “no man can serve two masters.” Attending school while working often feels like this, that you have a foot in two different worlds. You have to find and maintain a balance between work and school, between priorities at the office and at school, as well as taking care of things at home, commut- ing, and other responsibilities. Existing in both the school and work worlds also means that often the boundaries between them need to be flexible. For example, during final exams when school requires more time and energy, or when there are deadlines at work requiring overtime. Managing my schedule has certainly become a balancing act (one I’m becoming better at over time), and sometimes you just can’t do it all. There have been times where I’ve gotten overwhelmed and had to decide on one thing to do first, then prioritize the others, and post- pone other things, or even let some- thing unimportant left undone. My job can sometimes be demanding, often with multiple over- lapping deadlines and periods of stress, so I’m not always able to focus on school and geol- ogy studies as much as I’d like.
“ An issue I’ve
run into as a non- traditional student is that most schol-
You have to find and maintain a balance between work and school, between priorities at the office and at school, as well as taking care of things at home, commuting, and other respon- sibilities. Existing in both the school and work worlds also means that often the boundar- ies between them need to be flexible.
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