After a Ten Year Absence, Her Return has Met with Success
When Mary Steiner sat down with an advisor to talk about coming back to UNCG after 10 years away, she had never heard the term "Academic Forgiveness." It would play a key role in transforming her poor academic record into a good one.
Mary came to UNCG from Manteo as a traditional student and went through many of the ups and downs that young college students experience. Some of her grades were A's and B's, but others were sabotaged by the distractions of personal issues, by skipped classes, and by too many hours spent working to maintain her off-campus apartment. When she left after 8 semesters, she had a 1.7 and the feeling that college had not worked out that well for her.
Things are different now that she has returned to school as an adult. Thanks to a better work ethic, sharpened sense of purpose, and commitment to her class work, she has made mainly A's in the 7 classes she's taken since returning to UNCG in 2001. After 15 hours of successful course work, she was eligible for "Academic Forgiveness," whereby any previous course in which she'd made lower than a C was excluded from her GPA. (She was eligible because she had been away for at least four years and had not attended another school since leaving UNCG.) When her GPA was refigured, she had a 2.95. Now she looks forward to seeing it rise even higher.
Real World Experience Lends Meaning to Her Classes
There are a number of ways Mary's experiences as an adult student differ from her earlier college experiences. Her classes mean more to her because of the time she spent in the work world. "In Accounting I could relate what we discussed about companies to my work experience," she notes. "If all you've done is buy things at a retail store, there's lots you don't understand."
She is in a better position as an adult student to make a sound choice of major. As she began exploring the curriculum in Business, she discovered an aptitude for math. Not that she remembered much college math from her earlier work. "When I took the placement test, I couldn't answer the first 5 questions," Mary recalls. "I knew I was in trouble!" So she took a review course for no credit and found that her math skills came back. "I had a 103 average," she laughs. After college algebra and trig, she's now taking calculus and headed toward a math major. "Why not capitalize on your strengths?" she asks.
Her Relationship with Faculty has Greatly Improved
Mary also notes that the quality of relationships with faculty has improved markedly for her an adult. "As an adult, I don't feel intimidated talking to faculty and asking questions," she says. "I respect my teachers and can learn a lot from them, but I don't feel beneath them now."
She mentions a number of ways the closer relationships with faculty have helped her. "Faculty know who is trying hard and who's slacking off. I feel like I've gotten extra help because I was interested in the class," she says, citing frequent visits to her professors' offices. Faculty members have even helped her make decisions about what professors to take in future semesters, advising her about which of their colleagues might be a good match for her learning style.
Mary has taken advantage of the Office for Adult Students at UNCG, as well, finding it a good resource if she needed help with a campus problem and attending a regular monthly meeting for adult students called "First Tuesdays at Five." "First Tuesdays is great," she says. One program she recalls was a presentation by a Psychology professor who talked about memory and gave the group study tips. He told them how to increase their power of concentration by setting a watch with a timer for 10-minute study intervals (to monitor ability to focus on their work) and gradually increasing the time span, like building strength in a muscle by weight training. Mary also uses the First Tuesday meetings to keep in touch with a friend she made in a literature class. "We make a point to see each other there," Mary says.
Active Outside the Classroom
This semester brings a couple of new activities for Mary. She's serving as an "on-line buddy" for a new adult student, as part of a new program for the Office for Adult Students. She is also helping coordinate adult study groups, through the OAS Open Forum. Both programs are part of the "Campus Connect" feature of the OAS web site. Mary has also accepted a position as a lab instructor/grader for a beginning Computer Science class, an opportunity that grew out of the good relationship she had with the professor when she took the course herself.
"If you have a problem, don't be afraid to ask," Mary counsels new students. "Someone will help you. Find that person. I have lots of them; I just ask everybody and then figure out what to do."
There's one last piece of advice that grows directly out of her own experience as an adult student: "Have fun and enjoy yourself," she says. She's certainly finding academic success to be a whole lot more fun that her earlier struggle.
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Page updated: 06-May-2009
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