"I wanted to prove I could still do it,"
"I wanted to prove I could still do it," said Michelle Gibson, who started college in August, 1994, after her first grandchild was born in February. "I'd been away [from school] 28 years and I found that I COULD still do it," she laughs. "I was surprised!" Four years later, she had earned her degree in Biology from UNCG.
Michelle married right after high school, raised two daughters, and moved frequently with her husband's military career. She held a series of short-term jobs, mostly in retail. When her husband Tony retired from the Air Force, she was having trouble finding a job in the Greensboro area that she wanted to keep long term. She talked to her husband about a long-held dream to get a college degree. "I had always liked school," she says. "My husband said, 'Why don't you just go ahead and go.' "
Michelle's first year was spent at Randolph Community College, where she began with placement tests in Math and English. She surprised herself by placing into a college Math course, despite the gap of nearly 3 decades. In English, she needed some foundation work and confesses that writing answers to essay questions was the hardest part of returning to the classroom-"it was not comprehension." A Biology teacher at RCC kindled Michelle's interest in science, but when she could not get the chemistry class she would need to major in sciences, she transferred to UNCG. "I thought I'd go ahead and try," she remembers.
Younger students asked her, "What do you want to do with your degree?" "I'm here to learn," Michelle told them. "They thought I was crazy to put myself through this just because I wanted to. But it was very interesting. I enjoyed it," she recalls. And she earned her degree in four years, including summers. "I wasn't getting any younger," she admits. "I had to do it as fast as I could."
She did give up her initial goal of majoring in both Biology and Chemistry; one major was enough. Her days were more than packed with a full load of classes, grandchildren on the weekends, and a job as a research assistant in Dr. Bruce Kirchoff's Botany lab. He offered Michelle the position after she completed his Plant Diversity class her first year at UNCG. She worked daily in the lab, learning to prepare and analyze plant specimens of the zingiberaceae (ginger) family and use the sophisticated lab equipment. She still keeps up with Professor Kirchoff, who sends her information and news of his research by email.
She Credits her Professors for her Success
Michelle enjoyed both the students and the professors at UNCG. "I'd never met so many intelligent people," Michelle reflects. "Both the students and the professors were so smart. I couldn't have accomplished my goal if it weren't for all the great professors at UNCG, not just in science, but also in the other departments where I took classes required for my degree." Michelle found that "if you really want to do something at UNCG, someone is there to help you."
At the departmental graduation ceremony, Michelle's professors told the Biology graduates that they might have to look elsewhere for a job in their field, but after several months she found a job in High Point that draws on several elements of her UNCG training. Michelle is now a Pre-Treatment Analyst in the Industrial Waste Program for the city of High Point. Part environmental watchdog, part chemical detective, part research analyst, Michelle spends half of her time at her desk at the High Point Water Filtration Plant and half of her time in the field, responding to emergency calls or sampling waste water to track industrial compliance with state and city permits.
She draws on perspectives from classes like Chemistry and the Human Environment, Ecology, and Microbiology ("microbes are essential in a waste water treatment plant," she notes) and on her research experiences in the campus lab. She keeps her college textbooks on the shelf above her desk, and still takes down the Organic Chemistry book from time to time. "I had such a hard time with that class," she recalls. "It messed up my GPA. Maybe I'll comprehend it by the time I retire!" It didn't sabotage her GPA too badly; Michelle graduated with honors and a 3.6 average. And she has not ruled out a Master's degree in Environmental Science. "Maybe, someday, I will do that," she says.
Her College Career Inspired Her Daughters
Michelle's success has been felt throughout her family. Her college career has served as an inspiration to her two daughters to return to school (one in Biochemistry herself) even as they are raising families of their own. Her father came from California to celebrate her graduation. "All these years my younger sister had her degree [which she had earned as a traditional student]. I've proved something to her, too," she laughs. Most of all, she has proved something to herself. And she's shown the world that grandmothers can become very successful students.
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Page updated: 06-May-2009
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