Eating and Driving - A Useful Skill
Warren Bailey had eaten dinner in the car on his way to class the night he paused to talk about his college experiences at UNCG. "Eating and driving--it's a useful skill for commuting adult students." he says.
In over 8 years of combining college with full-time work, Warren has developed a number of strategies for success. He will graduate in Spring, 2002, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from UNCG's Bryan School of Business and Economics.
Warren remembers starting college at Edmonds Community College in Seattle, Washington. "It was a life change, not to be able to go home after work," he recalls. He was 32 and about to finish his second four-year term in the military. After four years in the Navy based in Hawaii, he had then signed on for four years of shore duty in the Coast Guard where he monitored commercial traffic in Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
As a high-school student in North Carolina, he had not planned to attend college. "I was interested in other things in high school," he says with a grin. "I tried my mother's patience." But after completing his tours of military service, the time was right to enroll and he began a course of study that would lead to a degree.
Managed a 75-mile Round Trip Commute
In 1996, he moved back to Greensboro. He brought with him 30 hours of transfer credit that he'd earned in evening classes after he left the Coast Guard for a full-time job. After starting classes at UNCG, however, he complicated his school schedule by getting married, taking a job in Winston-Salem, and moving north of Winston Salem, where he has a 75-mile round trip commute to UNCG. His wife Lisa is sympathetic with the challenges he faces, though. She earned a Master's from Salem College at night herself and provides Warren lots of support.
Succeeding as an adult student with a long commute takes resourcefulness and flexibility. Sometimes it means finding an unconventional path to your goal. Warren has learned to ask, "Is there another way? Do I have another option?" For example, to get the classes he needs his last semester to finish his degree requirements, he is taking two classes at Winston-Salem State (closer to work and home) along with his last class at UNCG. "But you don't have to have all the answers to get started ," Warren says. "In the beginning, you don't know what you don't know. How do you know what to ask?"
To find answers to his questions, Warren has learned to "foster relationships with people who can help." He mentions two key people for him at UNCG--Betty Crutchfield in the Registrar's Office, who helped him collect his veterans' benefits, and his advisor, Laura Perry, with whom he exchanged many emails and phone calls before they ever met in person.
He Found the Web an Important Resource
Warren's computer has been an important resource because of his distance from campus. Not only did he take advantage of web opportunities to register for classes, he also was able to complete two distance education classes online and also carry out other business, like getting approval for courses at another campus to meet his UNCG requirements.
Small-group work can be a challenge for a commuting student, but the computer helps there as well. "I'll drive to Greensboro for group work if that's what it takes," he says, but he has also set up "Warren's Study Group," a Yahoo club where he can meet his classmates for file-sharing, voice chat and text chat. One of his group projects brought a fellow student to the quiet of Warren's Winston-Salem office at Krispy Kreme Headquarters, where they worked until 4:30 in the morning. "From time to time there's a significant price to pay" as a student with a full-time job, he says, "but it's worth it."
Warren remembers one particularly demanding class, Operations Management with Dr. Vidyaranya Gargeya, whom he describes as "an excellent professor" who is "as demanding of himself as he is of his students." "I am as happy with the B+ in Dr. Gargeya's class as I am with any A I've ever earned," he says. He's made a lot of A's, too--his GPA is 3.65 (and would be 3.9 if he could transfer in GPA points from other schools).
"May 19th," says Warren. "I'm very excited about achieving this goal." That's the day his eight-year academic journey culminates in graduation. He will finally be able to go home after work--and, if he wants to, have dinner at home.
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Page updated: 06-May-2009
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