Othreeoneone

Hello everyone. Yeah, the end of the week is here and beginning of Spring Break to boot! I look forward to the coming week but probably for different reasons than those of the traditional students. I am leaving my plans a surprise – not because they are so grand – but because I am using it as a base for my speech upon our return to school.

Not much happened this week for me as it was nontraditionally normal. I did have my last mid-term exam and got back a paper that I was anxiously awaiting. I got back one of my mid-term exams and was upset to see that I missed a couple of questions – don’t you hate it when that happens! But, I know the reasoning behind it – that would be the real life that happened just prior to the exam – so I am okay with it – c’est la vie!

You know I truly enjoy all of my classes – I am just weird like that. Of course this is because of the wonderful professors – they always make the lectures interesting and my ole’ brain work harder. One thing that is frustrating to me (and I can only image how it is as a professor) is when students don’t interact or even try to communicate during the lectures. I am not sure why this happens but I think it is an important aspect of learning. The opposite is true for me as I have to refrain from always speaking out because I feel like just a few of always speak out while the others don’t. Oh well, fortunately I enjoy class and interacting because it would be boring to never be challenged or encouraged. 

Also, this week I updated my resume and prospective letters for one of my classes. Even at my age (which isn’t too old is it?) I can always find something new to learn and apply. Revising my resume was interesting and uplifting because I had some good things to add. In April I will be looking into internships and hope that I can obtain one with CCU – that would be ideal!

At Toastmasters this week we had 2 more great speeches. Every week I am impressed by the students, what they have done with their lives and how they got to where they are now. The speeches are always interesting and inspiring in one way or another. When I return from break I will be giving my first 6-10 minute speech. Ew, scary (as my grandson Wesley would say) but I am actually looking forward to giving it. I declined to give my table topic speech this week and every since then I have thought about how I was not supposed to do that. You don’t have to do them but then again they are an important part of the meetings - the very reason we do them. . . point taken/lesson learned! 

The week following spring break is going to be a great one for me. I will be attending a meeting about a project that CCU has been working on for a while. I was surprised and honored to receive the invitation and am now anxious to go and participate. I will certainly share the project as soon as I learn the details. Also, I will be attending a session aimed to inform students about the essentials of navigating through their major and reaching their goals. Had this meeting not been brought up by one of the students I would never have known about it – seems to be a communication gap with things like this. It makes me wonder about all of the other events that nontraditional students are clueless about. Perhaps this is an issue that needs to be addressed – to whom is the question – I will find out and do my best to spread the word. 

Finally, I will say that I am really looking forward to my holiday from attending the campus for a week. My plans are exciting to me and I know that by the end of next week I will have had made some new fun and happy memories to store. If you are a student/professor I hope that you too will enjoy your break and come back refreshed and eager to move into the rest of the semester.

Until then, happy CCU trails!

Article in The Chanticleer 02/22/10

NONTRADITIONALLY TRADITIONAL

Hello, my name is Paige and I am a student here at CCU; a nontraditional student to be exact, majoring in Communication. This article is to raise awareness of nontraditional students, to provide an open forum for both traditional and nontraditional students, and to embrace the positive aspects of the diversity on our campus.

            Speaking of nontraditional, just what does nontraditional mean? Nontraditional means anything other than what is considered normal or typical. For a student to be considered typical, they would attend college following high school graduation. The nontraditional student is anyone who attends any time other than that; or over the age of 21. This leaves a broad range of students who fit into the nontraditional status, even here at CCU.

            The CCU Undergraduate Demographic Reports for 2008 and 2009, provided by the Institutional Research, Assessment and Analysis Department, provides information regarding the CCU student makeup. While the majority of students fit into the traditional status, non-traditional students in 2009 represent 29%. This can be further broken down to reflect that students ranging in age 22-25 make up 21.34% and students aged  26+ make up 7.7%. 

            Additionally, an interesting fact from the reports show the majority of students are female. CCU, in 2008, had a total of 7,573 students, 4,008 were female (52.9%); 443 more (or 5.89%) females than males. Likewise in 2009, CCU had a total of 7,920 students, 4,220 were female (53.28%); 520 more (or 6.5%) females than males. As you can see, there are myriad issues and questions that could be posed and pondered for those who care to do so, such as: Why should I care about nontraditional students?; Why do they go to college?; Does it matter if I communicate with a nontraditional student?; Are there more female nontraditional students than males?

Obviously CCU diversity is vast with matching issues and questions. I venture to guess that everyone here has been enlightened with a new idea/subject/issue/fact and eagerly looks for the next. If this sounds like you then you are hereby invited to join me in such a quest and hopefully we will all enjoy the journey and use it in all aspects of our lives.

Why should CCU nontraditional and traditional students talk with one another?

Of course I have my reasons but I would like to hear yours – please submit your comment. We will go from there!

Thank you!

What do nontraditional and traditional students have to say to one another?

What you ask? What isn’t there to talk about with one another I say. Hello is always a good starting point. Beyond that I’m not quite sure because I am a nontraditional female student who is new to everything from blogging, to the best way to get from one building to another before a class starts, to how invisible I can make myself but still be a successful and contributing student.

Living this nontraditional female student role is tough but I am not asking for sympathy, nor am I here to interefere with the traditional student experience either. Perhaps this blog will open the flood gates and we can all learn something about what to say.