Students Return to Advance themselves
Photo Credit: Abac college
Many students who have finished college a while ago are now returning for school to improve their skills to meet the expectations of the working world. The working world advances their required skills as the technology improves. People are faced with difficult decisions of returning back to school, updating themselves to help them easily find a steady job and to help themselves get ahead in society.
Susan Smith is one student attending Rochester Institute of Technology for Psychology. It has been almost twenty-five years since she went to school for Social Work with a Psychology concentration. Smith mentions “I returned to school to complete my long time goal of getting my Bachelors.” With excitement, Smith said “I am almost there! I will earn my BS in May!”
The two challenges that Smith is facing while working towards getting her BA are math and adjusting to how technology has changed over time. Smith mentions at RIT “they expect you to exceed to high levels of math, all of which to me is foreign..!” She also mentions that “technology has grown and changed so much since the 80’s and I am still learning how to use and apply some of the tools when doing work online.”
Franklin Polvino is currently a staff interpreter on the Liberal Arts team at Rochester Institute of Technology. He first went to school at Ithaca College for his BA in Film Production in 1992. After that he went to school at RIT for his AAS in Interpreting in 2000. This year Polvino’s goal is to be accepted for Master’s in mathematics at RIT. Since getting his AAS degree he has not been back to school in seven years. Polvino mentions “I will face the challenge of time management with a full time job and family.” Polvino says “I am returning back to school for a different career.”
Andrea Schmieder is another student at RIT that has returned back to school after eighteen years to advance her skills in graphic arts. Her former major was Media Production and Applied Art and Computer Graphics. The major she is studying currently is Graphic Design and she is hoping to graduate with Bachelors of Fine Arts. Schmieder says “being a full time mother and student at RIT is one of the biggest challenges in my life.” Schmieder also mentions “I want to find a steady job to work in graphic design field after graduating.” She adds that she came back to school to gain experience in the graphic art field so she would have better knowledge in graphic arts. Schmieder says “I love my major as I am developing my skills to become a better designer.”
Many people are finding themselves in a difficult positions when working in the society for a long time and notice that they are lacking skills that are needed to be successful on the job. People are finding it a challenge to compete with their co-workers with fresh skills that they learn. Commonly people seem to return back to school after starting a family and face the pressure of balancing their student life with their family life which can cause strain on the person trying to be in two places at the same time. Some people return to school due to, change of interest, and to find a more of a stable job.
Today’s students are all ages and at different stages in their lives but all are looking to continue their learning in their field of interest.