CONTACT: Marilynne Herbert/ Heidi Reinholdt, Halstead Communications
(212) 734-2190
Judith Schwartzstein, Sarah Lawrence College (914) 395-2220
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OLDER, WISER, AND FINALLY READY FOR THAT COLLEGE DEGREE:
Sarah Lawrence Program for Returning Adults Offers Pride in Achievement
Bronxville, New York -- A high-profile model thinks about having a rich and fulfilling life when her modeling days are over. A successful legal administrator, tired of avoiding the question, "where did you go to college?" and embarrassed about years of misleading friends and family about her education, decides to quit her job and goes back to school. And a 65-year-old woman, who as a child watched her four brothers get college degrees while she was passed over because she was a girl, and who later put her dreams on hold while she supported her husband's career, now thinks it's finally her turn. These women, and many others like them, are examples of the adult students who are changing their lives by beginning or completing their college degrees at the Center for Continuing Education at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.
As older students return to college in record numbers, college degree programs for the older adult are cropping up everywhere. According to the latest Census report, more than 20 percent of college students are between the ages of 24 and 34, and many students are now returning to -- or beginning -- college in their 40s, 50s and beyond.
Sarah Lawrence offers its adult students an experience unlike most traditional continuing education programs available at colleges and universities across the country, which tend to offer a wide range of personal interest or professional development courses. Sarah Lawrence's rigorous curriculum includes more than 30 academic disciplines in the humanities, history and the social sciences, natural sciences and mathematics, and creative and performing arts.
"The program at Sarah Lawrence provides a supportive environment designed to meet the unique needs of a non-traditional-age student interested in pursuing a serious liberal arts education -- generally leading to a degree," says Alice Olson, director of the Center for Continuing Education at Sarah Lawrence College. "Our small classes, close student-teacher ratio, and the camaraderie shared between other adult students, creates a very special learning environment. Many describe it as life-transforming."
"Students tell us they put off coming to see us for years because they are embarrassed about a bad transcript from their youthful college days," says Olson. "Many students come to our program convinced they can't succeed in college. They failed at college once; they are certain they will fail again. They confess they have misled friends, children, even husbands about how far they got in college. They think they're not college material. We are delighted to prove them wrong."
The Center for Continuing Education at Sarah Lawrence was established in 1962 by Esther Raushenbush, former dean and president of the College. At the time, it was one of the first programs of its kind designed specifically to meet the needs of the older student. Adults who want to earn their degrees at Sarah Lawrence begin by taking classes with other adults who are at the beginning stages of their return to college. These small seminars, typical of Sarah Lawrence classes, are limited to 12 students. They are taught by faculty who are particularly skilled and interested in working with returning students.
Like all Sarah Lawrence students, adults benefit from the biweekly conference system that includes one-on-one meetings with their teachers and support from an individualized program of study that they design themselves.
"There are no admissions tests, no required courses, no prescribed majors, no one demanding that students identify a focus of study or an ultimate goal before they have had a chance to explore who they have become and what they want to achieve," says Olson. "Our pedagogy challenges and inspires our students to go more broadly and deeply into subjects that embody their own passions and concerns," she added.
According to Olson, "College professors who have had the privilege of teaching adult students will tell you it is the most rewarding and energizing work they do. Adult students are excited and exciting, engaged and engaging. They know why they are in school -- they have made a clear choice (and often, great sacrifice) to arrange their lives to accommodate school. They are usually paying their own way and are determined to get all they can for their investment. They come to us to find or to reawaken their intellects and are thrilled when they discover their abilities. They especially appreciate being taken seriously," says Olson.
"Center students savor their time in school. Many have waited a long time. They have supported others: spouses and children, community organizations and institutions. When they come to us, we applaud their saying,"It's finally my turn!"
Desiree Greene, a current Center student, echoes many of her classmates: "Sarah Lawrence has been an intellectual reawakening for me. For a long time, I felt brain-dead. Now I feel alive again."
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Editors Note:
To interview Alice Olson, director of the Center for Continuing Education at Sarah Lawrence College, or enrolled students, contact Marilynne Herbert/Heidi Reinholdt at Halstead Communications (212) 734-2190 or
Judith Schwartzstein, Sarah Lawrence College (914) 395-2220.
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