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| AARON BENSON / Scroll |
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The number of students who are 40 years or older has increased dramatically at BYU-Idaho since 2001. There are currently more than four times as many middle-aged students at BYU-I than there were five years ago, said Kevin Miyasaki, BYU-I registrar.
These students come to BYU-I for many different reasons. Some come because of a need to find a good job. Others come because of a desire to finish what they started and never completed in early adulthood. A few even come just because they have a desire to learn.
Leslie Cheret, a sophomore from Idaho Falls, came back because, as she said, “The timing is right.” With her children in school and her husband at work all day, Cheret found she was filling her spare time by reading.
“I figured, why not read to learn and gain my degree, instead of just reading for enjoyment?” said Cheret, who studied at Ricks College but never completed her degree before starting a family. This is Cheret’s first semester back at BYU-I.
Coming back to college later in life comes with both benefits and difficulties, oftentimes from the same source.
“It is harder when you have children,” said Christy Owens, a junior from St. Anthony, Idaho, and the mother of three boys. “I get home at night and want to do things with them, or they interrupt my studying with problems or needs.”
Despite the hardships, adult students have found support at home.
“My kids are my greatest source of support,” said Tamara Rochette, a senior from Rigby, Idaho. “They help me study, read my papers, offer insight and ask questions that I may not have thought of myself.”
Many middle-aged students have found it difficult to adapt to new technology, but they find that their experience and maturity helps them to be better students.
“It took awhile for my brain to get going again,” said Kim Shaum, a senior from Rexburg. “But there are definite advantages to being older. I have more life experience and am able to apply that knowledge; I am more disciplined to do my homework, study and get projects done.”
“I have more focus and motivation than I did at 19,” said Deb Roberts, a senior from Sugar City, Idaho. “I don’t worry about dating or roommates or working to pay for my education, [which are] some of the things that distract or make it harder on younger college students.”
Bonnie Garner, a sophomore from Rexburg, didn’t do well in college when she went to BYU after high school because, as she said, “My heart wasn’t in it.” Garner, a grandmother of 13, recently felt the desire to take classes again and so enrolled at BYU-I.
“At first it was hard going back to school,” said Rosie Kolditz, a junior from Sugar City, and also a grandmother. “I feel like I study twice as hard as the rest of you young people.”
Kolditz is studying nursing and will graduate this April.
“I am learning more now than I ever did when I was [younger],” Owens said. “I study a lot harder.”
Owens is studying English with the hopes of graduating in 2007 and pursuing a career in order to support herself and her three boys, whose father was killed in an accident eight years ago.
“The whole college experience means more to me now,” Owens said. “Now I need the degree to make a good living and provide well for my children.”
