Adults get chance to graduate

Erin Coffman / contributing photographer Chris Stratton completes coursework. ADP students have to balance work, family and school.

Getting into any university may be difficult, but more than 250 adults have taken up the challenge of completing their degrees.

Admission into the Adult Degree Program is different than what most students go through to get into the university, said Vickie Lilley, adult learning services coordinator.

First, the person cannot have participated in full-time education for at least three years since high school graduation, and he or she needs to have accumulated a minimum of 30 credit hours with a 2.0 grade-point average or better.

All adults in the program can receive a bachelor of arts, a bachelor of science or a bachelor of individualized study degree. Lilley said that every adult who completes a degree has a major in individualized study; however, the concentration cannot be an existing program at the university.

Often adult students have to juggle between school, a full-time job and a family, which most undergraduates do not have to think about. Rick Larsen (’99), the director of dining services, decided to go back to school because he worked on a university campus and because he believed that it would be now or never. "Trying to do both was a logistical challenge," Larsen said. "I chose to only take one class a semester."

Chip Stratton, who works for JMU’s Facilities Management and started the Adult Degree Program in the fall of 2002, said that balancing family and school was difficult. With a wife and three sons at home, his evenings and weekends typically are filled up with spending time with his family.

Loretta Ennis, a student who has been in the program for almost two years, said, "I came to JMU and really enjoyed the different position [I was in]."

Karen Mercer (’00) said, "I can apply what I learn in classes back to what I do."

Stratton enjoyed the interaction with the other students and with the professors. "I think professors value an older opinion," he said, and added that he is impressed with all the young people he met here. Larsen said he couldn’t think of a time when students were disrespectful of him.