Other participants took college courses just long enough to reach goals related to specific future employment. Olive had worked as an airplane mechanic for 18 years. When the base was closed, she decided to open up her own beauty shop and retooled by taking business classes at a community college. When Della was laid off after working as an anesthesia aide for six years, she decided she wanted to be a travel agent. After completing a training centers’ business travel counselor program, Della was hired by a travel agency. She excelled at her job and the agency paid for college courses that trained her to become an International Travel Counselor.

Zach went directly from ESL classes to graduate study. A medical student in his native land, he struggled to make ends meet living on part time jobs and public assistance while learning enough English to pass the TOEFEL test. Two weeks after completing the test, he began his internship at a local hospital and today is a certified internist and teaches internal medicine at a university.

The needs of the job also kept some participants from entering or completing higher education. Nancy, whose job is to assist immigrants at a large city temple, explains:

I want to study more because I like that. If I had a chance, I would learn more. I would like to go to college but I don’t have time for that because I take care of things here. I spend a lot of time here.

Wylie, on the other hand, is a fascinating example of the advantages and conflicts between higher education and employment. At the age of 51 he is vice president of his own company. It is a “business that actually stemmed out of … graduate work” at a large university where he was a research assistant six years ago. Wylie would like to complete his master’s degree but explains:

I’m involved in this business and any start-up business is more demanding than any child, spouse, or anything can possibly be. Even though I have three other partners in this thing with me, we’re all putting in 50 hour weeks. So the schooling isn’t getting done. I have one math course to finish. I have to finish writing my Master’s thesis. Those keep getting pushed to the side because of the demands of the business where the opportunity is now; so I have to get on that right now, and the schooling just has to wait.

Family

Family support is as necessary to higher education adult students as it is to ABLE learners. This “family” can consist of a spouse, parent(s), children, siblings, relatives or friends. Support can involve caring for children, helping with studies, providing financial support and offering personal encouragement. Ursala depends upon her husband to help her with language arts, admitting: “I still struggle with doing the reading. My husband helps me do my grammar, and proofreads everything I found out; but all the creativity of putting it together is me. I do allow myself some credit for that.”

The necessity of balancing education, work and family is hardest on women participants, especially single mothers. Charlene, Laurie and Kathleen had children with special needs. This influenced their interest in education, nursing and social work but also required them to drop whatever they were doing during intermittent emergencies. Florine and Nina put off their college education until their children were older. As Nina explained: