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Yearly Archives: 2011

Regular Undergrads: Old Approach Still Works, Too

Adult learning at EMU doesn’t begin and end with the Adult Degree Completion Program – older students regularly enroll in the university’s traditional undergraduate programs. Sometimes it’s because they’re after a particular degree not offered through ADCP. Or because they lack sufficient college-level credits (ADCP students must start the program with at least 60 semester […]

The Brother Who Transformed Family Tragedy into Prison Reform Campaign

The story gets sadder at every twist as Pete Scherer ’09 tells it, sitting at a long, bare table in his attorney’s office, hands clasped before him. It’s about what happened to his brother Carl, younger by 11 years, a “gentle soul” and a talented musician with a promising career ahead of him. Carl was […]

Now, Prof At College, Before, Techie at Alcoa

Michael Murphy ’97 felt his career as a database manager and technologist at Alcoa (Aluminum) Home Exteriors in Stuarts Draft, Virginia, hitting a ceiling for lack of a bachelor’s degree. His decision to enroll in one of the first classes offered through EMU’s then-new Adult Degree Completion Program, though, launched him on an entirely different […]

The Family That Won’t Stop Learning

On a rainy Sunday in May 2011, Nona Allen ’11, representing the Adult Degree Completion Program (ADCP), was one of four graduates to speak at EMU’s commencement. Allen, the pastor of four United Methodist congregations near Elkton, Virginia, was 62 when she earned her degree – an undertaking motivated in part by her desire to […]

Not too Late To Realize Dream of Teaching

Once a week, as soon as Ginger Estes ’08 had finished her route and parked the school bus at 4:30 in the afternoon, she’d hop straight into her own car for the 50- mile, twisting drive over two mountain ranges to Harrisonburg from her home in Rappahannock County, Virginia. Rain, shine or snow, she made […]

Hungering for Master’s, New Interest in Teaching

Mildred Garcia ’10 does not mince words when it comes to her experience in the RN to BS degree in nursing program at EMU’s Lancaster campus.“It definitely was 100 times better than what I expected,” she said. “If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t even think twice about it.” Garcia, who now works […]

18 Months ‘Not Easy, but Worth It’

Though the bulk of her working hours are spent reviewing medical charts for thoroughness and compliance with insurance requirements, Bea Benson ’05 insists her job is full of excitement. “I really love it … there’s never a dull moment,” said Benson, a clinical documentation specialist at Augusta Health in Fishersville, Virginia. Benson has worked at […]

And Next? LPN earns RN from HACC, and after BSN at ADCP, then CRNA*

Nick Ngumo ’10 and his brother emigrated from Kenya to the United States in 1998 to join their mother, who’d arrived several years earlier. Ngumo entered Lancaster Mennonite High School in southeast Pennsylvania, graduating in 2000 with dreams of becoming an engineer. But his mother, a nurse herself, encouraged him to enter nursing. In 2002, […]

CRNA…Another rung on the nursing ladder, with hospital job awaiting her in 2012*

The small class size, and the way the students in it looked out for each other during the 18-month nursing program, figure high on the list of reasons why Anne Parson ’09 enjoyed her experience in the RN to BS degree in nursing program at EMU’s Lancaster (Pa.) campus. “I’m a small-group, ‘homey-feeling’ kind of […]

Classes Tap into Life Experiences for Vibrant, Relevant Lessons

It was bitterly cold the week in February 1994, when Terry Whitmore ’70, MBA – then teaching business classes as an adjunct instructor – and a few others traveled from EMU to Spring Arbor University in Michigan to study its adult learning program. EMU had considered launching a program targeted at adults returning to school, […]