Sinclair is for the Young at Heart

Last Thursday was the Portfolio Show for the second year Visual Communication students at Sinclair. I was a participant with a portfolio prepared to showcase my design work. This experience could easily inspire a number of different blogs, but after speaking to this sweet 82-year-old woman at the Portfolio Show, I decided to focus on the topic of age.

This kind lady told me how she had gone back to school at Sinclair when her kids were out of the house. That was in 1978 when she was 50 years old. She got an Associate Degree in Art and went on make beautiful paintings. Some of these were in Dayton art galleries. She even had a painting in the Dayton Art Institute for a short period. Now at 82, she decided to return to Sinclair to learn how to do graphics on the computer.

"I think I will be the next Grandma Moses and become famous in my old age," said this kind woman. "There were no computers in the art department when I went to Sinclair. I think computer graphics are pretty cool and that's what I want to learn next."

While this woman is inspiring, I found this depressing...recently my daughter's friend was over while I was working on my homework. She asked, "Mrs. Marticello, aren't you too old for college?" (Thanks kid!)

It has been said that you are never too old to rock-n-roll, but can the same be said about going back to school?

On most days at Sinclair, I don't feel old. I feel that I am just as fit (if not more fit) as I was during my days at Regis University. All-nighters are doable but not practical, not because of my age, but because of the motherly duties that I have the next day. I may have more wrinkles, but also have more insights and world perspectives than I did back when I was in college. I try not to bore the younger students with those insights.

The one big physical difference between now and my former college days is my eyesight. I had 20/20 vision all my life. Then I turned 40 and sh'bam, it's suddenly time for reading glasses. I often forget to bring them to school because I am not used having to wear them or because I am in denial. So I have to zoom in on all the computer screens or hold my paper test a arm length away. Talk about looking old--it is embarrassing.

I miss my old eyesight. but if that is my only "ailment",  I can live with it. Besides, most of my friends of the same age are going through the same thing. I am refusing to wear my eyeglasses on chain around my neck until I am a lot older. I don't need to have the 'grandma' look at 42.

I think being around the young students at Sinclair is keeps me feeling young. Learning new things in the classroom is makes me renewed and ready to take on new challenges. Like most Sinclair students, I look forward to see what the future has in store for me.

It is like my grandmother used to say, "Being young is a state of mind...don't take everything so seriously and enjoy each and every day."

Distractions

Credit: www.chicagonow.com/blogs/the-tire-guy

If I don't get distracted, I am going to write my blog in a timely manner. Sure there is a ton of laundry to be done. I have gifts to wrap for upcoming events. I am certain there is something good on TV.  Facebook is on the next internet tab (someone probably posted something interesting since the last time I looked 2 minutes ago.) I just noticed that the bookshelf needs dusting. There is a fresh new bag of potato chips in the pantry and some lemonade in the fridge calling my name. But no, I am going to focus and give my blog my full attention.

I would have gotten my blog done earlier today but it was beautiful outside, so it would have been a shame to waste it inside all day. Besides I needed to run and get a few things at Walmart. I was wrapping a project for my daughter's school. Oh, my dog needed to go for a walk. Enough excuses--wait, I mean distractions.

There were plenty of distractions back when I was a student at Regis. There were friends stopping by in the dorms, an impromptu flag football game in the quad or watching Oprah in the afternoon (I guess I won't have that excuse anymore.) Having an afternoon nap after my classes was a popular distraction. We had primitive computer games to play if you were really trying to avoid the task at hand.

Call me crazy, but it seems like the distractions keeping me from focusing on schoolwork has increased three fold this time around. As established in a previous blog, being a college student living on campus, I only real job was to be a student. Being a mother and all the duties that comes along often keep me from getting my schoolwork done. Okay, sometimes I am multitasking, but often I am putting off doing my homework.

Credit: www.blogtrafficexchange.com

Beyond the interruptions that comes with motherhood, modern technology is a major distraction. The pathetic computer games of my college days didn't capture your attention for long. Now there is e-mail to read, internet to search, Facebook to check (which could potentially could lead to playing Facebook games like Farmville etc.) The cell phone is another media distraction with its texting and endless apps.  I guess I am glad I didn't have all this technology to distract me when I was at Regis--I am sure my grades benefited from that.

Another distraction I have to fight off, crazy random thoughts...like this poem I composed for this blog:

I am writing my blog on blogger.
I would rather be playing frogger.
What is the average salary of a logger?
What else rhymes with blogger?

Time to conclude this blog because there is someone at the door.  My daughter is texting me because she needs to get picked-up. The oven timer going to buzz soon. The list goes on...distractions have been and always will be part of our lives. They tell me that with good time management skills and ability to stay focus, one can complete the task at hand. We will see...

credit: www.dailyblogging.org/blogging/avoid-unwanted-distractions-while-writing-a-post/

A Full Body Exam: Sinclair Edition

Last week I discussed the demographics of Regis University between the years, 1988-1992. In that blog, I stated Regis' student body resembled the stereotypes represented in the movie, "Breakfast Club."

As promised, this week I am examining Sinclair Community College's student body. It may be because I am more mature now, or maybe because I am not living with all the students in the dorms, but for the most part, I don't see outward groupings like I did at Regis. Another reason for this is because most of my Sinclair experience mainly takes place in Building 13. Today, when I look around Sinclair, I see average college students wearing mostly jeans with t-shirt or sweatshirt depending on the weather.

The diversity that was lacking at Regis is very much present at Sinclair. It appears that a wide variety of ethnic groups are well represented at Sinclair. Where Regis, being a traditional college, most of it student body were between ages of 18 to 22 years old, Sinclair does have those students fresh out of high school, but it also has students that are in their 20s through (maybe beyond) their 60s.

In my opinion, there is a vast difference in a student's attitude towards school depending on the person's age. In my experience, those students who graduated from high school recently are more likely to blow off the assignments or skip class, where the much older students tend to take everything much too seriously.

Being a military wife myself, I am delighted to see so many individuals taking advantage of the GI Bill. I met a student in my 2D design class who had served in Iraq three times and now he has the opportunity to pursue his dreams while being full time student. He is a really good artist and I am sure he will go far. His story inspired me.

The one thing I observed about Sinclair is that my classmates tend to look out for one another. There is definitely a "we are all in this together" attitude. In the visual communication department, we are required to bring our art supplies with us to class, but sometimes someone will forget their double-sided tape, tracing paper or a sharpie.  Most of the time, classmates help the person out. We also help each other out with learning different design programs. Once I had a girl I hardly know give me her typed notes when I was out of class. These kind acts make me proud to be a part of Sinclair student body.

Sure, there are some divisions in Sinclair's student body. Just in the visual communications department, there are the "regular" design students, who seem different from the "fashionable" interior design and "starving" traditional art students.

Like at Regis, I occasionally see athletes on campus. Yes, there are some "geeks" playing Dungeon and Dragons in the common area too. But in general, I think labeling people is counter-productive because it results in a false, preconceived notion of who the person is without discovering who the person really is.

A Full Body Exam

For a college to be successful, it needs to attract and enroll students. A student body is made up of a group of people who come to the school with lots of different backgrounds. The students are what gives a college it's character.

The Breakfast Club cast from the website: Digital Bus Stop

If asked to describe Regis College's student body between 1988-1992, I would say that most of students were white kids from middle to upper class families. It was not a very diverse group. In many ways,  Regis was like a big high school. And not that people should be branded and placed into a category, but the college's student body seemed to resemble the stereotypical groups portrayed in the movie,"Breakfast Club." Although Regis was not known for its sports, there were "the jocks". There were also the "preppy kids" (I fitted in this category) and the smart "geeks." And of course, there were a few "antisocial weirdos" like Ally Sheedy's character.

Birkenstocks from the website: Ornage Peel.

Being in Colorado in the late 80s/early 90's, there was also a group of students that fit into the category of "potheads" (guys) who usually hung out with "the granola chicks". On a typical day, these individuals would wear birkenstock shoes, tie-die t-shirts, ripped jeans and glazed looks on their faces from getting high before class. Most of the group seem to not believe in razors. These students fit right into the Colorado counter-cultural environment.

It was interesting to observe a new freshman girl who arrived on campus looking very polished like she just graduated from a rich private school. Sometime during the semester, she would start a slow transformation in which she would swap out her preppy look for a look that may have been seen at Woodstock. She had gotten a boyfriend and was now hanging out with the pothead/granola crowd. It was a hoot when her father (who looked like a bank president that belonged to a country club) would come to pick her up at Christmas break. He looked almost disgraced by his daughter's appearance and was thinking to himself, "What I am going to tell the guys at the Country Club?"

By the time I was a senior, Kurt Cobain, along with his rock group, Nirvana, were really popular. Most the sophomores and incoming freshmen (regardless of what stereotypical category they normally fell into) were wearing grunge. This is ironic because that was the look that the "antisocial weirdos" had been wearing for years. 

Variety is the spice of life. Although there were different groups, I think most everyone got along and we didn't look down on one other. Thankfully Regis did not have fraternities or sororities, which I think brews animosity between students.  Even though Regis' student body lacked real diversity, it did provide me an opportunity to meet some great people who I am still friends with today.

Return next week as I do a "full body examination" of Sinclair's student body.

Community College is for losers (or so I once thought)

I must confess to you, my fellow classmates at Sinclair Community College, there was a time in my life when I thought that community college was for losers. This misconception was instilled by my all-girls college preparatory high school.

My teachers and advisers gave me the impression that to succeed in life one had to go to a four-year traditional college (preferably with a distinguished name.) I remember hearing teachers say, "If you get pregnant, you will end up at a community college." Or "don't flunk out of college or you will have to go to one of those community colleges." In my warped mind, community college was a step up from jail. 

Thankfully, my impression was altered when I took courses at a community college during the summer between my junior and senior year. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was not in a classroom filled with hoodlums, unmarried mothers and college drop-outs, but rather ordinary college kids who were trying to get through college without the burden of student loans. After spending years paying off my student loans, I realized that the so-called "losers" at the community college were actually financial winners.

So when I started attending classes at Sinclair Community College last fall, I tried to have an open mind, pushing pass those old stereotypes that I had when I was in high school. I must confess that I was a little taken back by the amount of tattoos and body piercing that I saw.  It is not that I have lived in a cave or never been to King's Island, but for some reason I didn't expect to see so many "eccentric" people in one classroom. 

I was definitely feeling my age, because I had trouble relating to young students comparing their new tattoos before class. I am embarrassed to say that I was intimidated by these "odd" students with multiple tattoos covering their bodies. I decided that my game plan was to lay low, go to class and mind my own business. I was going to class to learn and not to make friends. 

That plan worked until I was to forced to interact due to a group project. In one of my groups, I am pretty sure that I was the only one without a tattoo. It was after we introduced ourselves and started working, that I realized that in spite of their body art, they were totally normal people. I became pretty good friends with two of my group members.  

It goes to show you CANNOT judge a person by their tattoo(s). Some very nice people have decided to go under the needle and get a tattoo. And a lot of them go to Sinclair. I am not volunteering to get a tattoo, but tattoos are no longer taboo in my book. 

Back in the Olden Days (when I was in college).

A Floppy Disk from oldcomputers.net

Last fall, I was sitting in class when my professor said, "Most of you will not recognize this because it was used before you were born" and then he held up a floppy disk. Then I thought to myself, "wait a minute, I used those all the time in college." It was then I realized that most of my classmates were born when I was back at Regis.  In 23 years, the world of technology has dramatically changed since I was dropped off at college.  

My roommate and I were considered "cool" when we arrived at college in the fall of 1988 because we were the only ones on our floor to have computers. If my memory serves my right, she had a Commodore 64 and I had an Apple 2E. 

Apple 2e from www.vintage-computer.com

We had a good thing going that first semester, because people would pay us to use our computers to avoid the dorm's over-crowded computer lab. The second semester, most of "our computer clients" came back to school with their own brand-new computers that they got for Christmas. And some of those new computers actually had a new technology: spell-check (something our computers were lacking). We were so jealous. 

Thinking about my current experience at Sinclair, what I thought was so high-tech when I was at Regis was actually really primitive. When I had a research paper, there being no internet, I had to spend hours in the library looking up research in periodicals and reference books. Want to catch up with a high school friend in college? Well, without e-mail or facebook, the best option for a poor college student was to write an old-fashion letter and wait weeks for a response. Or I could call, but long distance was pretty expensive back then. And at least during my freshman year, the phone was attached to the wall, because that was before cordless phones were popular. (Cell phones and texting was inconceivable back then).

Me "Back in the Olden Days"

What is pretty scary is when my younger daughter realized that the i-pod was not around when I was in college, she asked, "Back in the olden days, when you were younger, how did you listen to music?" 

'Well, back on the prairie, Pa would play the fiddle." Seriously, I do remember listening to music on 8 track tapes and record players when I was in preschool, but since this is a piece about college, I digress. My "i-pod" was a cassette tape walk man. It had the ability to clip onto my pants but it was terribly awkward so it mostly remained on my desk (with ear phones attached) for my listening pleasure.  

Walkman from http://wiimusicbox.com

Considering where I thought we would be in the year 2011 back when I was in college, a part of me is like wow, it is so cool to have the world at my finger tips. But another part of me, is like where is my George Jetson car? Well better go and help my daughter with her homework before they invent an app for that.

Re·spon·si·bil·i·ty

Responsibility. According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, responsibility is defined as "the state of being the person who caused something to happen" and "a duty or task that you are required or expected to do."

From when I was a child, my parents tried to instill the principle of responsibility in me. I was told, "Clean up your mess," and "Clear your plate." And the question I heard most every night, "Did you get your homework done?" And the funny thing is that, as kids, we felt burdened by what little responsibilities we were given.

As I reflect back on my college experience at Regis, I am dumbfounded about the little responsibility I had back then. Sure, I had a lot of schoolwork taking 16 to 18 hours per semester. And there was my work/study job. Besides those two responsibilities, the only things I HAD TO DO was my laundry (I bought a ton of extra underwear to prolong the necessity of doing it) and cleaning up my dorm room (which was only thoroughly cleaned when my roommate's or my parents were coming.) The question, "What's for dinner?" was answered by what was being served in the dining hall. I loved having a meal plan. The sad thing is that I didn't realized what a carefree life I had back then.

According to the same dictionary, responsibility also means "the state of having the job or duty of dealing with and taking care of something or someone," or "the quality of a person who can be trusted to do what is expected, required, etc."

Towards the beginning of my career I took a maternal sabbatical. I was very fortunate that my husband's job and our decision to live a modest lifestyle allowed me the opportunity to stay home with our daughters when they were little. Since my oldest daughter was born, motherhood has been my greatest responsibility.  Seeing how well the girls have turned out thus far has been one of my husband's and my greatest achievement. But our job is far from over with those two.

Wanting a job with more responsibility, I have gone back to college. My responsibilities are much greater during this round of college. Besides motherhood, my simple dorm room has been replaced by a four bedroom house that needs daily cleaning. I AM the meal planner, and unlike college, cereal for dinner is no longer acceptable. The laundry has increased greatly (the underwear trick doesn't work because the girls need their school uniforms washed weekly).

It sometimes seems like my two worlds have collided--my parenting and academic responsibilities don't mesh. For example, my daughter's confirmation ceremony landed during finals week last quarter. I was trying to find time to study while entertaining a number of out of town guests. Once my assignment was late, not because I was lazy or I was out partying, but because I was taking care of my sick daughter.

Yes, balancing family and school responsibilities can be challenging at times, but I am confident that it will be worth it in the end. To me, all my responsibilities are no longer burdensome, but rather empowering and something I look at with pride.

The Tale of Two Campuses

So here I am writing on my laptop at my kitchen table with my younger daughter at my side. She is needing my assistance as she works on her improper fraction homework. This would never have happened during my previous college experience. Gratefully that was BK (before kids.) 

But before I indulge in the vast differences between my two personal experiences with college--comparing now and then, please allow me to introduce the two colleges that I attended,

Regis' View of the Mountains

In 1988, I drove out with my parents to Denver, Colo. where they promptly dropped me off at Regis College  (I think they were doing a happy dance on the way to the car because there was only one kid left at home). Regis was a small four-year Jesuit college which happened to become an university my senior year. It is located on the northwest side of Denver and has a beautiful wide-open campus with the mountains in the background. About dozen buildings surrounded the grassy quad. If the quad was a football field, Main Hall, the oldest building on campus built using red stone bricks from the Colorado foothills, and the library, a modern looking building, would be where the goal posts are located. Most dorms and the student union are along the sidelines.

Main Hall

It was nice being on my own, away from my family in St. Louis for the first time in my life. I enjoyed rolling out of bed and running across the quad to my first class in the morning, stopping only to catch my breath and smell the fresh Colorado air. Classes were usually fun, but challenging. Although Regis is a residential campus with three dorms, you wouldn't have known it on the weekends in the wintertime. Once Friday classes let out, the campus became a ghost town when ski season hits. My roommate and I learned to ski so we would have something to do and people to hang out with on the weekends. We also learned how take the bus line to downtown Denver to shop, eat or hang-out. Denver and Colorado were the perfect place to live when I was in my early 20s.

 

Reflecting on my Regis experience reminds me of the song:  "I Wish I Could Go Back to College" from the musical, Ave. Q  (slightly abridged lyrics pasted below for your enjoyment.)

KATE MONSTER:
I wish I could go back to college.
Life was so simple back then.

NICKY:
What would I give to go back and live in a dorm with a meal plan again!

PRINCETON:
I wish I could go back to college.
In college you know who you are.
You sit in the quad, and think, "Oh my God!
I am totally gonna go far!"

ALL:
How do I go back to college?
I don't know who I am anymore!

PRINCETON:
I wanna go back to my room and find a message in dry-erase pen on the door!
Ohhh...
I wish I could just drop a class...

NICKY:
Or get into a play...

ALL:
I need an academic advisor to point the way!
We could be...
Sitting in the computer lab,
4 A.M. before the final paper is due,
Cursing the world 'cause I didn't start sooner,
And seeing the rest of the class there, too!

PRINCETON:
I wish I could go back to college!

ALL:
How do I go back to college?!
AHHHH...

NICKY:
But if I were to go back to college,
Think what a loser I'd be-
I'd walk through the quad,
And think "Oh my God..."

ALL:

"These kids are so much younger than me."

Sinclair Community College

Well, I am back in college. The fall of 2010, I started attending Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. As one can imagine, this urban commuter college located in the fine city of Dayton has a different feel to it than the campus in Denver where I spent three years (I studied abroad my junior year). I am not knocking Sinclair. During the three quarters I have been here, I have learned a lot, felt challenged and am extremely pleased with my experience. The professors are tough, but also caring. I am glad that I have this opportunity. 

 

So-Call Hamster Tunnels

That being said, let me just say that I did not choose to go to Sinclair because of its beautiful campus. Although I appreciate not having to cross two busy intersections,  I cannot get over the fact this campus reminds me of buildings being connected by hamster tunnels. I am constantly getting lost in the labyrinth that lays between Building 13 and the bookstore. But most days I forget there is the rest of the campus because I spend most of my time at Sinclair in Building 13. Gone are the days of rolling out of bed and heading to class...now I have to be ready to go early or forget parking anywhere close. 

My Home Away From Home

  

Yes the campuses are quite different, but I am experiencing a lot of the same things I did at Regis--like enjoying the lectures and challenging assignments (trying not to put them off until the last minute), but hating those awful true and false tests. Going to classes gives me an opportunity to be out on my own and away from my family life for a few hours. I do occasionally ski on the weekends during the wintertime--skiing "the mountains" in Ohio is perfect for my 42 year old body. And downtown Dayton is within walking distance of the campus. It is nice to meet up with a friend during my lunch break. Dayton is also a great place to live and raise a family. 

Photos were used with the permission of Regis University's Public Relations department and  Mr. John Getrost from Sinclair Community College.

What do I want to be when I grow up?

That question has plagued me most of life...sure, I went through a time when I wanted to be a hockey player, a fireman and an astronaut (okay so I was a bit of tomboy growing up).  So I was suppose to have figured that out during my first four years at college. Through that experience, I got a double major in political science and communications arts and somehow became a graphic designer by chance.

How did that happen? Well, it's a long story as you will soon see. I always loved to draw and create art. I actually carried a drawing pad and crayons around and when I wasn't climbing a tree, or swinging on a rope swing or playing in a creek, I would be drawing the world around me. It seemed like everyone told me that I would be a great artist when I grew up. Then in high school, I must have watched one too many starving artist commercials because I realized that people didn't paid much for great artist's work until you are dead. My high school art teacher told me that as a graphic designer, I could make money while using my art skills. She had me shadow a professional graphic designer for a day. Now this was before graphic designers used computers and after seeing the amount of work took to put a simple ad together (without a computer)--well, it was insane. I thought no thanks. It totally took the joy out of producing artwork.

So instead of going to an art school for college, I decided to go a four-year college and get a "real" job after college. After considering a few majors, I decided to pursue a political science degree because I loved politics and I thought the word "science" on my degree would make me sound smart. A communications arts degree seemed like a good fit for me. There was a time (early in the communication major) when I thought I would be a media consultant who would advise politicians before they went on the show Nightline (I was hoping to use both majors). I actually watched Nightline for hours to make sure I was familiar with Ted Koppel's style of questioning. But as I took more communication classes, I discovered that a job in advertising and public relations would use more of my creative juices. Through my communications degree, I realized how much I enjoyed writing (as you can tell.)

So how did I stumble back into graphic design work...well, during my first semester of my senior year I was going to the alumni office to interview a someone for the college newspaper when I came across an office with huge computer monitors (big for back then). I was about to comment on them when I noticed that this man was designing a brochure on the computers--it was so cool--I just sat there fascinated. So we started talking and he ended up offered me a work-study opportunity to apprentice under him. I jumped at the opportunity. I spent eight months learning the ins and outs of typography and the program, Pagemaker under the guidance of Jeff Marshall. He was awesome. And guess what? Because Pagemaker was such a new program, ironically I was actually in demand after graduation. I know it sounds like a dream-come-true story...but somehow, ever since my first real graphic design job, I felt like a fraud. Sure I was using my God-given skills to design but since I never actually got an art degree, something didn't seem right.

So now jump ahead 19 years after graduation...I have an opportunity to return to college and make myself a "legitimate" graphic designer. And hopefully, answer the question for once and for all...what do I want to be when I grow up?

And now that you know the long saga of why I decided to return to college, I hope that you will continue to read my blog because as I discovered, college can be much more interesting the second time around.