Stories from Western’s non-traditional students

Story by ALYSSA EVANS | Photographs by OCTOBER YATES, AMY PAGE

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Sitting in a professional communications class, Nathan Woods, 34, listened and watched as his younger classmates talked in front of PowerPoint presentations. As the students showcased presentations without animations to transition the slides, Woods thought to himself, “Oh wow, my PowerPoint is really, really good.”

The weekend prior to class presentations, Woods spent hours on YouTube watching tutorials on how to make the required PowerPoint — his first ever.

Woods is a 34-year-old college student who hasn’t been enrolled in higher education in over five years. His PowerPoint is just one obstacle he’s faced since starting school at Western.

“At first I just opened [PowerPoint] and was like, ‘Oh, I can just figure it out,’” Woods says. “[But] it’s not self-explanatory at all.”

As Woods made his presentation slide by slide, he wondered if it would be good enough.

“One girl was saying she did it at midnight the night before and only spent an hour on it. I probably spent three to four hours just learning how to use PowerPoint,” Woods says.

A traditional undergraduate student is one who enrolls in college immediately after graduating high school and completes a bachelor’s degree program by age 22 or 23. While Woods’ friends were choosing colleges to attend after high school, he was faced with the reality that he wouldn’t be able to afford college. Woods moved to Bellingham from his hometown of Arlington and worked a variety of jobs to support himself.

“I actually moved to Bellingham originally to go to Western but my parents wouldn’t help me with school at all and they make enough so I didn’t qualify for financial aid,” Woods says. “That kind of screwed me over.”

Once Woods was 24 years old and no longer considered a dependant, he was able to apply and receive financial aid. He enrolled at Whatcom Community College and earned his associate degree. Woods then enrolled at Evergreen State College, where he ended up losing his financial aid when he get a C- on a chemistry exam. Woods shouldn’t have been in the chemistry class based on class requirements, but learned that information too late

“That was it. I was done. I couldn’t go to school anymore. I had to immediately get a job and start paying back my student loans. That took me years to get that all accomplished and get back to a standing where I could get student loans again,” Woods says. “I was kinda disenchanted with the whole thing. Now I’m back. I’m giving it another shot and trying not to get in over my head this time.”

This is Woods’ first quarter at Western. He plans to graduate in spring 2020 with an environmental science degree. Due to university requirements, Woods will spend a year taking math classes he passed while at Whatcom.

“I always had this idea in my early 20s like, ‘Oh, I can take a break for as long as I want and it’ll just be easier when I go back because I’ll be older.’ I don’t think that’s the case. It would’ve been easier to just keep going straight through,” Woods says.

But starting college after high school and sticking with it doesn’t work out for all students., who started Western as a freshman in fall of 2013, took a year and a half off from school after finishing his sophomore year.

“I didn’t feel like I was really moving toward much. I was doing classes and things I was really interested in but it wasn’t until my second year I went and saw advisors,” Alexander Rubalcaba, 23, says. “I feel like that should’ve been something that should’ve happened much sooner.”

Something Rubalcaba felt he was missing as a student was the knowledge of what support was available.

“I think all the resources were there, it was just knowing what it is that I needed for myself was the hardest thing,” Rubalcaba says.

Rubalcaba decided during the summer of 2016 that he wanted to return, but didn’t meet the deadlines for fall quarter. To come back, he had to complete various steps such as reapplying for the FAFSA, resigning his master promissory note and getting approval to return from the university.

“That’s why I was late; I didn’t know all the things I’d have to do when I wanted to come back fall quarter,” Rubalcaba says.

Being able to rely on someone who understands Western’s systems and resources was huge for Keith Kelley, who started classes at Western as a 23-year-old in 2012. Kelley worked as a deputy sheriff after high school in his hometown Hampton, Virginia. While a sheriff, Kelley enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve, where he served for six years.

Kelley’s wife, Jocylynn Kelley, graduated from Western in 2012 with a human resources degree and was hired in human resources shortly after graduation. She was Kelley’s biggest motivator and support system while earning his bachelor’s degree in business administration, which he finished in 2016. Kelley works as a program coordinator for Western’s Extended Education department.

“There weren’t a lot of resources for students of my kind.” Kelley says. “If I didn’t have my wife who knew how to navigate Western or point me in the right directions, I don’t know how I would’ve came out. I’m fortunate for that. But just putting myself in the position of somebody who doesn’t have a spouse who works at Western, I don’t know how you could do it.”

Kelley often found himself feeling older than his classmates.

“I grew up in 2004 through 2006, so my attire was completely different,” Kelley says. “Having the Birkenstocks and Dakine backpacks, I was like, ‘What is this stuff? Where do I live now?’ That was an ostracizing feeling.”

By going into law enforcement immediately after high school, Kelley was thrust into adulthood, he says. In class, he would notice differences between himself and his peers as they talked about subjects he couldn’t relate to, like what happened in their dorms recently. As someone who worked full-time during school to support his family, Kelley had different experiences and responsibilities than many of his peers.

“There’s a timetable for us. We’re essentially putting our lives on pause for four years. We need to make sure we’re getting the right classes, doing everything we can to graduate within four years,” Kelley says. “A lot of kids I went to school with were like, ‘Well I’m probably just gonna take a year off and then go back with my parents.’ I don’t have that luxury. I’ve got a wife and kid so I need to find a job. I need to graduate as soon as I can. There’s definitely a different sense of urgency with a non-traditional student.”

The presence of a support system can be a defining aspect of any student’s college experience. Before getting hired as an associate professor in the communication studies department, Heather Davidson was left to support herself. Davidson left an unhealthy household at 15 years old, and lived on the streets for two years. After seeing a Whatcom Community College advertisement at 24 years old, Davidson, then a mother of two, decided to enroll. She graduated from Whatcom in 2007 and immediately enrolled at Western, where she earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree.

“As faculty now, I’m four years into it, I’m still uncovering resources I could’ve used as a student that I’m so happy to share with my student colleagues. We really do have a wealth of them but the system is so big that it can be really hard to pin down specific places that might be of support,” Davidson says. “I didn’t utilize a lot of Western’s services regrettably because I didn’t know of them.”

While a Western student, Davidson found the transition from Whatcom to be challenging not only because it was a new system to navigate but because the size of campus, the volume of people and the curriculum. The connections she made were with faculty members who encouraged her.

“It’s important to have support regardless of your life circumstances,” Davidson says. “That could look a lot of different ways for non-traditional students, simply because our age and experience coming in is different than that right-out-of high school journey. It’s important for non-traditional students to identify those support systems and to recognize too that many non-traditional students do not have those support systems and that’s why they weren’t there any earlier.”

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