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Lessons Learned

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Left: Livingstone Richardson – Right: Heide Blackak

Reaping the benefits of late-in-life education

By Debbie Gardner
dgardner@thereminder.com

     September brings memories of school bells and study time. Maybe you have fond memories of shopping for pencil boxes and loose-leaf binders with your children. Perhaps you just helped fill that now requisite back-to-school supply list of backpacks and thumb drives with your grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

     But what about you? Does the cooling days and crisp air make you reminisce about your time in the classroom? Do you have a new passion you want to pursue? Regrets about not finishing something from the past?  No matter your age, it’s never too late to continue your education.

     In fact, by 2025 - a mere three years away- the National Center for Education Statistics reports that students of middle age and beyond enrolling in college is expected to grow by 20 percent, surpassing the number of traditional students attending college (John Fortenbury, July 8, 2022 “How to go back to college at 40 or beyond,” www.schools.com).

     Prime recently spoke to two local individuals who took the plunge and returned to the classroom in their 50s and early 60s.  Here are their inspiring stories.

Class of 2022: Livingstone Richardson

     “I think I was a pretty smart guy before that, but I mean getting an education helped me be able to even think better, and now I feel like I have choices,” Holyoke Community College Class of 2022 graduate Livingstone Richardson said of completing his Liberal Arts degree this past May.

     “I didn’t get a degree to get a job, I’m a musician and a farmer,” Richardson continued. “I wanted to get an education just to educate myself, free myself up to look at information and say ‘hey, this makes logical sense…’” something he said is important in today’s “political climate.”

     Proud of his accomplishments, the 63-year-old readily admits for him it was a more complicated path to that coveted degree than it is for most returning students.

     “I came to America from a little island called Antigua … maybe around [age] 26,” Richardson – “Gillie” to his friends – told Prime when we reached him by phone. The musician who years back “had a band people might remember, Reggae Vision, I played at the Hadley Club” and is now also an organic farmer said he started from scratch when he decided to go back to school.

     “I didn’t finish high school,” Richardson admitted, adding that “life happened, and I ended up having some kids” in the years after he emigrated to the U.S. About 10 years ago on a walk home from playing golf in his hometown of Amherst, Richardson said he spotted a flyer in a bus stop offering information on getting a GED. Inspired by his daughter’s recent college success, he tore off the number. A phone call, an in-person visit and a “little test” later, Richardson found himself enrolled in the GED program at Amherst’s Jewish Community Center.

     “I was about 52 or 53 at the time,” Richardson remembered, adding that the act of attending his eldest daughter’s graduation from St. John’s University in Queens made him think “I got to get a degree or something… it was my first time experiencing anything like that … that actually started me thinking about going to school, going back to school and getting a degree.”

     When the director of the program pulled him out after a few months of classes saying, “I think you need to go to Greenfield,” Richardson said he “thought they were trying to get rid of me because I was the only person over 30” in the program. In reality, they felt Richardson was ready to take the GED examination.

     “I didn’t pass one of the things,” Richardson said of the exam, which evaluated skills in mathematical reasoning, reasoning through language arts, social studies and science. He was asked to make an appointment to return in two weeks, at which point he passed the last component - science, he believes – and got his GED.

     GED in hand, Richardson returned to the Jewish Community Center, where he met a representative from HCC who was recruiting students into a program called Transition to College.

     “She said to me, ‘hey, do you want to go to college?’ It caught me by surprise [but] I thought about it for a while and I said ‘sure, I want to go to college,’” Richardson said. Another round of tests, this time at HCC, had him enrolled in a two-semester program called Transition to College designed to help students learn “the ropes of the things you have to do to succeed in college,” he said. Completing the program – and the placement test that determined classes for his first semester – Richardson moved on to college for real.

     “Now my first semester at HCC, I thought that was the end of my college career,” Richardson admitted, adding the lowest level math class was a struggle with things he had to relearn as well as deadlines he had to adjust to. “I started searching for information on how I succeed in this thing.”

     Walking down the hall from class one day, Richardson said Lori Wayson from the New Directions for Adult Learners program noticed he was an older student and invited him to stop by to check out their program. Wayson also suggested he let the program act as his advisors.

     “I decided to let them and from day one it was fantastic,” Richardson said. “From the time I joined New Directions I never chose a class, I let them choose all the classes for me.”

     Wayson told Prime that the New Directions program offers non-traditional students like Richardson what she called “wraparound services – my job is to know all of the resources on campus” that can help them succeed. That may include help with admissions and financial aid, mastering new technology, selecting the right classes for their major and current skill level, tutoring resources and more. “I spend most of my days telling [people over the age of 50] they can do it; it may have been a long time since they were in school, but they can do it.”

     Richardson, she said, is “the epitome” of what HCC can offer older students. “He came back, got his GED, went to HCC for college and got his associates,” Wayson said.

     Though it took Richardson “eight or nine” years to complete his associates degree in Liberal Arts – he took just two classes a semester so he could forego any financial aid –  the 2022 graduate said he’s already considering going back to school.

     “I did transfer to UMass University Without Walls, but I don’t really want to get a bachelor’s degree, I just want a certificate in something, maybe music performance, I just have to make up my mind,” he said, adding he expects the next phase may take him until he’s 70.

     “I hope my story [shows] no matter how old, or how young, you are, you can go back to school,” he continued. “And go to HCC. I really love that place.”

One of 2020’s “29 Who Shine” Heide Blackak

“A lot of people think it’s too late, but I love to learn,” said Heide Blackak, a Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) Class of 2020 graduate, and at 60, the oldest recipient of that year’s “29 Who Shine” state Education Department award. “I was so excited to learn the campus, learn the library, learn about the professors and the diversity of classes.”

     But it was more than just the chance to finish something she’d started decades ago that fueled Blackak’s desire to head back to the classroom.

     “You are interacting with what’s going on in society – what young people are thinking [about things like] race, gender,” she said of her experience.

     The path back to college for Blackak, an Agawam resident, was a bit more like that of many mid-lifers who decide to return to college. She’d started a degree right out of high school in her native state of Pennsylvania. “I wanted to be an interpreter for the U.N.” Blackak told Prime about her early college aspirations. “You have to major in seven languages and minor in five just to be an assistant, I had French, Spanish, German, Russian and English.”

She said that at one point the CIA tried to recruit her, but she refused. After three years of college however, she returned home, met and married her husband and started a family.

     “I always wanted to go back,” she said, and had taken a class or two when her children were young. Once her children were grown it seemed like the time. But in her late 50s and working two jobs – as a staffer for a transportation company and as a real estate agent – making it all work was an accomplishment in and of itself, she admitted.

     “When you’re older and decide to do something, you become efficient and you find the time,” Blackak said. She added that going back polishes your tech skills – “you have to be computer savvy, learn things like [the student portal] Blackboard and sometimes the only communication [with professors and classmates] was online during COVID-19.”

     Starting her degree pursuit in 2017 – which was pre-COVID-19 disruptions – Blackak said one of the biggest things she noticed was the age gap.

     “What I found when going back in your 50s – or 60s – the professors are much younger. Also, the young kids wanted me to ask [the professors] to explain things better,” she said, adding she had a sense that many traditional age students were afraid to admit they were confused by some of the course materials. “If I don’t understand something and I’m going to be graded [on it], I’m not going to be intimidated,” she shared.

     However, like Richardson, her one stumbling block on the way to her degree was math.

     Blackak said she told her advisor, “I’m 58 years old, I have no use for algebra, I’ll never use it in my life, I’m not going to take it, I’m going to fail.”  But she did take the class, and got through with help from her significant other who is “good at math – Saturday night was date night and math night,” she laughed – as well as a tutor who worked in the IT department at Western New England University. She also took advantage of the free tutoring services available at STCC for help in other subjects.

     Her family was also very supportive of her return to school.

     “My son told me, ‘Mom, math is just a language, and you love languages. Think of it that you just have to learn the terms,’” she said.

Among her favorite classes were ones in sociology and psychology

“What I would love to do is go back to school and study birth order and get a psychology degree,” she said.

“There aren’t many studies on it.”

     All told, Blackak said it took her three years to complete her associates degree in Liberal Arts. “I started in the 2017-2018 school year and took summer courses” to graduate in 2020 she said. Her grade point average was 4.0. Despite her busy work and school schedule, she still found time to serve as a student ambassador and volunteer for several programs including hospice and the American Red Cross.

     “I was the first person from my family to graduate college,” Blackak said proudly. “My mother was an immigrant from Germany.”

     As for the “29 Who Shine” honor, according to a press release from STCC, the award recognizes outstanding students who graduate from the commonwealth’s higher education system showing promise as future leaders and demonstrating a strong academic achievement.   

 Blackak was among the oldest recipients of the award in its 10-year history.

     And she hasn’t stopped learning. Her latest project is a role in the locally produced film series, “Chronos Mercury” (www.ChronosMercury.com) which has a premiere date of Sept. 24 in Springfield’s Gasoline Alley and is slated to show on streaming services. 

     Blackak said she found out about the film through a Facebook post and intrigued, had applied to help with catering, just to see what movie-making was like. Instead, she was invited to read for the role of the nurse and was selected for the part.     

     “Now I’m back in the learning role, learning lines, using life experiences and learning production rituals,” she said.

     “The desire to learn still remains, to try different things,” Blackak said. “I highly recommend [going back to school], why wouldn’t you do it if you had the time? Why would you stop learning? Why wouldn’t you try new things?”

Your turn

     Inspired by these stories? Both STCC and HCC have programs that offer free or reduced tuition to students 60 years of age or older. Check out the STCC program at www.stcc.edu/apply/get-started/senior-citizen. Check out the HCC program at www.hcc.edu/admissions/senior-waiver. For information on HCC’s New Directions for Adult Learners program visit www.hcc.edu/adult-learner. For information on all the Massachusetts public college programs available to older learners visit www.seniorcitizenguideforcollege.com/2011/01/massachusetts.html