I entered college as an older student and for me it was the most wonderful part of my life. They say that life does begin at 40 and for me this was true. I went to college not as the normal route that most people take. By that I mean usually right out of high school most students will go to college. I didn’t have that opportunity because when I was in school you had very strict guidelines and requirements. In other words, even though I really wanted to excel in English and be an English major I still had to satisfy other academic requirements such as four years of history, three years of science, three years of math. I was never very good in math.

I tried unsuccessfully to do well in math and yet I never could conquer the requirements. It wasn’t until the 1970s when New York State changed college requirements. They now had this thing known as open enrollment. By the 1970s however I was now married, had a family and was working. I started working as a secretary, went on to become an administrative assistant but I still had this burning desire to go to college. Finally towards the end of the 80s I was able to fulfill this part of my dream.

I went and chose a very small college by the name of Molloy. It was a Catholic college and they educated in the Dominican tradition. I loved my professors. They were always there for me, always encouraging me, and I appreciate all of their hard work and effort.

What I learned is life is a journey and education is a part of our life’s journey. We can’t stop learning just because we’ve reached a certain age.

One of my first memories of the English department is when I signed up and took Dr. Robert Kinpointner as my first English professor for English composition. I remember very clearly sitting in my seat and it was about the second class. As class was about to begin Dr. Kinpointner said he would like me to stay after class. He wanted to speak to me about something. I guess the color must’ve drained from my face because he realized this was the wrong thing to say to me and as a result he took me outside the classroom and said “don’t worry, this is something good.” He explained he wanted me to become one of the tutors in writing lab and work alongside Dr. Dupré and work in the classrooms, especially during the summertime with other students who needed help in their writing skills. This was another writing outlet for me. Suddenly my skills and my abilities were going to be used in another direction. I was now going to see that I might have an opportunity to follow a whole new career path.

I worked with Dr. Dupré every summer for four years and during the fall and spring sessions I worked in the writing lab. The writing lab was interesting because professors and administrators were discovering at Molloy College, as I’m sure other schools were coming to realize, most students coming out of high school really didn’t have a firm grasp on actually writing. This was the first time I was introduced to Dr. Dupré’s formula for successful writing. He referred to it as “cats rats and bats.” I found this very interesting because Dr. Dupré actually was proven right especially when it came time for me to write my thesis in order to get my degree in English. No matter what the length or the topic was that you needed to write about as long as you used the formula of “cats rats and bats” you couldn’t help but write successfully.