{"id":3596,"date":"2017-06-05T21:34:17","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T01:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/?page_id=3596"},"modified":"2017-06-05T21:34:17","modified_gmt":"2017-06-06T01:34:17","slug":"the-power-of-a-college-education","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/reporter-spring2017\/features\/the-power-of-a-college-education\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of a College Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trinity IDP paves paths for adult learners<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Andrew J. Concatelli<\/em><\/p>\n

Learning has no age limit. That\u2019s the philosophy of the Individualized Degree Program (IDP) at Trinity College. The self-paced path to earning a bachelor\u2019s degree enrolls adults age 23 and older in courses alongside traditional-age students.<\/p>\n

Tim Cresswell, dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs and professor of American studies, says that a liberal arts education provides a strong platform for lifelong learning for all of Trinity\u2019s students. \u201cIDP students are examples of lifelong learning in action,\u201d he says. \u201cTheir presence enriches the community of learning that is Trinity College.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Trinity majors are available to IDP students, who have been valedictorians and salutatorians, Phi Beta Kappa members, and President\u2019s Fellows. IDP students may attend Trinity full time, but most enroll part time as they work and raise families. Most of the IDP students come to the program with some college credits, often from community college, while others are recruited from local businesses or the military. Many are from the Greater Hartford area, and some are first-generation college students. IDP students are eligible for financial aid.<\/p>\n

One goal of the program \u2014 which will celebrate its 45th anniversary in 2018 \u2014 is to offer adult students the same opportunities offered to traditional Trinity students, but in a modified way. For example, the IDP transitional seminar mirrors Trinity\u2019s first-year seminars.Fox and Company Professor of Economics Diane C. Zannoni, who recently stepped down from her role as IDP director after seven years, says the program \u201creally speaks to the resources and the needs\u201d of adult students. \u201cIDP creates a framework that is really responsive \u2014 there is a structure and support the whole way.\u201d<\/p>\n

IDP grew out of a 1971 proposal for the Alternate Degree Program, which offered a pathway to the bachelor\u2019s degree based on demonstration of academic proficiency rather than credits for successfully completed courses or length of study. Over time, the focus of the program evolved to what the IDP is today \u2014 an undergraduate completion degree program for adult students. For Louise Fisher \u201973, an early IDP director, the connection to the program she helped design was very personal. \u201cI was an adult student at Trinity before there was an IDP,\u201d she says. \u201cI was just about the only adult student on campus; people thought I was a professor. \u2026 This program is something that was needed for the adult student. There\u2019s no reason why students can\u2019t go to college after the age of 22.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fisher says that Trinity faculty members have always been supportive of IDP. \u201cWithout the faculty support, this never would have succeeded,\u201d she says. Faculty members serve on the IDP Council and as the students\u2019 advisers.<\/p>\n

Many current IDP students first learned about the program from Associate Director Roberta Rogers IDP\u201910, herself a program graduate. \u201cI found a community here at a time when I didn\u2019t really have one,\u201d Rogers says. \u201cMy kids were really young, and my husband traveled for work. I felt something was missing, and this was it. I loved being around people who were interested in ideas and who encouraged me to explore and to find my passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rogers believes the success of IDP is thanks in part to the careful attention paid to the needs of the students. \u201cMany other schools recruit adult students, but they don\u2019t have a program for adult students,\u201d she says. \u201cThis really is a traditional, selective, elite program for nontraditional students.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stories of the following three individuals provide insights into Trinity IDP and its vital role in educating adult learners.<\/p>\n

\"Ahmed<\/a>
Ahmed Yusuf IDP\u201997 in his South Minneapolis classroom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

FROM SOMALIA TO HARTFORD<\/p>\n

Ahmed Yusuf IDP \u201997 had never owned any books before he came to the United States as a young man; now he\u2019s writing them.<\/p>\n

Born in Somalia, Yusuf lived all over the States as he learned to speak English and pursued his education. He was in his late 20s when a counselor at a community college in Hartford told him about Trinity\u2019s IDP. \u201cI had a relative who graduated from Trinity College, so I was cognizant of the quality of the academics,\u201d Yusuf says. \u201cI was working at the time. The program\u2019s flexibility was the No. 1 attraction. It fits for anyone who has other responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yusuf designed an interdisciplinary major called human conflict and creative writing,\u00a0which combined his interests in psychology and English. \u201cI wanted to somehow make sense out of the senseless Somali war,\u201d Yusuf says.<\/p>\n

The personalized nature of IDP helped Yusuf form strong bonds at Trinity. \u201cThe faculty and staff were patient with me; they talked to me,\u201d he says, naming the late Professor of English Fred Pfeil as a particularly strong influence. \u201cHe was one of the greatest human beings,\u201d Yusuf says. \u201cHe was the one who introduced me to writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zannoni and the IDP staff also provided Yusuf with support. \u201cWhen I lost my job, they were actually delivering groceries to my house. The emotional support was more than I expected,\u201d he says. \u201cI would not be who I am if it were not for the IDP.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yusuf now teaches the Somali language at South High School in South Minneapolis. He has authored a collection of short stories in Somali and a book about how Minneapolis has become home to a large Somali population. He also is working on an autobiographical play \u2014 which includes Pfeil and Zannoni as characters \u2014 a book about Somali-Americans\u2019 generational divide, and a collection of short stories in English called Lion\u2019s Binding Oath, <\/em>which will be published in August 2017.<\/p>\n

\"IDP2\"<\/a>
Associate Professor of Physics David Branning and Stephen DeMonico IDP\u201917 work together to solve a problem.
Photo by John Marinelli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A GREAT GIFT<\/p>\n

After earning his GED in 1997, Stephen DeMonico IDP\u201917 worked in information technology and customer support before being laid off in 2010. A postcard he received in the mail that same day from Gateway Community College in New Haven, Connecticut, inspired DeMonico to pursue higher education, where he found his passion for physics. \u201cThere\u2019s a real sense of wonder for me in even the most basic physics experiments,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

With his associate\u2019s degree completed, DeMonico recalled a Trinity IDP information session and reached out to Rogers. \u201cI felt that IDP recognized that I had a lot of potential,\u201d he says. \u201cI think they saw some of the same things in me that I saw in me.\u201d The program turned out to be a great fit. \u201cThe faculty members make reasonable accommodations. They recognize other obligations in lives that exist outside of school. The real success of IDP is bridging those two worlds,\u201d DeMonico adds.<\/p>\n

With majors in physics and interdisciplinary computing coordinated with physics and a minor in models and data, DeMonico worked in the lab of Associate Professor of Physics David Branning to develop a working scientific instrument to identify coincidental events. \u201cThis device can be used in education settings to demonstrate quantum theory,\u201d DeMonico says. Named the President\u2019s Fellow in physics for 2015-16, he also was president of the Trinity College Physics Students Association. He is interested in working in a scientific setting, potentially in the growing field of embedded computing, following his graduation.<\/p>\n

DeMonico believes that IDP is a benefit to both its students and the Trinity community. \u201cIDP students have these very unique life experiences that add to the classroom. I think there\u2019s a lot of value in that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Through his role as an IDP student recruitment associate, DeMonico attended college fairs and gave campus tours, working to attract more students like himself. He says, \u201cThis has been a great gift, so I wanted to pay it forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

COMING FULL CIRCLE<\/p>\n

\"idp\"<\/a>
Mel Cavanaugh IDP\u201911 leads a discussion in her Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy classroom.
Photo by John Marinelli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mel Cavanaugh IDP \u201911 had completed four years of a five-year architecture major at Arizona State University when she left school to work full time. \u201cIt\u2019s possibly the one regret that I have in my life,\u201d she says of not finishing her bachelor\u2019s degree then. Cavanaugh was a 30-year-old single mother working at a sales job in Farmington, Connecticut, when she enrolled in Trinity\u2019s IDP. \u201cI was at a turning point in my life,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmpowering\u201d is how Cavanaugh describes her experience as an American studies major in IDP, noting that her Trinity professors helped her to become even more outspoken in her social activism. \u201cEach semester I was gaining this confidence and this evolution in my life,\u201d she says. \u201cMy world just kept opening up.\u201d While at Trinity, Cavanaugh viewed IDP as a support network. \u201cProfessor Zannoni was always the net to catch you if you needed encouragement,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

With an initial goal of working at a nonprofit organization to fight poverty, Cavanaugh considered law school and the Hartford Seminary, but her daughter and others suggested that she should become a teacher. \u201cMy daughter said, \u2018Your education has changed your life. You\u2019re a different person,\u2019 \u201d says Cavanaugh, who earned a master\u2019s in education from the University of Connecticut after graduating from Trinity IDP.<\/p>\n

Cavanaugh soon learned that Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy (HMTCA) was preparing to open a high school. \u201cAs much as Trinity has changed my life, why wouldn\u2019t I want to give back to this school and the Hartford community? It felt like the right thing to do,\u201d she says. Cavanaugh has been at HMTCA for five years, teaching U.S. history, world history, sociology, and psychology to high school students. She also teaches in HMTCA\u2019s summer writing academy and enjoys bringing students to Trinity\u2019s campus to help encourage them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t experience the power of education until I was ready to experience it, and then my education completely changed my life,\u201d Cavanaugh says. \u201cI know how much my professors impacted me, and it\u2019s coming full circle now that I have the ability to have an impact on young people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: As this issue went to press, the Office of the Dean of the Faculty was reviewing expressions of interest to find the next IDP faculty director.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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