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December 6, 2012
I am a student returning to school after more than a 25-year hiatus to have and raise a family. I had tried to get back into school in early 2009 by taking a couple of classes at Mt. SAC in Walnut but I did not like the campus or the atmosphere and, inevitably, as my younger children were still in grammar school, I was not fully able to dedicate the time that was needed to attend class and get through the coursework. Now, more than 3 years later, I decided to truly dedicate myself to returning to school full-time and devoting myself to succeeding at receive an AA and then hopefully at BA and MBA.
I chose Fullerton College, not for the obvious proximity to my house (I live in Brea), but because upon visiting the campus with my 19-year old daughter in assisting her enroll last Spring (for Summer 2012) I truly fell in love with the campus, the architecture, the grounds, everything. It actually inspired me to “go back to school,” which I should have done a long time ago.
So I am now a “re-entry” student and trying to make up for lost time. I enrolled immediately, which had me taking two courses in the summer and enrolling in the Honors Program based upon my Placement Test scores and aging high school transcripts. This fall I took 13 units and, with luck, I’ll be taking 16 in the spring. My hope is to graduate in Spring 2014 with an AA in Religious Studies or perhaps dual AAs in Religious Studies and Philosophy. I’m hoping to transfer, with my AA, to either Chapman or Vanguard and complete a BA in Religious Studies with a minor in Moral Philosophy; at least that is the plan for now.
I am trying to take advantage of every opportunity that Fullerton College has to offer. In addition to being in the Honors Program, I am also a provisional member of PTK (full membership status coming after this semester). I have taken part in a campus photo shoot for upcoming marketing materials. With the assistance of the Honors Program Coordinator Jodi Balma, I have submitted Abstracts for consideration at both the Claremont Colleges and UCI Research Symposiums in early 2013.
I really enjoy being a full-time student at Fullerton College. The professors I have had have been very supportive and willing to work with any issues that I have had when the needs of being a full-time mother to two pre-teens have shifted my focus.
What I love most about Fullerton College is that in look, feel and atmosphere, it truly feels like an Ivy League campus. My younger brother attended Yale University and my parents & I went back to Connecticut three times in his four years there and I got to know the campus and off-campus areas of New Haven pretty well. Fullerton College and some of its magnificent buildings remind me of the enclosed, scholarly world that my brother’s dorm and classes were in. The courtyards, the stained glass windows of our library, the “Harry Potter building” better known as the Commons, the flowers, overgrown trees and wide-open grass spaces...these are all reminiscent of the college environment that my brother felt at Yale.
It is only an added bonus that the faculty and staff at Fullerton care as much as they do about the individual student and their individual successes. Fullerton faculty do not approach their students and classrooms as a “half-way house” where students are merely passing through or biding time, which was the atmosphere at Mt. SAC that I did not care for. Fullerton College is actually a “home” and I will be proud to eventually buy one of the license plate frames that says “Fullerton College Alumni.”