Serving The (Non-Traditional) Adult Collegian

1
Serving The (Non-Traditional) Adult Collegian

• Benefits to the Student,
• the Institution
• and the Employer
• Todd Siben
• Thomas Edison State College

2
Mindsets about Adult Students and College

• Post War Influx of adults to college
• Community Colleges role
• Old person who tells stories in class
• Websters Dictionary - graphic

3
Initiatives

• Initiatives in NJ such as STAC
• Initiatives Elsewhere
• NACADA Commission on Adult Students
• CAEL

4
Questions

• Who are the contemporary adult students?
• What motivates their desire to attend college?
• What challenges to they face?
• How have we served them in the past?
• What can we offer now?
• How does this benefit the student, the
  institution and the employer?

5
Who are the contemporary adult students?

• Returning to school
• Victims of downsizing
• Trying not to be victims of downsizing
• Military
• Others

6
What motivates them to pursue higher education?

• Increase in salary
• Increased employability
• Prevention of layoff
• Development of new skills
• Self satisfaction
• Other

7
What challenges do they face?

• Discomfort of feeling out-of-place
• Anxiety that comes from feeling rusty
• Fear of the inability to use technology
• Funding and financial aid
• External supports

8
Services for the Student

• Historically Traditional Services
• Office/Advisor for
• Veterans Affairs
• ADA
• Alternative Services
• Distance/Online courses
• Portfolio Assessment/PLA
• ACE/Military/Special Assessments
• Credit by Examination (CLEP, DANTES, etc)
• Credit for Courses Taught

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Benefits to the Student

• Facilitate degree completion
• Reinforces a sense of accomplishment
• Encourages the development of reflective skills
• Strengthens communications skills
• More likely to remain in school and complete a
  degree
• More likely to remain loyal after graduation

10
Benefits to the Institution

• Enhances the institutions image as caring and
  committed to adults and non-trads
• Creates a culture of self-examination within the
  institution
• Attracts diversity of students and faculty
• Broadens faculty perspective
• Offers a qualitatively different sense of student
  interaction

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Benefits to the Employer

• Employers already know the importance of having
  employees who want to continue to learn
• A more educated worker/workforce
• A worker/workforce motivated to learn
• Employees who can be trained, who can analyze,
  communicate, etc.
• Qualities like time management, self-reliance,
  reliability, responsibility

12
Questions and Comments

• Todd Siben
• Senior Program Advisor
• Liberal Arts and Sciences Programs
• Thomas Edison State College
• Trenton, NJ
• tsiben_at_tesc.edu