By Karen Mahoney, Special to your Catholic Herald

As many young college co-eds are gearing up for another year of late night study groups, dorm pizza parties, football games and taking copious notes in cramped lecture halls, another breed of student is planning their upcoming year.

Although a challenge to schedule classes around family and jobs, many older adults care so much about their education that they are settling in after a full day to spend several hours a week attending college. Area Catholic colleges are stepping up to fill the need for additional education.

While some of these adult students wear jeans, others wear ties. Some attend to earn their master’s degree, while others haven’t yet earned their bachelor’s. Their average age is 40. They are parents, immigrants, teachers, managers, or those left behind in the realm of higher education. All of them have found a place that integrates their credits with lessons they’ve learned in the school of life.

Cardinal Stritch offers offsite classes

Founded in 1937 by the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi, the Milwaukee-based Cardinal Stritch University is comprehensive and coeducational and one of the first independent universities catering to working adults wishing to return to school.

According to Linda Steiner, vice president of public relations at Cardinal Stritch, evening classes and accelerated programs began in 1982 through the College of Business.

“We operate many sites throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota,” she said. “We also have a special Lifetime Learners programs for central-city adults through our College of Business. Classes are offered at the Next Door Foundation (started in 1999) in the Metcalfe Park area of Milwaukee, and at the Greentree and Teutonia Community Center, at 3744 W. Green Tree Road, Milwaukee.

“Both locations offer coursework for an associate’s degree in business, with classes two nights a week and both offer free childcare. Students primarily are African-American women with children,” she added.

With over 30 convenient offsite locations in Wisconsin and Minnesota, Stritch offers degree programs at all of its Business campuses, which include master of business administration, master of science in management, and numerous undergraduate degrees and certificate programs.

The College of Education program at Stritch offers five different masters degree programs, which include a master of education in education, master of science in educational leadership, and master of arts in reading/learning disability.

Additionally, Cardinal Stritch offers several individual courses online.

“Our College of Education is working on setting up online courses, but we have no full degree programs online in any of our four colleges,” Steiner said. “Our other colleges are Arts and Sciences and the Ruth S. Coleman College of Nursing.”

Considered a win-win situation among many college officials offering satellite or online programs, students are finding higher education much more attainable and as a reward for their efforts, colleges are enjoying a boost in enrollment.

“We have definitely noticed that our offsite programs have contributed greatly to expanding our student base since we started this in 1982,” admitted Steiner.

Marquette MBA program offers two offsite locations

Established in 1881, Marquette University offers two offsite locations as a convenience for professionals living or working outside of the downtown Milwaukee area who are seeking an MBA. To accommodate the 90 percent of adults who are working full time, classes are held in the evening or on Saturday mornings and meet just one time per week, and faculty and administrators are available via email to answer questions during off class hours.

“Marquette offers an MBA program out of locations in both Waukesha and Kohler, in addition to our downtown Milwaukee Campus,” said Brigid O’Brien Miller, director of University Communication. “The Waukesha program is affiliated with GE Healthcare, but is not limited to GE employees. The Kohler program is affiliated with Kohler Co., but not limited to Kohler employees.”

Additionally, through its College of Professional Studies, Marquette offers courses and programs on-location at businesses in the Milwaukee area. According to Miller, these programs are specifically designed to meet the needs of individual employers.

“We also offer online courses in Marquette’s School of Education, but we have no entirely online degree programs at this time,” she said. “We have a four-course literacy sequence online, and the final course needed for the license can be taken at a distance as long as the student can videotape his or her teaching.”

Alverno focuses on individualized education

Although Alverno College, offers no satellite campuses or online courses, the school works hard to individualize education and accommodate for a variety of student schedules.

Established in 1887, the four-year Catholic college for women offers weekday and every other weekend undergraduate programs as well as graduate programs for both women and men.

According to Michael Harryman, director of marketing and communication, the school offers a variety of options to meet the needs of students, both traditional age and returning adults and does not plan to offer other alternatives.

“We also offer multiple timeframes such as our Weekend College,” he said. “Due to the nature of Alverno’s highly individualized way of teaching and assessing students, our unique curriculum and the need for comprehensive campus resources such as advising and the computer center, additional campus locations would not serve students or the college effectively.”

Marian College serves students across state

At the Fond du Lac based Marian College, the academic programs are designed to meet the needs of all students, undergraduate, graduate and working adults. With its flexible curriculum, internships, online courses and satellite campuses, Marian seeks to meet the needs of students all over Wisconsin.

Its total enrollment increased tremendously due to their efforts to reach out, according to Tracy Qualmann, director of marketing and admissions for the Marian Adult Accelerated Program.

Founded in 1936, Marian has permanent teaching centers in Appleton and West Allis, in addition to the home campus in Fond du Lac.

“We also have teaching sites in Green Bay, West Bend, Mayville, Manitowoc and Watertown,” stated Qualmann. “We have also taken specific programs to where there is a need, including Wrightstown, Oshkosh and Wausau.”

Although not all programs are offered at all sites, the primary programs are bachelor of business administration, bachelor of organizational communication, bachelor of criminal justice, bachelor of nursing (RN to BSN), bachelor of radiologic technology (completion program), bachelor of interdisciplinary studies, and master of science in organizational leadership and quality through the MAACP program.

“Our School of Education also has a master of arts in education program, and our School of Nursing has a master of science in nursing program,” said Qualmann. “We also offer some online classes, but no online programs at this time.”

Mount Mary offers Midtown Campus program

While Mount Mary College in Milwaukee doesn’t offer satellite campuses or online courses geared for the adult student, they offer an innovative transition program geared for first generation students.

According to dean of admissions Brooke Konopacki, the program, which began two years ago, offers college for up to 50 women who never thought college was an obtainable option for them.

“It is a Midtown Campus Scholarship Program and it is for first generation students from Milwaukee who are in high financial need and are able to handle the academics,” she said. “With that mindset, our goal is to not just drop them into a college setting, but to have a cohort program for the students — starting them at the midtown campus.”

The unique program begins with a summer bridge program, which gives students the opportunity to be assisted with tutoring, paperwork, academic resources and connecting with other students in the program. Students begin courses at the midtown campus and will eventually transfer to the main campus. The women can reside on campus and are provided with daily transportation to the midtown location.

“The big bonus with this program is that students do not have to borrow any student loans all four years,” Konopacki said. “There is a small portion that students have to pay, but we build in work-study to offset those costs. A few students may take out loans to cover personal living conditions, but there is no payment for tuition.”

The only challenge Konopacki has noticed is the challenge to convince prospective students that there is “no catch” involved.

“Most don’t understand the concept and think it is too good to be true,” she said. Because Mount Mary’s mission is to educate those who didn’t think it was a possibility, grant money is set aside for this purpose.

“We still have fall openings,” Konopacki said. “Students shouldn’t worry if they didn’t take the ACT or that they have no financial paperwork completed. We will help with that. The program is so inspirational for me in that students are thrilled to discover that they can go to a four year private college—it is just a wonderful program.”

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