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I graduated from webster University in 1993
and I'm sure you're looking at me and calculating. Yes I was not a traditional student.
Graduated the same year from college as my youngest child
and it was an experience that is just unmatchable.
I never thought I would see the day that I got my college degree and it was really exciting for me.
I just felt really connected to Webster as soon as I went in there.
They just made me feel like they wanted me there and that was really important to me.
I didn't know how it would be to be a grown-up at college
but it was an amazing experience. There were a lot of people like me but
having the input of other students, younger students, more traditional students in the classroom really made it a very rich, deep, and unique experience.
I have this amazing job. I'm sitting in my office at this great company.
This would have never been possible for me without my Webster education.
I started at this company when most people are looking at retirement
but I think a lot of me feeling really vital and still involved in the world is because I went to college when I was a grown-up.
and that was kind of the beginning of a phase of my life that most people experience when they're 18 or 19
so I feel like I had like 30 years added on of being able to really be involved in life and take on new challenges and do exciting things.
I'm very proud of what I accomplished.
The day that I graduated I ran into a friend of my mother's. She had passed away many years before
and she saw me in my cap and gown and she's like "what's going on" I said "I'm graduating"
She said to me "oh Nancy your mother would be so proud of you"
and I never forgot her saying that and I really encouraged my kids to follow their dreams and get their education.
A lot of that came from my experience at webster.
Had a really wealthy person
but I was making a trust thinking about my children and thinking about how I wanted to be remembered
and I thought that that would be a great gift for me to leave behind because it's something that's meaningful to me
and I wanted my children to know that it was meaningful to me
and I think that giving back to places that give you a lot is an important thing to do.
At one point I was invited to attend a scholarship dinner
and I was just blown away by the opportunity to help someone
and realized in my experience I had someone to pay for my college education even though I was a grown-up
and if I hadn't I probably would've never done it.
It would've been an insurmountable obstacle for me financially
and I thought that, if I could, it would be a really great thing to be able to help somebody like me
a returning student to create an opportunity for somebody to change their life
and they made it really easy for me. They said "oh you can pay it out over this many years and it's going to be easy"
and it seemed kind of insurmountable at the time to have this big gift facing me every year
but this year in 2010 is actually the last payment on my scholarship and I'm really excited about that.
It came around really quickly. I can't believe how fast the time went by.
I give my children credit especially my daughter and son-in-law.
Their kids are a little older. They're almost 11, 9, and 6 and giving is a part of what they have taught their kids.
They have the saving jar, the giving jar, and the spending jar
and every year I usually go out to California to visit them sort of at the end of the year
and I take with me all these envelopes I get from a number of charities that I give small gifts to this is nothing significant
and we all sit down together and I tell them okay well Nonie has one thousand dollars to give to charity
and these are all of the people that want the money.
Who should we give it to and how much should we give them?
We open the envelopes and we talk about what the organizations do and who they help
and the kids sort of calculate, they do the math for me
and we sort of parsel out who gets what
and I remember a couple years ago Alex got a great heart he was maybe seven
and he said "now what's this one about the people that the doctors that help kids who don't have doctors?" and I said,
"oh Alex that's doctors without borders." He goes "I think you should give them 80 bucks."
So we wrote the check for 80 dollars and then we write all the checks, we put them in the envelopes, and we mail them
and I think it's just a good experience for them to understand and they really get into it. They really enjoy it.
I think they take it very seriously.
It's important to
for the community.
It's important to be educated. It's important personally because it opens up amazing doors for you and wonderful opportunities.
And, for me, I guess I never really thought of myself as being that smart
and when I started going to Webster I found out I was really smart
and that was a wonderful thing for me.
It opened up doors for me.
It gave me a lot of self-confidence.
It made me feel like I could take on challenges that maybe before that seemed a little insurmountable.
I think education is a terrific opportunity for anyone and maybe especially when your an adult
and you haven't had that experience when you were younger at the traditional time
and you see that your going to have to take over your own life and take care of yourself and what are you going to do. Well go to college. College will change everything for you.