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My name is Andrea Hanselmann. I am from Wilmington.
My name is James Bryson and I'm from Swansboro, North Carolina.
I am Tracy Baird Empsall. I am from Spokane, Washington.
My name is Terrell Bryant, I'm an English major from Burgaw, North Carolina.
My name is Danielle. I'm from Goldsboro, North Carolina.
My name is Tonya Harmati, I Iive in Leland, North Carolina.
I'm a non-traditional student because I am a returning student. I'm over the age of 25.
Military-affiliated. I am a non-traditional student cause I'm in Grad school and I also
transferred into UNCW. I'm married. I'm a non-traditional student because I transferred
to UNCW in 2011. I'm a transfer student, I'm a commuter student. I have three children.
I was a transfer student. There are several challenges for me being a non-traditional
student... You may have to work a 9 to 5. Not living on campus was really a major problem
for me. I mean the regular demands of life were really the reasons, it's nothing, it's
not like I don't want to do it, there's plenty of things I'd like to do! But I just can't,
I have to pay bills, I have a life outside of college. You might have been in the military
for 10 or 15 years so coming in and getting acclimated into, you know, that different
age group, a different style of living, cause we all are at different places and areas in
our life, and trying to find that common ground is I think a difficulty for a lot of non-traditional
students. I feel as though I'm missing out on a lot of things in the college life because
I'm dealing with my life outside of college. Because when you transfer in you're not necessarily
coming in as a freshman but you're still sort of in that freshman, in the social aspect
you're sort of like a freshman because you're coming you're coming to a brand new campus
that you've never been to before, you may have friends once you've transferred in, you
may not, most of us do not, so you gotta get used to a brand new campus all over again
just as if you were a freshman here. Yes, I feel if I was more active on campus I would
probably find other people that have the same passions as I would do and that would just
help, you know, fuel my passions even more. I feel as though this is gonna be something
that I'm going to look back on and regret not being a part of the university, because
it may even hinder me from getting certain jobs because it's all about who you know these
days and without being involved, I don't really know anyone. Involvement benefits you later
on in your career because when you're involved on campus you get to know the community, you
get to know the teachers, the professors, and the deans, and you make a name for yourself
and they can recommend you later on and it also just helps you build your resume. Just
from graduating and being in the job market, people look for that professional experience
of being on-campus and being involved in your community. It's not just good grades or GPA,
it's how you get involved, it's internships, it's so many other things that combine to
make your resume stand out. If you're coming out with a 4.0 GPA or a 3.5 or whatever your
GPA may be, you still have other individuals coming out with that same GPA, so what can
set you apart from you getting a job versus them getting a job, and if you're involved
in plenty of leadership roles, so if you're in orientation, you're a president of an organization,
you're in SGA, or whatever it may be, you're showing them that you have the leadership
skills that you gained along the way and so I feel like being parts of different organizations
and specifically holding roles in those organizations will help you along the way when it comes
time for you to go into the job market. I think UNCW can improve several ways in supporting
a non-traditional student, the first one would be I, we are assigned specific advisors and
I think it's our advisors job to let us know of certain programs like the PERCH program.
UNCW can help support non-traditional students by offering more classes at night. Most of
the undergrad classes that I'm taking are in the middle of the day which makes it an
inconvenience for my 9 to 5 job. I wish people would be a little bit more open about what
they are involved in. I guess it could be a little more inclusive towards everyone,
not excluding non-traditional students but reaching out to any type of student. A lot
of graduate courses are online, so students are not always on-campus like they are with
traditional students. So, Web-Exing and Skyping people in have become really a big way to
help. I think that would be the coolest thing to Skype someone into a meeting; I'd at least
have the knowledge of something going on, and be able to communicate my thoughts, I
may not be physically there, but I think the important part is I am knowledgeable that
it exists and I am little bit a part of it by being Skyped in, and I think it would really
open up schedules for a lot more clubs to be formed based off of other people's interests
and for more people to be involved in them as well. They need to think like a student
and not think like a professor or an administer, they need to realize that we have lives that
we're trying to live outside of school, and yes you have to balance all of that. We're
gonna have priorities, that's the key to life. I think the best way UNCW can support us is
just to let transfer students know that they are here and to that we have resources here
to provide transfer students. I wish that my advisors or someone would have told me
that PERCH existed and that there were ways for me specifically as a non-traditional student
to become involved, cause I don't see how the information can get to me if the information
isn't there for everyone else. We just don't know, there needs to be more information out
there!