Deciding to go back to university in your late 30s may not be for everyone.
But for Lisa Walker, who picked up her BA in sociology this past week at The University of Western Ontario’s 296th Convocation, the learning isn’t about to stop anytime soon.
“It’s more that I’m a life-long learner. Knowledge, I love it,” says the 41-year old Goderich resident. “I feel the more you know the more effective you can be. There’s a saying ‘We don’t stop learning because we grow old; we grow old because we stop learning.’ So I figure I’ll never grow old.”
While most students find themselves running from class-to-class on campus, through the Lake Huron Learning Collaborative (LHLC), which provides low-cost, accessible secondary education to residents of Huron and Bruce counties, Walker did the majority of her learning online as well as right in her own community.
It was in January 2004, when a group on interested residents of Goderich formed a not-for-profit organization, which would soon become the LHLC, a fully recognized, charitable organization that has formed partnerships with local teachers, universities, colleges and professors.
By concentrating on the local environment – social and physical – it promotes education for all residents whether they are completing high school certificates, working on post-secondary degrees or taking interest courses.
Over the past four years, Western has offered courses in Goderich and Southampton, and most recently in Kincardine. Courses have been offered in social sciences, biology, business and environmental studies.
Western writing program lecturer John Smallwood, who founded and continues to head up the LHLC, says after many years of teaching in secondary schools he realized he had taught a generation of students who had the ability but, in many cases, not had the opportunity to attend post-secondary institutions – often lacking the confidence or funding to even consider further education.
“We have had some of the country’s best professors teach our students, and the students have risen to the occasion,” Smallwood says. “The key seems to be to have professors teach students face-to-face in smaller classes. This gives first-time students who are not familiar with the university system an opportunity to interact with their professors and to gain the much-needed confidence.”
While several students will be graduating from the program over the next year or so, Walker is the first to do so. The single mother of three daughters – and four grandchildren – says she initially took a single sociology course and the learning bug quickly took over.
She followed that with online course in the summer and a full five-course fall class load, quitting her job in order to concentrate fully on school. She applied for OSAP and bursaries to help with finances and was working hard to make it work. She wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
“It’s never been easy. Financially, it was a struggle, but I don’t let anything stop me. I keep going until I find what I need,” she says.
Walker says the support she received from so many folks along the way kept her going, such as her friendship with Donna Moore in the Student Success Centre, and with Smallwood. “He’s been a huge supporter of mine,” she says of Smallwood.
While she would love to do more schooling – wanting to pursue a master’s degree – finances are the current stumbling block. But Smallwood if the first to says Western hasn’t seen the last of Walker.
“Seeing Lisa graduate was a dream come true,” he says. “She has worked very hard, taking every possible course that was available to her. She has grown tremendously, gaining confidence as well as expertise in her own field of study. Grads such as Lisa help to create a culture that values and promotes post-secondary study in areas such as ours.”
In rural Ontario, having parents gain further education means their children and grandchildren will be motivated to do the same, adds Smallwood. So earning degrees as in Lisa’s case will have long-term results that go far beyond the obvious outcomes in having an individual succeed in higher education.
Admittedly having struggles along the way, including the death of a sister, Walker knew this was something she had to do – and not just for herself. “I want to be able to empower other people, especially in my community, to do something like this,” she says. “It gives you the sense of accomplishment that sense of ‘Hey, I’m worth something, I know something, I can contribute to my community.'”
Smallwood is hoping more individuals will being taking advantage of the LHLC program. With some provincial funding has been cut for outreach programming, it has meant fewer courses may be available to students in the community, meaning more of the course delivery will be online.
“Real difficulties will ensue in our attracting new students who greatly benefit from the small, introductory classes that create that initial enthusiasm and interest,” he says.
To that fact, the LHLC recently received $500,000 from Ontario Power Generation to assist us in creating a Centre for Learning in Kincardine.
“We continue to hope that an interest in doing lake-based research will develop and that Huron and Bruce Counties can serve as centres for environmental research in a time when water is the new oil and when foreign species and water protection are foremost in the minds of many who live on the Great Lakes.”
To learn more about the Lake Huron Learning Collaborative, visit www.lakehuronlearning.ca.
