CENTER VALLEY, Pa. — Scheduling classes is a routine task for college students. For nontraditional students like Jim Honer though, scheduling is more of a balancing act.
“When I’m planning my classes, I try to do them on my wife’s schedule so I have most of my classes on her days off,” he said. Honer also gave praise to his mother-in-law who, fortunately, helps several days a week. “She’s amazing,” he said. “With my schedule this semester, I’m gone during the day most of the time.”
Honer’s story is not that different from many nontraditional learners — students who earn their degrees at night, on weekends, exclusively online, or in a format outside of the standard college schedule. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 2004-09, found full-time employment, then started a family. He and his wife now have three children, aged 13, 6, and 2.
But as his children grew older and the physical nature of his work started taking its toll, Honer decided it was time for a change. He chose PSU-LV because his younger brother attended and had a good experience at the campus.
The Macungie resident is majoring in business with a minor in accounting and hopes to find a job that is less strenuous. “In the long run, everything I’m doing is for my family,” he said. “I’m trying to preserve my body so I can do things with my family.”
Likewise for Kirsten Mears, Penn State Lehigh Valley’s relatively new alumni director who worked previously in the health care industry. Mears had an associate’s degree which she worked toward as time allowed over the course of a decade — but she wanted to go further. Working in health care, PSU-LV’s health policy and administration major — and its flex option for working adults — was a perfect fit for her at the time.
“I could go online or attend classes in person as my schedule permitted,” she said. “But balancing work and school was still my biggest challenge: “The company I worked for at the time was a nonprofit, and I worked a lot of overtime. I was working 70 hours a week at times.”
Fortunately, Mears’ instructors were understanding. “I was completely transparent with my professors. They knew how many hours I was putting in at work and helped make my entire Penn State experience great. Their support made me want to stick with it.”