News |

Non-trad honored as New England’s golden student

Posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009, 1:42 am

E-mail

Tell us what you think!
Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.

Lauren Sterling has been working on her degree at the University of Maine since 1993, and she has one math class left. This spring, she will end her educational journey with more than a diploma to symbolize her accomplishments.

Last Wednesday, Sterling took a train to Hyannis, Mass., where she was honored as the 2009 Outstanding Continuing Education Student from New England at the University Continuing Education Association of New England’s annual conference.

“It means the end of an extremely long but rewarding process of working toward a degree that has a lot of meaning for me in my professional life and also, more importantly, as a person, as an individual,” Sterling said.

All New England colleges and universities that are members of the University Continuing Education Association can nominate a student. Over 40 colleges are members in the region. Russell Witmer of Eddington was the last UMaine student to win the award in 1995.

“She’s tireless, devoted, motivated, all of those adjectives, and truly inspiring,” said Sterling’s advisor, Barbara Howard, who nominated her. Howard is the Bachelor in University Studies (BUS) Director.

Howard called Sterling when she learned she had won.

“I was driving in between meetings on my work day,” Sterling said. “It was great. I was very excited. I promptly called my mother of course. She’s probably as excited about this as I am.”

Sterling, who spent her childhood summers in Maine, moved to Waterville in 1993 and enrolled in the UMaine Bachelor of University Studies program. Now 48 years old, she lives with her husband, who is the president of Colby College, and two stepchildren. In addition to taking college courses, she volunteers in the community and works full time for the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet in Augusta.

The Governor’s Children’s Cabinet meetings bring together the commissioners of five state departments — education, health and human services, juvenile corrections, public safety and labor. Sterling facilitates the meetings so the departments can work together to improve services to children and youth in Maine.

“It’s never easy going back to college as an older adult because of the financial obligations and work obligations and relationships — life — and it became more expensive,” Sterling said. “But I’ve always wanted a degree, and I’ll probably go on to get my masters as well.”

Sterling said one of the biggest reasons she came to UMaine was the variety of courses available online.

“It’s just an incredibly convenient way for a person like me to also go to school and work on a degree. It’s brilliant,” Sterling said.

The Bachelor in University Studies is a self-designed degree. Sterling worked with Howard to put together a study of courses that related to her career, such as courses on child development, nutrition, education, sexuality and sociology.

“The course I took in nutrition was incredible,” Sterling said. “It helped me to really understand a huge thing that is going on with child obesity in Maine and in my community. I am very much a part of groups that are working on that problem.”

She has volunteered as co-chair for the Greater Waterville Communities for Children and Youth Coalition since its opening in 1996. Under her leadership, the coalition has received more than $5 million in grants for youth development.

“Back in 1999, [the coalition] learned that less than 23 percent of kids reported that they had a positive adult role model in their lives. So we partnered with Colby College and started probably one of the best mentoring programs in the country,” Sterling said.

Since then, schools such as the University of Maine, Bowdoin College, the University of New England and the University of Southern Maine have implemented the mentor program at their institutions. Currently, over 400 Colby students are paired with children in 13 different locations, mentoring them twice a week in after-school programs.

The coalition concentrates on the needs of the greater Waterville area, but Sterling also has a statewide view of children’s needs from her full-time job as a primary member of the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet and has ambitions to work nationally on positive youth development.

A couple years ago, the coalition, in partnership with non-profit organization Hardy Girls Healthy Women, created a community action kit and documentary about the harassment of gay and lesbian youth, which has been distributed nationally. All Maine schools received a free copy of the documentary and a Web site, uglyducklings.org, was created for the project.

“It’s probably one the projects I am proudest of,” Sterling said.

“Not only is she learning, but the children of Maine are benefiting at the same time, which is really great,” said Sterling’s coworker Susan Savell, executive director of Communities for Children and Youth.

“It’s just been an amazing process to watch her work both day and night to do her job and get this degree. She has just been tireless,” Savell said.

“She really is very deserving of such an award,” said Maine’s first lady Karen Baldacci, chairwoman of the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet. “If it was a national award, I can’t imagine anyone doing anything more. I think the governor’s and my days are pretty full, but I think her days are just as full or busier.”

“It’s just been a long journey, as it is for most non-traditional students who attempt to complete an education in the midst of enormous life responsibilities,” Sterling said. “As an American and a person committed to learning constantly, [graduation] is a major milestone and I believe that it should be for everybody.”