Purdue's Statewide offers
many alternatives for students
By Morgan Conklin
Summer
Reporter
For most recent graduates summer started a week
ago, but 12 Purdue students received their diplomas Thursday night.
Purdue’s Statewide School of Technology is
different from Purdue’s West Lafayette campus in many ways.
It is a new school, founded in 1996, that offers
courses that are scheduled to fit the demands of individuals who are
typically parents or full-time employees of a job. Unlike Purdue’s
West Lafayette campus where students enroll immediately after high school,
the average student who attends Statewide is 24 years of age or older.
The classes meet for three hours once a week for
16 weeks and upon completion of each course the students receive three
Purdue course credits.
Because the students have other full-time commitments,
they usually take one to two classes each semester. Therefore, it will
usually take 4.5 years for them to graduate, whereas traditional students
can earn their degree in four.
Even though most students limit the classes they
take, Barb Kershner, an instructor at Statewide, said they currently
have two full-time students taking classes.
To cater to the busy schedules of these students,
the school has begun to offer a web-based course. It has only been in
effect for the past week, but Kershner said she is very optimistic of
the effectiveness this course will have on meeting the demands of the
students.
"We are not comprising education," she
said. "There will still be the same timed quizzes that students
would take in regular classes."
Another difference is the class size at the school.
The largest class ever offered at this school consisted of 48 people.
On average the class size does not exceed 12 students, and that makes
it a great learning environment for students, Kershner said.
The way the classes are instructed also sets it
apart from the traditional college experience. Usually students attending
Purdue have little hands-on experience because they have not had a chance
for full-time employment in the workforce.
However, many of the students who go through the
program are employed full-time by Subaru. Therefore, when class breaks
into discussion of workplace problems it is easy for the students to
relate to situations due to the hands-on experience they have had.
Since Subaru employs many of the students, the
program offers a course at the company for added convenience. They also
have school locations at Caterpillar and in Frankfurt.
After graduation, students tend to stay with the
job they are currently employed. However, they would usually see lateral
if not horizontal promotions after receiving their diploma, Kershner
said.
The one thing that amazes Kershner as she sees
students complete the program is the personal growth that they have
achieved. "I have seen insecure students come into the school and
after nine classes they are like ‘hey I can do this,’"
Kershner said. "Their confidence is like night and day, which is
something that you wouldn’t expect from an adult, and that is extremely
exciting."
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