by Vickie Becker, EdD
By far, on most weekday evenings when our Azusa Pacific University (APU) Murrieta adult age college students are taking classes, I encounter amazing students who demonstrate a high degree of resilience, that ability to “work through difficulty” that is all too common in adult life. After all, signing up to be a student doesn’t mean that other adult life responsibilities and challenges stop, it does mean that new ways of dealing with multiple challenges are required.
Here are some personal management methods I’ve seen adult students utilize to enhance their resiliency and not get academically derailed:
1. Develop Good Time Management Habits. Adults know that managing this limited resource called time is a requirement in order to be productive. But, think of what it is like to be called on to add the time it takes to attend class and then study and do homework. Now we are quite easily looking at an additional 15 to 18 hours of each week dedicated to academic work. Time management specialists show that in order to meet time demands we need to determine what is urgent and what is important. Identifying what is important can keep us from landing in the time-management danger zone where the urgent keeps us from the important.
2. Get to Know and Use Your College’s Academic Resources. Adult students, typically, return to higher education with a high level of workplace skills and accomplishments but they know very little about university life that offers additional academic support. For example, at Azusa Pacific University we have a thriving “Learning Enrichment Center” that provides individual and group tutoring that empowers students to become more confident, effective, and independent learners.
3. Participate in a Welcoming Learning Community. By definition, a learning community is a group of people, even a very small group of people, who share common academic goals and attitudes. I’ve seen these groups form naturally at the APU Murrieta Regional Center. Students who start out the academic term as individuals soon find like-minded students to collaborate on course work and support each other.
While these three personal management methods are not necessarily easy, I’ve seen them increase a student’s likelihood of completing a degree and reduce dropping out. Resiliency does have it benefits.
Vickie Becker, EdD, is the Executive Director for the Azusa Pacific University Murrieta Regional Center. She may be reached at 951.304.3400 or murrieta@apu.edu
