Ufemia Bernal Rios returned to UNM-LA to further her education, where she participated in the Community Internship Collaboration. Through that experience she was offered a job. She continues to take classes while working in Los Alamos. Photo by Nancy Coombs/UNMLAUNM-LA News:
Many adults have had to put aside or to put off their pursuit of a college degree because other duties have called upon them: taking care of family, raising children, moving to a new area or needing to work full-time.
But recent research from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that many are now finding their way back to campus with an expected 9.6 million students on college campuses who will be age 25 and older, making up 43 percent of campus enrollment. Students over age 35 are expected to account for 19 percent of college populations.
The reasons for taking the journey are many: returning to complete a degree or beginning one for the first time; wanting to upgrade job skills for a demanding market or change career paths; or simply for personal desire to learn.
With an average student age of 27, UNM-Los Alamos offers many pathways to accommodate journeys back to the college classroom. To meet the needs of students on a quick road to the job market, the campus offers one-semester certificates. Both the Personal Care Attendant (PCA) and the Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) are single-semester programs that feature hands-on, skills based learning techniques that train students for various healthcare settings. The PCA Program is designed to meet the basic requirements to provide patient care in a home or assisted living center and incorporates requirements necessary for students to pass the National Direct Care Givers Coalition certification exam.
Because students may have to balance home, family, and sometimes work, one of the challenges many adult students face is time management. To create less stress, UNM-LA has created several different vehicles for classwork, including online courses, one-meeting a week courses, and short-term courses.
UNM-Los Alamos has also developed many one-year certificates in key areas as Accounting, Business and Art Studio. Students can also pursue two year Associate of Applied Science degrees in Robotics, Electro-Mechanical Technology, IT-Cybersecurity and other programs designed to move straight to the work force. If a student wants to earn an Associate’s degree to eventually transfer to earn a Bachelor’s degree, UNM-LA provides several ways to achieve this whether a student is new to a degree or wishes to transfer credits already earned. The Associates of Art degree in Liberal Arts is one of the campus’s most popular transfer degrees as well as Associates in Pre-Engineering, Pre-Business, Pre-Professional Health, and Environmental Science.
The accomplishment of earning an education is one of the greatest journeys a person can take and UNM-Los Alamos has the programs and the resources help take students to their next destination.