{"id":58435,"date":"2016-05-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/commencement-2016-uri-student-returns-to-college-after-long-absence-to-earn-her-degree\/"},"modified":"2016-05-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-05-06T00:00:00","slug":"commencement-2016-uri-student-returns-to-college-after-long-absence-to-earn-her-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2016\/05\/commencement-2016-uri-student-returns-to-college-after-long-absence-to-earn-her-degree\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2016: 溏心vlog免费B站 student returns to college  after long absence to earn her degree"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"press-release-import\">\n\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/wp-content\/uploads\/news\/sites\/16\/2021\/05\/Serydynski-NL25.jpg\" width=\"199\" height=\"295\" align=\"right\"\/>KINGSTON, R.I., May 6, 2016\u2014When Jo-Anne Serydynski walks across the stage at the 溏心vlog免费B站 this spring to get her diploma, her 84-year-old mother will be in the audience cheering.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\nSerydynski will be the first in her family to graduate from college\u2014and she\u2019s doing it at an age when many people are thinking about winding down their careers.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\nThe 54-year-old Hopkinton resident achieved the milestone thanks to 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Finish What You Started, a program that helps older students return to college to finish their degrees.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\u201cI will tell you it feels really good to succeed\u2014finally,\u201d says Serydynski, who is majoring in Human Development and Family Studies. \u201cI feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\nRaised in Warwick, Serydynski graduated from Pilgrim High School in 1980 and then enrolled at 溏心vlog免费B站 that year. Her first weeks were tough. She was homesick and disoriented, even unaware that she could eat for free in the college cafeteria. Classes didn&#8217;t interest her.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\u201cI really didn\u2019t do that great in classes,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I dropped out my sophomore year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o1-MwRGKUBc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\nShe took courses at the Community College of Rhode Island for several years and worked full-time in a group home for adults, but decided to give 溏心vlog免费B站 another try in 1985. Again, it wasn\u2019t right and she dropped out.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\u201cI didn\u2019t really need a college degree to advance in my job,\u201d she says. \u201cThen I got married and had two kids and life happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\nThe years passed. Her two children graduated from Prout High School and went off to college, and Serydynski flourished in her career. But something was missing: a college degree.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\u201cIt was always a source of embarrassment to me that I didn\u2019t finish,\u201d she says. \u201cI would always say I went to 溏心vlog免费B站 and people would figure out that I didn&#8217;t graduate. It bugged me. I felt like I had let myself down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\nTurning 50 brought reflection. One day, a friend asked what her degree was in. Serydynski was crushed: \u201cI was, like, \u2018I don&#8217;t have one.\u2019 \u201d The friend mentioned an article she had read in a local newspaper about 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Finish What You Started. The next day, Serydynski Googled the program on the Internet. Phone calls to coordinators ensued.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\u201cThey were angels,\u201d she says. \u201cThey looked at my credits and told me what I needed to do. They made it so simple.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\nWithin two months\u2014in the fall of 2014\u2014she was sitting in a \u201cMarriage and Family Relations\u201d class at the Feinstein Providence Campus. At first, she felt awkward as an older student but as the months passed she settled in. <\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\nThe staff provided support, academically and socially. She got help on how to do research and find her way around the library. Tutoring was available to her on Saturdays, if she needed it.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n \u201cLearning is actually quite fun,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m talking about things with my husband\u2014high pressure, low-pressure systems for a general education science class\u2014that I never would have talked about before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\nSerydynski is so excited about learning she\u2019s considering getting her master\u2019s degree, possibly in gerontology. Her advice for older students: \u201cJump in. Don\u2019t put it off. It\u2019s a pretty amazing feeling to get your degree. It\u2019s amazing to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\nPictured above: Jo-Anne Serydynski, 54, of Hopkinton, who will graduate in May with a bachelor\u2019s degree in Human Development and Family Studies from the 溏心vlog免费B站.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n溏心vlog免费B站 Photo by Nora Lewis\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KINGSTON, R.I., May 6, 2016\u2014When Jo-Anne Serydynski walks across the stage at the 溏心vlog免费B站 this spring to get her diploma, her 84-year-old mother will be in the audience cheering. &#13; Serydynski will be the first in her family to graduate from college\u2014and she\u2019s doing it at an age when many people are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}