Ask someone to describe the average college student, and chances are they'll paint a picture of young, naive men and women -- baby-faced and just starting out in life.
Not everyone on the University of Florida campus, however, is between the traditional college ages of 18 and 22. Some are juggling jobs, families and classes. Some are taking their first college class long after their children have already finished their degrees.
Take Elaine Kirk, a 56-year-old mother of three Gator grads. Her kids are grown, and she works in a Gainesville clothing store and teaches horseback riding. She is a lively woman with a self-described "cotton head of hair."
And she's a UF undergrad.
"When people my age were young, women were expected to get married, have a family and stay home," Kirk says.
Kirk did just that, working full time as a homemaker and part time teaching competitive horseback riding to adults. Her children grown, Kirk realized several years ago that her instincts could only take her so far, and she wanted to go further.
For instance, while teaching horseback riding, she realized that once people get beyond the age of 25, they have limitations or their range of motion isn't good. "I thought it would be really helpful if I knew what bones were connected to this or that," Kirk says.
So she signed up for an anatomy class in UF's College of Health and Human Performance. The anatomy course piqued her curiosity and led to a course in physiology, which led to another course.
"And by then I was sort of on this track," Kirk says. She decided to stick with it and actually earn a degree in exercise and sport sciences.
When Kirk started taking classes at UF, she joined a growing number of "nontraditional" students who face a variety of challenges that average students do not. Many are finishing off that first degree, while others are working on their master's degree or a doctorate. And some are here for the simple joy of learning.
UF's Office for Student Services defines "students over the traditional age" as undergraduates older than 25 and graduate or professional students who are about 30 and older. James Costello, UF's assistant dean for student services, says this group is proportionally one of the fastest growing groups of students on campus, though not the largest.
The UF registrar's office reports that of 30,207 undergraduate students registered for the fall 1996 term, 2,180 -- or 7.2 percent -- are over age 25. Student ages range from a very tender 13 years old to the most senior student who is taking classes at the age of 75.
Costello works with such nontraditional students, providing counseling and referrals to other resources. He says most older students are concentrating on finishing an undergraduate degree, and encounter problems that other students may never realize.
Older students often have pressures of a family and possibly a full-time job. Time is always in short supply, so much so that a campus organization formed to help older students cope with a lack of time -- Students Over the Traditional Age (SOTA) -- disbanded at the beginning of the fall 1996 term because its members lacked the spare time to run the group.
"Time is the common denominator," says Costello. "When students are on campus, their life is very structured. They come in, they park, they go to school, they finish their course work and then they get out of here and go home -- maybe in time to pick up their kids, maybe they share that responsibility with someone."
Time, especially for her kids, is the biggest priority and challenge for Donna Sabis-Ferson, a 31-year-old single mother and education major. With only so many hours in the day, she tries to balance having time for her kids, herself and her studies.
"I don't have a lot of time to socialize and I don't need that. I have my priorities: my kids, my school and my family," she says.
Sabis-Ferson is a single mom with two spirited children, Bridgette, 10, and Brian, 4. She works on keeping up with her schooling and her kids while living with her mother.
Like many other nontraditional students, Sabis-Ferson had taken several courses at a variety of community colleges and universities before going back into the classroom full time. When she initially did, she was living in Wisconsin and married.
"I had my two kids and was working for an insurance agent," she says. "Then I said, `There's more to life, and I really need a degree.'"
But the pressures of a full-time job combined with going to school full time proved too much for the family.
"My husband couldn't understand why I was putting so much effort into school," Sabis-Ferson says. "I had to study and I needed help raising the kids."
So she returned to Gainesville as a single parent to fulfill a longtime ambition.
"I want to be a teacher," Sabis-Ferson says. "I made that decision a long time ago and now I'm actually pursuing my dream."
Now she plays two roles -- full-time mom and full-time student.
Organizing their lives for the best interests of themselves and their families is a common problem for older students. They have to face the fact that there are consequences of returning to school at a later age.
"It's a matter of readjusting priorities and dealing with the consequences -- positive, negative or neutral -- of those choices," says Costello. "Sometimes it makes people reevaluate their choices. It's an ongoing adjustment factor."
Another hurdle for students outside the mainstream is connecting with their younger counterparts. Since many older students commute and don't spend a lot of time on campus, they often feel isolated.
"Nontraditional students describe feelings of not being a part of the University of Florida community," Costello says. "They feel very different in the classroom."
Costello says older students are challenged on two levels. First, they are not socially involved with the younger students. Second, because they have been out of school for so long, older students wonder if they can compete with the 17- to 24-year-olds.
Sabis-Ferson says she also wondered how she would measure up -- initially.
"My first semester I was very scared as to how I could compete with these other kids," she says. "But I think my background and my knowledge have helped me stop and put things together and say, `OK, that makes sense.'"
The realization that they have been out of the saddle for a few years tends to make older students focus more on getting an education.
"They are more focused in terms of career," Costello says. "They'll say, `This is the career path I want with my degree.'"
Sabis-Ferson says she has noticed that older students in her classes are more interested in learning.
"I always sit in the front of the class because I like to be more focused on the teacher," she says. "I've watched other nontraditional students in the classroom and they all have the same traits. They ask more specific questions -- they want to know more."
She thinks older students also have certain rites of passage out of the way, allowing them to concentrate on getting an education. She looks at the younger kids in her classes planning their weekends and discussing who likes who, and remembers when she was in their shoes.
"They're finding their independence," Sabis-Ferson says. "That's important, because I think college is a learning experience for these younger kids. Part of college is not education, it's growing.
"That's a part of my life that I've already done," she says.
So older students have sown their wild oats and are able to concentrate on learning. Is this the only advantage to being in college later in life? Not necessarily, says Kirk.
"I look at them [in class] and some of their questions are myopic only because these people haven't lived long enough," Kirk says. "I understand that."
Like most older students, Kirk must work with people as young as her own children. Yet overall, she says most students have been very accommodating and accepting of her.
"Kids are generally very nice, once they get over the initial shock," Kirk says. "I've never encountered any problems.
"I've found all along that when I'm just about ready to say, `Why am I here, why did I do this,' somebody comes up and says `We'll help. Would you like to join us?' It's real nice."
Older students juggle their ever-changing schedules with their eye constantly on the carrot at the end of the stick -- a degree and the opportunity for a better job.
But Sabis-Ferson says that being in school as a single mom does have its advantages. At night, homework time is a family affair.
"We sit down and my son asks for crayons and he'll sit there and draw, and Bridgette will go over her reading, and I'll sit there and study," Sabis-Ferson says. "That knocks out two birds with one stone -- it's spending time together and it's also getting done what we have to get done."
Sabis-Ferson says Bridgette recently brought home her first report card with mostly As.
"I know it has something to do with me showing an interest in school and the importance of school," she says.
Bridgette, who at 10 enjoys spelling and plans on being a doctor, likes studying when her mom sits down to do her work.
"Studying together is kind of family-like -- me, mom and Brian," Bridgette says. "When I need some help she just scoots over to me [to help]."
A recent Chronicle of Higher Education study reports that 80 percent of adults lack a college degree. With more adults venturing back into the classroom, it seems the changing environment would encourage adults without a degree to take the plunge.
"I talk to people my age who say, `I would like to go back to school but I can't do it.'" Sabis-Ferson says. "I feel like a lot of people who want to go back are afraid."