Lifelong Learning
Kathleen Starrs is just one of many students attending The University
College at Rockland, but one whose hard work and dedication may be an inspiration to us all. She has had a lifelong dream of attaining a Bachelor’s
Degree, and as a mother of four andmore than full time worker, she has found the courage and spunk to continue her education, and to fulfill her dream.
Kathleen’s collegiate journey started in the late 1970s, completing an
Associate in Science degree, in Nursing, and became a Registered Nurse. With two young children at the time, she decided not to pursue the full Bachelor’s degree and instead devoted herself fully to their raising.
As life continued, she remarried, started a farm business with her second
husband, and had two more children. She attempted to start school again
in the early 1990s, but realized that it was far too difficult to simultaneously pursue a Bachelor’s degree, while getting a farm business up and running successfully, and putting a full time effort into being a mother. Now, two of Kathleen’s daughters have college educations, and her youngest is currently a sophomore in the Mount Holyoke premed program. Her current goal is to attain her Bachelor’s Degree concurrently with her youngest daughter, if not before.
Now a proud grandmother, Kathleen still works to maintain the family farm and flower business, is the Penquis Headstart nurse for Knox County, and for the past three years she has been working towards her goal of personal betterment and education in earnest. She attends part time at the University College at Rockland seeking a Bachelor’s Degree in
Mental Heath and Human Services, with a minor in Childhood Development.
Kathleen considers herself a lifelong learner, and she wishes to set an example for her four grandchildren by continuing and completing her education. She stresses the value of credentials and of higher education in our society, and is grateful for the education that she is able to receive so close to home. Kathleen may not only serve as an inspiration to
her own family, but to all of us, for she is a shining beacon of hope, and living proof to all people young and old, that our lifelong desires may be attained if we persevere.
by Roland Robitaille – The SCENE, September 2012
