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Fresh off a semester in Costa Rica and relaxing in her South Philadelphia home, Lynne-Marie Sanders is amazed to see that her life has nearly come full circle.
She is acing her college classes and has just been awarded a three-year, $30,000 scholarship to Arcadia University, where she intends to finish earning degrees in Spanish and cultural studies. The student is looking forward to applying both disciplines in her career.
What makes all of this a bit unusual is that Sanders is 37 years old.
While it’s not unheard of for people in their 30s and beyond to head back to school, Sanders traveled a particularly obstacle-laden path to get a second chance at success.
Her first attempt at college ended after only one year at Mansfield University, after she became pregnant with her daughter, Maria, now a teenager herself.
"Having a daughter at 18 was not part of my original plan," Sanders said. "It was hard work. I later went through a divorce and lost a lot of friends in the process."
Sanders persisted through adversity, though, and was determined to make a good life for Maria and herself. Just when she seemed set on a steady course, she ran into a spate of bad luck that including losing three jobs in three years.
"I hit a rough patch for a while," Sanders explained. "I had a great job at IBM, but they moved. I landed a job at the Computer Learning Center, but they closed. Then I worked as a business manager for a Center City law firm, but in February of 2002 they were sold to another firm and my job was eliminated."
It’s a story that any blue-collar Philadelphian can relate to: struggling to make ends meet and providing for your child in the face of an ever-changing and shrinking job market.
As Sanders tried to find a new job, she quickly faced the reality that without a degree at her age, it was next to impossible to find a good-paying position.
"I was usually told that I was either too qualified for a job or that I was simply underqualified. It became really discouraging after a little while."
Slightly depressed, Sanders was searching the Internet for opportunities when she came upon the Community College of Philadelphia Web site. The college was offering anyone who had lost a job in the post-Sept. 11 business climate a free 12 credits of summer programs.
With nothing else left to lose, Sanders scrounged up enough money to take 18 credits and eventually qualified for some grants in her first year.
She acknowledged that her return to college initially brought on some jitters. After being away from homework and quizzes for nearly 20 years, she wasn’t even sure if she could pass her classes.
Her fears were soon erased. Sanders breezed through her classes and quickly amassed a perfect 4.0 grade-point average. The school, she said, became the catalyst for change in her life.
Aided by the wisdom that can only come with age and experience, Sanders encouraged her younger classmates to concentrate and make the most of their time in college.
"Look, I’m 37 years old. I want to be here and I figure, why settle for mediocre grades?" she said. "I try to tell the younger kids that they shouldn’t waste their time. Unfortunately, a lot of them think of CCP as 13th grade."
As she was succeeding at the community college, Sanders had her eye on continuing her education at a four-year university. Without a job, though, money was a huge problem.
She badgered CCP administrators into having a scholarship contest that would tie in with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, the Lansdowne, Va., organization that awards scholarships to community college students who want to further their education.
Sanders won the CCP’s scholarship contest and became a Jack Kent Cooke finalist. She was in class one day when the foundation called to inform her that she had been awarded a three-year, $30,000 scholarship to attend the college of her choice.
It seemed that finally, Lady Luck had smiled on Sanders.
She intends to continue to major in Spanish and minor in cultural studies, two subjects that serve as indicators as to where Sanders intends to go after college.
"There was a time where I wouldn’t have known what to do with a Spanish degree. But I now realize that it would enable me to start a nonprofit organization that could be devoted to cultural awareness."
Cultural awareness matters to Sanders on several levels.
"I’m the mother of a biracial child, and I know what she’s gone through in her life. People have given her a hard time just because she’s different."
Sanders’ study of Spanish and her experiences in Mexico and Costa Rica have given her an appreciation of the prejudices Hispanics face.
"I think a lot of people in this city tend to assume that all Hispanics are lazy drunks who don’t work. I’ve had enough firsthand experience to know that it is simply not the case," she said.
Sanders hopes to use her degrees to run a cultural awareness program that would begin teaching children at an early age that differences can be positive.
"Philadelphia has so much to offer in the way of cultural diversity, yet we tend to divide ourselves into our own neighborhoods, never wishing to learn what it’s like for other people," she said. "It’s unfortunate, but most of our city has yet to realize that diversity is a good thing."
Thanks to the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, Sanders believes she will have the chance to one day influence change in her area.
For now, though, she is enjoying her second go-round at college and is looking forward to studying abroad again in January, this time with visits to Mexico, Spain and Argentina.
"Like everyone else, I’ve had my ups and downs," she said. "I’m just cherishing the chance to do now what I wanted to when I was 18. And it’s amazing."
