Mary Lea Castelbury
At 60, Mary Lea believes she is the oldest student in her classes. She plans to retire from her job in the business office at a large Midwestern university in the next three to five years.
But she won't be ready to devote herself to helping with the family farm full-time, or even indulging in her two hobbies, sewing and quilting. She has designs on a whole new career.
And she is earning her degree online from Western Illinois University to help her prepare. She thinks her master's degree in Instructional Design Technology will take her down an entirely different path.
A Board of Trustees program allowed Mary Lea to earn her bachelor's degree in general studies from WIU as well. A certificate from a professional secretary course netted 30 units that were applied to her degree.
"I took courses and CLEP-ed out of some courses," she explains. "I got notification in the mail that I was a senior! I thought why not finish this up?"
Her two older siblings, both educators, had always encouraged her to go to school. But it wasn't a priority when she graduated from high school. "All I thought about at the time was getting married," she says bashfully. "I actually never dated another person."
She is obviously a woman who knows a good thing when she sees it, and has the tenacity to stick with it. She has been married to the "same great guy" for 42 years. Raising two children, a daughter, 39, who is now a doctor employed with the USDA, and a son, 37, an educator, understandably took a great deal of her time.
In addition, she has always been responsible for the bookkeeping for the family business. "My husband farms for his mother, his brother, and two other people." She saw the necessity to get familiar with computer applications early on.
Her husband, who is tech-savvy, is an early adopter. "When the first home computers came out, he bought one," she recalls. "We took a computer programming class together." That piqued her interest in technology. Still, it would be some time before she began to rely on computers to complete her daily tasks.
"I was 40 years old before I worked outside the farm full-time," the Illinois native says. "When I walked in the door here we had three computers in the whole department." Twenty years later a lot has changed, and Mary Lea has changed along with the times.
Almost all facets are automated now. She scans documents that used to take up an enormous amount of space. Documents that generate checks, deposit slips, credit card statements for 200 campus staff, purchase orders from the art department to the athletic department—all pass through Mary Lea's capable hands.
All original records must be kept for six years. And then permission from the State of Illinois must be sought in order to destroy them.
She has embraced the technology that has freed up space and time and allowed massive amounts of documentation to be stored on thin CD's. "It's much easier now than when there were actual paper documents."
After receiving her bachelor's degree, she kept up the momentum and immediately enrolled in the master's degree program. She was on track to receive her master's in two and half to three years when tragedy struck.
Her sister-in-law fell ill with a brain tumor last April. Just six months later, in October 2006, they lost her. She left behind three little girls aged 10, 6, and 3. Now it is up to Mary Lea to help her brother-in-law raise them.
"It has been a re-education in mothering," she says with a mixture of emotion. A near forty-year break has left her a little out of practice at reading bedtime stories and getting children off to sleep.
Throughout the devastating illness and all that it meant for the family, Mary Lea managed to stay in school.
She took two writing courses last spring in which she earned A grades. This term she had to drop a course, but plans to take stock of her new responsibilities, and ease back into her coursework next term.
She looks forward to her studies. "It keeps me up on technology," she says of online education. Most classes make use of WebCT or Blackboard. Students post their work and participate in a group discussion.
"We have to be logged on as a unit," she explains. "Sometimes it's hard to set up a convenient time."
Assignments are problem-based. Students read a case and give their opinion on how the problem should be solved. "Depending on what your employment was, your background, and your experience, you respond very differently," she says of the diversity within the groups.
"There are some young, some middle-aged, and some older students. I was probably the oldest."
"When you've lived and worked and experienced things you have a different view," she says succinctly. "I tell it as I seen it."
"Some of them have never seen situations. They can only answer as to how they think they would." She admits that occasionally not everyone sees eye-to-eye on group projects or discussions. There have been disagreements.
"It really doesn't bother me," she says simply. "When you're not face to face, you're a little braver."
The freedom of being online instead of in person has been a real benefit. Instead of her education taking away from her hobbies, she has been able to combine the two. "We have an RV and I have a laptop," she says simply. She can work anywhere.
Some students log in from all over the world, she marvels. "I've never been outside of the continental United States. But while visiting my daughter in Maryland, I did check e-mail and keep track of assignments."
Her coursework in IDT focuses on extended learning, distance learning and web-based learning. Her current focus is structured independent learning. "I'm learning how to put lessons on CD-ROM and on the web." One class required her to build a web page complete with articles, photos, and links.
She does not yet have a definite plan as to how she will use her degree after retirement. But she knows she wants to help somewhere in the surrounding area.
She has already used some of her skills to write grants for medical equipment for the local ambulance company. She hails from a small county. The town to which she is closest has a population of only 800 people.
"Not all of them are in the electronic age," she says. There are classes available, however "some are geared toward people who have knowledge already. But some people just want to know how to write a letter, send a photo, or an e-mail."
She thinks there will be good use for her skills within her immediate community, or possible opportunities in the public school system or at the junior college level. Though she isn't sure just what the future holds, she has no plans to retire and just relax at home. "It's been 20 years since I've been home full-time," she laughs. "My husband and I just might kill each other."
"Interaction with people is valuable," she affirms. It is never too late for anybody to learn, she believes. "It's good to try new things." She has this advice for those considering an online course or degree, "If you even think you want to, try it."
