General Studies Is Second Largest Major At UConn-Avery Point

Georgie McGlinchey got as far as intermediate algebra in high school, but the class probably doesn’t exist anymore, it’s been so long.

She said she was the only one in her 50s taking math at the University of Connecticut at Avery Point, when the professor recently passed out the first exam.

“My eyes glazed over, and then I had a hot flash,” said McGlinchey, 56. “And I started laughing. I thought, how many people have a hot flash when they’re taking an algebra test?”

Possibly more than she realizes. The bachelor of general studies program at UConn-Avery Point enrolls 160, and is the largest major on campus besides freshmen with undeclared courses of study, said Nancy Steenburg, assistant director of degree completion programs at Avery Point.

The students range in age from 20 to more than 70 years old. Steenburg, who teaches history, had a 72-year-old student comment during her World War II lesson.

“This student would raise his hand and say ‘Do I have to stay for this? I lived through it,’ ” she said.

The general studies program enrolls about 1,000 statewide, and the median age is 37 years old. It's a liberal arts degree, so students must meet all of UConn’s general education requirements. If they attend full time, they can finish in four semesters; most go part time and also work.

About one-third of those in general studies at Avery Point are veterans. The program is also serving more displaced workers from companies like Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, who previously had secure employment.

“Often, when they first meet me, they are terrified,” Steenburg said of general studies students. “I’ll say, ‘If you could suspend space and time, and money were no object, what would you want to be when you grow up?’ And they’ll laugh. But it also gives them freedom to reinvent themselves.”

Richard Cole, a political science professor who teaches a night class, said the students are devoted to their studies and bring life experience that enriches the class.

“For some of them, too, it ties into their current jobs,” he said. “They see it as a way to enhance themselves in their own profession, so they have a personal stake in it that a traditional student may not have.”

McGlinchey has four classes left. By this time next year, she hopes to be done. Her four daughters are in their 20s.

For many years, school was simply unfinished business. She grew up outside Buffalo, N.Y., enrolled in college at the State University of New York in Potsdam, but dropped out her junior year. Her father became sick with cancer, and she had a bad semester, she said.

“It was overwhelming and I didn’t know what I was doing,” she said. She didn’t go back.

She moved to Rochester, took a job at a college, and married at age 24. Then she had a baby and decided to stay home. The couple had three more children.

The family moved to Connecticut in 1984, when her husband got a job at General Dynamics. McGlinchey worked various jobs from home; selling Tupperware, watching other people’s children, selling clothing she’d sewn.

She re-entered the workforce when her children were in kindergarten; first working for the Department of Environmental Protection, and briefly as a teaching assistant, then as a sales associate in a clothing store.

But illness struck her family. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 43. In 2003, her 19-year-old daughter was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, Lupus and Sjogren’s Syndrome, an autoimmune disease. Next, McGlinchey’s mother became sick; she died in 2008. McGlinchey said her parents had wanted her to finish college.

In 2010, McGlinchey’s marriage ended. 

She said she'd always thought about school, and she decided to pursue it. She wanted to finish for her parents, for herself, and for her future job search. She made an appointment at the University of Connecticut at Avery Point, and met Steenburg.

“You have a few moments in life that you (look back) and say, ‘This changed my life.’ You turned a corner,” McGlinchey said. “And that was my initial meeting with her.”

They talked about possibilities and internships, and she left feeling energized and hopeful.

She had to get used to taking classes with students young enough to be her children, she said. But McGlinchey said she made wonderful friends and has enjoyed the experience.

She has a 4.0 grade point average.

She hopes to become a mediator someday. She said she'll finish her bachelor of general studies first, then concentrate on any further education she needs.

“I would encourage anyone who's thinking about (college) to go to Nancy (Steenburg) and have a conversation, because it's changed my life,” McGlinchey said. “It’s almost been like a fountain of youth, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.”