College Life for Henry

James Hamar
August 4, 2009

A few weeks ago, the Student Experience Lab team sat down at the BIF offices to talk to Henry, a current student at a technical college.  His educational journey has always been filled with support from family and friends, and his inquisitive nature has lead him to graduate from a cooking school, attend a community college, and also attend a technical school.  We met Henry one afternoon when he arrived at the offices to do housekeeping work—Henry is employed by the company BIF pays to keep our small office clean.  Henry’s experience is like so many—he works hard to pay for school and takes his education seriously. It doesn’t always move fast enough in this scenario—working is a distraction from his work as a budding computer scientist.  Henry’s attitude, however, is balanced and he remains optimistic about what comes next.  It is easy to forget about students like Henry because they are in many ways invisible.  You won't find him at the Frat house or partying in Ft. Lauderdale during spring break.  That’s because when he’s not studying or in class, he’s living a busy life full of responsibility.

I took away three major themes from our conversation with Henry:

1.  Having a supportive family structure really helped motivate him to pursue a degree.  Neither of his parents completed college, yet they demanded Henry attend and finish some kind of degree program.  Even though his journey has had high and low points, his father has been especially supportive to keep him motivated to finish.  Henry believes that by completing college, he can serve as a role model to his family and friends, and hopes that his younger relatives make the commitment to go to school.

2.  His friends were a huge part in his decision to go to college.  They helped him through the application process.  He is not a native speaker of English, and his friends were able to help him navigate the system to accomplish what he wanted to do.  He said that his friends showed him around the campus, and opened his eyes to the potential opportunity of going to a community or technical college.

3. Henry was not personally satisfied with his cooking education, but loves computers.  He decided to switch over to study computer science not only because he liked to do it, but because he understood that a technology-based job could mean higher pay for him in the future.  He uses the facilities available to him as much as possible: He stays late for extra help, he uses online resources for learning, and collaborates with other students to solve problems.  He likes the smaller classes offered at his current school, and is intimidated by larger classes.  Henry told us that being in a lecture hall and not being able to ask questions during the learning process is a problem, which is why he appreciates the one on one time with his teachers and peers.

Many thanks to Henry for spending time talking with us, and look forward to hearing more about his experiences at Lincoln Tech.