Emergency room nurse Doris Coleman is used to dealing with matters quickly. Not so when it came to her university education. Coleman received her BA after 13 years of Trent study, all of it on the campus of Durham College in Oshawa.

Doris Coleman

      "I always take a course a year, sort of like a hobby," Coleman said in an interview from her Ajax home prior to Convocation. "Throughout the years I met others who have trudged along...I didn't think it was that great a deal," said the persevering student. Her major "hobby" interest at university was history.

      When she began taking courses in 1983, Coleman said she was accustomed to self-development from her nursing work which requires frequent educational updates. However, those work-related courses are often in the field of science, so her university education allowed less restrictive study. "I saw a history course that interested me and thought I could chip away at it (her degree)." With no time limit on completing her degree, Coleman began her pursuit at Durham, which she was familiar with as the site of her nursing program. Generally taking one course a year while working full-time 12-hour shifts at Ajax-Pickering Hospital - she even managed two courses one time -- selecting her courses according to her work schedule.

      Due to retire at the end of this summer, Coleman serves as an inspiration for other non-traditional students. "Maybe ... it's easier to express yourself," she says of enrolment as a mature student. "You're less inhibited."

      "I never felt out of place. I suppose because learning is universal. I was with older students in a history course on World War II that had veterans in it. My history of music had young students in their 20s -- heavy metal players. Because you have that diversity, I never felt out of place."

      In addition to her four university-educated children, their spouses and her brother from the States, Coleman's 10 grandchildren were to celebrate her graduation. As she challenged them: "Name someone who's been to their grandmother's graduation!"

      She plans to begin courses again in September, this time possibly in her interest areas of computer or piano. "It will be a little bit lighter."