The Studying Agrees With Returning Scholar
Illawarra Mercury
Tuesday June 24, 2008
A major shift in her life caused Debbie Jensen to re-evaluate her future.
She decided to complete the university degree she had left behind more than 20 years before, and has not left the University of Wollongong since.The 44-year-old now tutors politics and is undertaking her PhD."At the time, I was looking around for options and a future," she said."I had done university back in Denmark and dropped out to become a political activist, so I was looking around for ways in which to get in," she said.Ms Jensen said she considered sitting the Special Tertiary Admissions Test and going straight into university, but when she read about the University Access Program, she decided it was a good way to ease back into the rigours of full-time study."I'd been out of the system for such a long time and because I wanted to make absolutely sure it would happen for me I chose the program," she said."The program had not been going for long, but I applied, was lucky enough to receive a scholarship and I haven't looked back since then. I've made the university my home."Ms Jensen said the intensity of the program was a good preparation for life at university."Not only do they brush up on certain things like essay writing and research skills, they give you a crash course in what it's like to be at university, what it means to study and what a scholar is," she said.Ms Jensen said tutoring first-year students who come straight out of high school gave her a fresh insight into how much of a head start the UAP offered people."These kids often have got no idea, and many of them are used to doing really well at high school. They just crash and can't understand why," she said."The UAP actually teaches you where everything is so by the time I started my Bachelor of Arts, I knew where the library was, I knew how to find resources, I knew how to conduct database research because the program gave me those skills."Ms Jensen said the first six months of university study was the most overwhelming for students regardless of their age. Feeling a part of a community was often the only thing that kept undergraduates from quitting."That sense of feeling like they belong is something these students often don't get," she said."That is very important in the first year where everything is tumultuous and nobody is holding your hand," "In the UAP, we went through together and knew each other. We were a very close group by the end of the course." Ms Jensen said the UAP gave her the confidence to pursue study as a career."I decided to stay on in my third year - not only had I enjoyed very much the years at Wollongong, I didn't really want to go anywhere else," she said." I started to see beyond the ideas I was writing about in my essays, and got the itch for making my own research."But I believe if I hadn't had the UAP, I think I would have struggled much more and it would have taken me more years and who knows if I would be here doing what I love."
© 2008 Illawarra Mercury
