Graduation
is anytime at CAPS
Friday, January 20, 2006 • BY
KATHLEEN G. SUTCLIFFE • Star-Ledger
Staff
For the third time in four years,
Rosemarie Goetsch will pull on her cap and gown tomorrow and
march to the strains of "Pomp and Circumstance."
A graduate of Centenary College's Center
for Adult and Professional Studies, the 61-year-old
Stillwater resident has received -- in quick succession --
an associate's, bachelor's and now a master's degree through
the school's accelerated degree program.
Tomorrow's ceremony marks the first
January commencement in Centenary's 138-year history and has
been added to the traditional May graduation to accommodate
the growth of the CAPS program, which funnels participants
through year-round courses in groups of 14 to 22
students.
"We're starting students every week and
graduating students every week," said Bryon Grigsby,
Centenary's vice president for strategic implementation and
professional programs. "Since we're graduating students all
year long, we should provide them other points of
celebration."
The more than 100 degree recipients will
include undergraduate and graduate students from the main
campus in Hackettstown; The CAPS learning centers in
Parsippany and Iselin; and Humber College in Canada, which
has a partnership with Centenary. About 10 students who took
courses in China also will receive their MBA
degrees.
New Jersey state Sen. and Mayor of
Bayonne Joseph Doria will be the commencement
speaker.
The CAPS program, which is designed for
adults who work full time, has grown swiftly in the seven
years since it opened its doors in 1999 to 99 students.
There are now 800 students enrolled in the program's three
centers.
The key to the program's growth is
simple, said Grigsby -- "It fits the lives of working
adults."
The typical college calendar, with its
three-month summer break, can pose an obstacle to working
adults interested in getting a degree as quickly as
possible, Grigsby said.
"The traditional college is set up on a
semester-based system so the kids can get home to plow the
fields in the summer," Grigsby said. "That's just not
applicable to some students."
CAPS students take weekly classes, and
meet with classmates outside of those sessions to complete
group projects.
Grigsby said CAPS students traveling to
the center's far-flung locations affectionately refer to
themselves as the Route 80 and Parkway "road
warriors."
Goetsch, who was among that first class
of 99 students, said she became used to the commute from
work to school to home.
A service representative with Onyx
Environmental Services in Mount Olive, Goetsch decided to
pursue an associate's degree after her daughter and husband,
who both held advanced degrees, talked her into
it.
"It kind of started out as a whim,"
Goetsch said. "Then it became a little
competition."
But Goetsch, who went straight to
secretarial school after graduating from high school in
1962, said she also saw the benefit to updating her
skills.
"I was in my 50s and everybody was
downsizing. You hear all these horror stories," Goetsch
said.
Her husband, former Sussex County
Freeholder Bill Goetsch, passed away in 2000, less than a
year into her studies. But Goetsch kept going, missing only
four sessions in six years of classes.
"I buried my husband on a Friday and went
to class the following Tuesday night." Goetsch said. "It
filled a void in my life, in a way."
After she earned her associate's in 2001,
Goetsch went on to add a bachelor's degree in business and
an MBA to her collection.
Goetsch said she plans to work until
she's 70 by keeping her skills current.
"Today you have to keep young," Goetsch
said. "You have to keep your mind going."
Kathleen Sutcliffe covers Hack ettstown. She may be
reached at ksutcliffe@starledger.com or (973) 539-7910.
© 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
|