Knowing that working for the U.N. is highly competitive, Machina returned to school, but she was nervous to jump into a master’s program after being out of the classroom for two years.

Instead, she enrolled as a lifelong education student, an academic offering that allowed her to begin taking classes without pursuing any type of degree.

The lifelong education enrollment status is designed to accommodate students such as Machina who want to learn for any reason but do not want to pursue a degree.

Although the status comprises a small percentage of the university’s population, Associate Registrar Traci Gulick said it is an important part of MSU’s academic landscape.

“Lifelong is designed for anyone to take any of the courses,” Gulick said. “You could have a student here because they’re attending another university and want to transfer. You could have a student here who … just wants the knowledge. You may have a student that wants to take a nursing course because they’re a nurse now and never had that knowledge. It’s a wide variety of what they take. It’s dependent on their needs.”

A different target

The lifelong education enrollment status began in 1975 to accommodate adults who wanted to update professional skills. The status was targeted at those employed full time, those at home with children or any student outside the typical college demographic. This semester, there are 853 students enrolled in lifelong education, making up almost 2 percent of the university population. Some of these students are from the area, but more than half — including Machina, who lives in Pennsylvania — are out-of-state and international students. These long-distance students take their classes online.

Although lifelong education is for students not pursuing a degree, it frequently is used as a springboard for students who want to get a head start on classes before joining a degree-granting program.

Students can transfer up to nine credits from lifelong education to a graduate program and up to 16 to an undergraduate program.

Lori Fuller is one student using lifelong education as a starting point for a master’s program.

“I was a little bit too late to enroll in the master’s program, so it was a way to get a jump start and start classes while I was waiting for my application to be processed,” she said. “In general, it’s great to be able to get a jump start on a semester and get introduced to the program.”

Other students use lifelong education as a way to brush up on professional skills.

Currently a medical technologist at a lab in Maine, lifelong education student Tammy Poisson said her classes at MSU have helped her update her technical knowledge.

“It’s been a great class so far,” she said.

“We’ve had good learning material, and it’s been more related to what we do in the lab. It’s well integrated into our field of study. It just reinforces what you knew plus adds more depth and dimension.”

Apart from not pursuing a degree, lifelong education students are treated as ordinary students at the university.

“They still follow the same requirement as everyone else — prerequisites and stuff,” Gulick said. “The classes they take are the classes you take. The student sitting next to you in class could be a lifelong education student — you wouldn’t have any idea.”

Outside the classroom

Although their life at school is similar to that of other MSU students, life at home is very different for lifelong education enrollees, many of whom balance school with a full-time job, running a household, a relationship with a spouse or raising children.

“It is more difficult than just being a full-time student because (in my job) you don’t work your regular 9-5, and then you still have to go home and do your regular chores and then you have to do your homework,” Machina said.

“So it’s very challenging and takes a lot of discipline.”

When Machina got married, she struck a deal with her husband to wait to have children until after she finished her education because friends and colleagues told her that pursuing a graduate degree without children was difficult enough.

Another lifelong education student, Jackson resident Caleb Adams, the father of a 10-month-old girl, Kennedy.

He said raising a child while going back to school and still holding a full-time job is challenging.

“You sacrifice a lot of time with your family,” he said. “You miss out on a lot and you feel guilty even though you know you’re doing something that’s best for your family’s future, you still feel very guilty because you’re not there and you miss out on a lot of things.”

Despite the many demands on her time, Machina said the program is flexible and fits to her schedule.

“I’m able to do my work when I can and I don’t have to be restricted to going to class,” she said.

“So if I’m at work I can actually have my laptop with me and do my work while I have downtime or while I’m at lunch. And if I’m at home, I can do it anywhere. It’s better than being restricted to being in class for two hours (where) you can’t multitask.”

Machina said continuing her education has been essential to her current work and for her dream of working for the U.N., and MSU’s lifelong education option has made going back to school easier.

“(Lifelong education) gives me the basics (I) need to have to be in the department I work in,” she said. “It’s helped me hit the ground running.”