Tami Jandrowski

A full-time job, two kids, a disability — and now, a degree. 'I'm seriously pushing myself,' says Tami Jandrowski. 'Why go, if you're not going to get good grades?'

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"I love challenges," said Tami Jandrowski.

In that spirit, Ms. Jandrowski attends Carthage as an adult student, while working as an independent living coordinator and raising two children as a single mother. She is also legally blind.

The social work major is meeting her challenges very well, thank you, with a 3.60 grade point average.

"I'm seriously pushing myself," she said. "Why go, if you're not going to get good grades?"

Ms. Jandrowski was recognized May 3, 2009, at the College's Honors Convocation, where she was presented the Irene Kraemer Starting Over scholarship award. The award is given to a female student age 25 and older whose education was interrupted, but who returned to school to complete a degree at Carthage.

'I couldn't afford education back then'

Ms. Jandrowski is a Kenosha native who graduated from Reuther Alternative High School in 1988, then began working full time as a bank teller.

"It's not that I didn't want to go on," she said, noting that as a teenager she dreamed of becoming a mental health therapist. But she was already planning to get married. "I was saving for a wedding," she explained, "so I couldn't afford education."

For the next 15 years, Ms. Jandrowski stayed busy with volunteer work at her church and her children's schools.

"My kids were my priority, and still are," she said of Jacob, 14, and Miranda, 10. Miranda would provide motivation to spur Ms. Jandrowski to action, despite the handicap of degenerative retinal disorder, which has caused her eyesight to steadily deteriorate for the past 15 years.

"When my daughter started pre-school, I decided to go back to school too," she said. "I started with one class to ease myself back into it at Gateway Technical College." Once Ms. Jandrowski started, she didn't want to stop. She was divorced in 2006, "which is when I decided to take on school full-time." She received an associate degree in human services from Gateway in spring 2007, then enrolled at Carthage in the fall. "An associate degree will pay the bills, but now I have to put two kids through college," she said.

'Adult learning is a better fit for me'

Ms. Jandrowski considered psychology and social work as majors, before choosing the latter. "I figured I'd have more job opportunities in social work," she explained. She also tried the life of a full-time day student for her first two semesters at the College.

"I wanted to get as many classes done as possible," she said. "But I felt a little out of place as a 37-year-old in a classroom full of 19-year-olds."

Last summer, Ms. Jandrowski switched to become an evening student.

"I wanted my experience to be a comfortable one," she said. "Adult learning is a much better fit for me."

'It's not anything I can't handle'

Michael West, Carthage associate vice president for Adult Education, says Ms. Jandrowski was one of about 20 students nominated for the Irene Kraemer Starting Over award by Adult Education faculty or staff. Irene Kraemer, for whom the award is named, was an adult student herself who served as Dean of Adult Education from 1993 until her death in 2004. In that role she was a driving force behind the growth of evening and weekend study programs for adults at Carthage.

"It's a privilege working with students like Tami who returned to school to improve their professional standing and personal lives," Mr. West said.

Ms. Jandrowski says her classes at the College are "challenging, but not frightening. It's not anything I can't handle."

That unflappable attitude extends to her disability.

"Everyone is very helpful, students and staff," she said, "and very inquisitive, which doesn't bother me at all. If they're inquisitive, it means they want to be educated."

— Bill Kurtz, Carthage College

"I wanted to get as many classes done as possible, but I felt a little out of place as a 37-year-old in a classroom full of 19-year-olds. I wanted my experience to be a comfortable one. Adult learning is a much better fit for me."

— Tami Jandrowski