A Non-Traditional Breed of the Non-Traditional Student: An Avila student at Rockhurst?
Dan Darling
Issue date: 12/9/05 Section: Human Interest
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"It's a really great class," she said in an interview with the Sentinel. "I've really enjoyed things so far. Dr. Meiers is a great instructor and I've always had an interest in politics and contemporary issues as they relate to popular culture. I've really appreciated getting a broader exposure to movies and novels I wouldn't have normally looked at, especially since it's for credit."
Most of the other students seem to share her assessment as they take part in the class, whether it's watching one of Dr. Meiers's films, discussing contemporary films, and learning more about the constitutional process as it relates to current events. Nicole, for example, particularly enjoys Dr. Meiers's regular handouts of reading material from a variety of news and opinion stories to help students understand different perspectives on local and national issues.
But Nicole Munoz isn't just any other Rockhurst University student. When she's not in Dr. Meiers's Politics in Fiction class or doing legal research, she's a full-time student at Avila University.
It's a phenomenon that a lot of Rockhurst students have noticed but most probably haven't given much in the way of thought. At any given time during the day, there are dozens of part-time students taking classes on campus. Some of them are adults out in the professional world who take classes they need for their jobs or else have decided to go back to school. Others are students themselves who have attended college in the past but want to complete a few more classes to complete or start working towards their own undergraduate degree. And still others like Nicole are already enrolled and well on their way to completing their own undergraduate programs but also take courses at Rockhurst either out of convenience or because Rockhurst University offers classes that their own schools do not.
For Nicole, the latter issue was definitely a motivating factor.
"It's not like Avila doesn't have a great polisci program. But it certainly doesn't have anything like this class," Nicole explained, referring to Dr. Meiers's Politics in Fiction. "So when I looked at the list of polisci classes out there, that was the one that moved to the top of my list."