Usually, it is uncommon to work at the same place your kid goes to school. But what if it鈥檚 not just one kid, it鈥檚 both of your kids, and your husband too!? This fall, NHCC Philosophy faculty, Patricia Diamond experienced exactly that.
In the 2019-2020 academic year, no one in Patricia鈥檚 family was a student at NHCC. But in 2020, her husband started an NHCC chain reaction.
At age 71, Patricia鈥檚 husband, John (in addition to working), was a student at the University of Minnesota. He was taking the classes he needed to prepare for starting his master鈥檚 degree next fall. One class he needed to take was Statistics. To John, acing Statistics was important and he wanted more personal help from instructors and tutors. He decided to enroll in Statistics at NHCC and in January, he will be taking Physiology.
It didn鈥檛 take long before the rest of Patricia鈥檚 family joined in. 鈥淥ne by one they kept saying, 鈥楾hat sounds like a good plan,鈥 referring to attending school at NHCC.鈥
Patricia鈥檚 son Sam, was a sophomore at University of Minnesota. He had enjoyed a taste of the freshmen experience and this year was living off campus. He discovered that the U of MN was not offering many in-person classes and tuition had not been reduced. Sam wasn鈥檛 a fan of the U of MN鈥檚 online courses and he wanted to do school more economically, while he works part-time. After thinking it over, still as a U of MN student (with his spot held) Sam enrolled at NHCC as a sophomore. 鈥淣HCC is perfect for him. He鈥檚 taking three classes this fall, with three more classes in the spring, and they鈥檙e all transferrable credits.鈥
Last to jump on the bandwagon, was Patricia鈥檚 daughter, Claire. She鈥檚 a high school student, who gets good grades. This year, she wanted to branch out. Following in her family鈥檚 footsteps, Claire decided to also enroll at NHCC. Right now, she is taking two classes at NHCC and two classes at her high school. (Taking classes at NHCC is a good equivalent to taking AP classes). 鈥淣HCC classes work well for her. She likes to do her school work at the times that work best for her, and she鈥檚 been very impressed with her instructors. Making this switch gave her the freedom she was looking for and was smart from an academic standpoint.鈥
Everyone in Patricia鈥檚 family has been impressed with their instructors. They have found that NHCC instructors are very receptive to student questions. Patricia says, 鈥淲e all laugh at going to school together. Of course, we thought we鈥檇 be carpooling. But we鈥檙e all in the same house and all get the same NHCC emails.鈥 Sometimes one of them might have the same instructor for a course and they compare experiences. For Patricia鈥檚 family, money was the biggest deciding factor. She has a faculty member deal for her son, classes for her daughter are free through PSEO and her husband gets a senior discount. 鈥淚t鈥檚 funny, because all four of us can be logged into D2L at once. John in the living room, Claire upstairs, Sam in the basement and myself in the dining room! It has worked out extremely well.鈥