Cortland certainly has a wide variety of students and faculty, but non-traditional students make up a very small percentage of the student body. Typically over the age of 24 with some kind of gap in their college education, “non-trads” are somewhat of a minority here on campus.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to sit down with my good friend and SUNY Cortland alumni, Lindsey Kilian. Lindsey and I share a lot in common, from our non-traditional student statuses, to our first names. We discussed our experiences at Cortland, and how they differed from the other students around us.
“I attended SUNY Cortland from August 2017 – May 2019 as a Non-Traditional student pursuing a degree in Professional Writing. I was 26 and a commuter, driving about an hour door-to-door, some semesters every day. I have a lot of really fond memories at Cortland, I remember I would try to lump my classes together as much as possible, and nothing before 10am because god forbid I got up too early,” Lindsey joked. “Here I was in my mid-twenties, driving to and from campus, surrounded by terrified, but excited 18 year old freshmen, the seniors who had ‘been there, done that’ and were ready to graduate, and the faculty who had probably seen it all.”
When I first came to Cortland myself in Fall of 2021, I messaged Lindsey frequently throughout the day. She was my go-to person with any Cortland related question, since I didn’t know anyone before coming to campus. Something we both struggled with as commuters from Syracuse, and still struggle with on a weekly basis, is parking.
“I remember fighting for parking on the street, especially during winter, and always trying to find my way around the buildings at the start of each semester,” Lindsey said. “While I hated the lack of parking and walking down that hill in the winter, I loved everything else.”
I think most of us can agree, the hill is absolutely brutal at 9 a.m. on a Monday in December. Nonetheless, Lindsey still talks about her time at Cortland and the opportunities that came after her graduation in 2019.
“Since graduating from Cortland with my BA in Professional Writing, I’ve jumped into the workforce with both feet. I am currently working as a Technical Writer at INFICON, a technology and manufacturing company. There, I work with engineers to create and edit operating manuals, quick start guides, and instruction sheets for our wide range of instruments,” said Lindsey. “I was an intern at INFICON for 9 months after graduating in 2019 and was very happy to come back and accept a full time position last November. I couldn’t have gotten where I am today without my time at Cortland.”
As my last semester at Cortland flies by, I can’t help but feel nostalgic looking back on my time here. Listening to Lindsey’s experiences at SUNY Cortland made me feel so much more comfortable in an environment that initially felt like another planet. Non-traditional students face many challenges that other students don’t, but listening to the success stories of alumni like Lindsey make all those obstacles seem worth it.