This is Paige.
Today, she studies Art History at Columbia University, but at first she was a Liberal Arts major at BMCC.
“I came to college after working for nine years. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to study, so I took classes in a variety of subjects.
“My favorite class was an Art History survey course taught by Professor Yan Yang. The class was about art, but it was more like a little bit of history about everything because you start at one point in time and explore through several hundred years of art, culture, and politics. I’ve always been a medieval nerd, and so I loved it!
“Professor Yang was more than my lecturer, she was also a mentor who helped me decide that Art History was something I wanted to study more. She gave me some ideas about the jobs I could have with a degree in Art and encouraged me to keep going.
“Several years ago, I heard of a special program at Columbia University for students like me who had taken a break before college.
“It seemed laughable at the time that I could get in, but once I started exceeding my own expectations and really loving the academic culture at BMCC, I knew I wanted to push myself to get into the best school possible.”
“It was definitely hard to get back into school after a long time away. I felt a little insecure about myself when I was learning things alongside people 10 years younger than me. The advice I’d give anyone in that position now is not to get worked up comparing yourself to other people. You’ve got to embrace what you bring to the table.”
“Being older actually gave me an advantage in some ways. I felt like I could relate more to my professors as an adult and that made it easier to talk to them and ask for help. I was really motivated not to waste my time in school.”
“After Columbia I’d love to go to graduate school. I’m secretly (ambitiously) hoping to get into Cambridge or Oxford, but a good grad school or even business school abroad is top of the list. I’m not rushing to pick a career just yet. I’m enjoying my time as a student while remaining open to the possibilities that will arise from Columbia.”
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