CGS students work, raise families and attend classes

After 15 years in the U.S. Navy, Charles Ritz is looking forward to teaching and settling down… After 15 years in the U.S. Navy, Charles Ritz is looking forward to teaching and settling down in Malaysia.

The small catch is that he never graduated from college and has never taught in a classroom setting.

The middle-aged former serviceman has now returned to school as one of about 3,000 students enrolled in Pitt’s College of General Studies.

CGS students – mostly non-traditional students – have lifestyles or schedules that make attending school more difficult for them than for traditional students. Often older, they might have a full-time job, children or a commitment to the military, according to Trina Walker, the director of marketing for CGS.

Ritz, who has completed 15 credits, hopes to continue his public service by becoming a not-for-profit teacher in Malaysia, his wife’s home country, after he graduates from Pitt with his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Having a wife and a young daughter makes his situation a bit difficult. Ritz leaves for work at 8:30 a.m. and does not return home until after 9 p.m., when he has finished classes. But he said he knows his hard work will help his family live a better life later.

“I find whenever I look at my daughter – who’s not but two – any motivation [is] there,” he said.

Unlike Ritz, Nancy Kirkwood Raynovich had experience in her field before going back to school. Also a CGS student, she had no plans to return to school until she separated from her husband.

“Life had been pretty full until then,” she said, explaining why she had not thought about going back to school earlier.

Both students said their families’ support has been essential in maintaining their new schedules. According to Ritz, he could not have made or stuck to his decision to go back to school without his wife.

Kirkwood Raynovich studied English writing, with a focus on poetry, at Pitt before she left to marry and raise a family, which now includes three daughters, ranging in ages from 11 to 15. She added that she has become an example for her daughters because she believes women need to be independent, financially and otherwise.

Kirkwood Raynovich was a stay-at-home mom, so her return to school was a “big shock” to her children, who had to adjust to not having their mom there for everything, she said. Now they are excited to see her graduate next year.

Originally, she attempted to take classes during the day, while her children were also at school. She ran into a problem with teachers who allowed students to miss only a few classes each semester, because she had to miss class whenever her children were sick and home from school.

Going back to school later in life gave Kirkwood Raynovich an opportunity to focus on herself more. She added that if she’d had the same focus years ago, she would have worked while raising her children.

Until two years ago, Kirkwood Raynovich had not been in school for about 20 years, although she continued writing poetry and received awards for it during those years. Since returning, she has decided to focus on a career in freelance magazine writing.

Being in classes with students much younger than she is has been a culture shock, she said. When she first returned to school, there were more students in her classes who were her age, especially women in situations similar to hers.

As her classes became more specialized, she said, the number of older students dropped. Some people she went to school with years ago are now professors at Pitt, and, this past year, her niece became a freshman at Pitt.

“Culturally, it’s weird,” she said.

People at Pitt have told Ritz that age does not matter, he said, but he realizes that it is much easier for someone to go to school as a 20-year-old than as a 40-year-old with a family to raise. For that reason, he had reservations about going back to school, particularly with no official background in his field of study.

“Believe me, I wish I could take time to smell the roses,” he said.

Finishing school when she was younger would have been easier, Kirkwood Raynovich said, but it was difficult to realize that at the time.

Sitting in classrooms and overhearing students about 20 years old talk about their problems and makes her realize that college life is usually quite stress-free.

“It’s so relaxed,” she said of a college student’s lifestyle. “It’s nothing like life.”