Terri Dorsey, 35, balances a life with a husband, three kids and a twenty-credit semester
By Ashleigh Smith
Terri Dorsey lives her life by the words on magnets garnishing her refrigerator, the words of Henry David Thoreau and George Eliot:
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.”
“It’s never too late to become what you might have been.”
For an undergraduate student who returned to college after more than 10 years, Dorsey is certainly one who embodies those words.
“Terri’s pursuit of a degree is the epitome of one who goes confidently in the direction of one’s dreams and dares to live the life one has imagined,” said her husband, Greg Dorsey. “I am extremely proud of Terri, happy for our family, and appreciative of McDaniel College.”
Dorsey is a first-semester senior at McDaniel, but unlike most seniors, she will graduate at 35 years old. She balances a life outside of campus and her family’s hectic schedule with a twenty-credit semester.
“I have the disadvantage of having three kids that have an unbelievably insane busy life, and a husband, and a household,” said Dorsey.
Outside of class, Dorsey also gets involved in sports. She tries to work out regularly, and she adds that she and a friend are joining a softball team.
Dorsey’s kids are also very active in sports. “I’m taking one night class, and my son had a playoff game at six, and that’s when my midterm was,” she said. “I took the midterm really quickly and I flew to his game and made most of it.”
“I won’t miss my kids’ games,” she added. “I do everything in my power.”
She hopes through her hard work to set a good example for her children. “They must look at their mom and realize she’s really busted her tail.”
“Especially my daughter,” Dorsey added. “I hope that she sees just more by example than me ever telling her to chase her dreams. I would much rather my daughter take it the easy way than my way.”
Dorsey and her future husband discovered that she was pregnant with her daughter, who is now 17, before starting her freshman year at Catonsville Community College. She later dropped out because of the difficulty of raising a child and handling the responsibilities of college.
While raising her family, Dorsey worked part-time, first in a customer service job and then as a teacher in the computer lab at her children’s private school.
Dorsey’s journey began when she signed up for two classes at Carroll Community College (CCC) on a whim. She said that although she didn’t consult with her husband when signing up for those first classes he was very supportive of her decision.
“My ‘reaction’ was one of mere expectation,” said her husband. “Terri has always courageously and passionately pursued her dreams. Enrolling in CCC was merely her first step.”
Dorsey acquired her Associate’s degree first from CCC, saying that the smaller goals were easier and more practical. She then transferred to McDaniel.
Most of the appeal of McDaniel was that the campus is two minutes from her home. “If a class gets canceled I can go home and do laundry,” she said.
Now, Dorsey is finishing up a degree in communication, with a minor in art, initiated by a Jan Term art class with Katya Mychajlyshyn, who described Terri as “very organized, punctual, very ambitious, focused, all while maintaining a charming, lovely, relaxed and engaged attitude.”
However, the initial transition to McDaniel’s campus was a bit of a shock. “McDaniel was harder,” Dorsey said, “Not harder academically, but harder for me. I don’t think it’s at all accommodating for commuters. I hated it really the first semester.”
Dorsey also notes that there are many more non-traditional, adult students on the CCC campus thanthere are in McDaniel’s undergraduate program.
“I’m sure [other students] think I’m like this weird older person,” says Dorsey, “and I really don’t care. I think the only thing that’s really different is I have a lot more life experience.
“The life experience [Terri] has had projects very nicely into the classroom,” said Mychajlyshyn, adding that it creates a good opportunity for the other students. “I like to see this kind of a balance between older and younger people.”
Dorsey is considering remaining at McDaniel in pursuit of a Master’s degree, or she could become a teacher. She comments that starting college again gave her a sense of personal fulfillment to finally be achieving her goals.
“I put it on hold, and I didn’t do it exactly as I’d hoped and planned. Thinking back to the words of Eliot, she added, ” I think at the end of the day it isn’t ever too late.”