After a nearly four-decade pause, Judy Moguel is excited to finally add college graduate to her list of accomplishments.
"It always bothered me that I left something unfinished," says Moguel, 63, who just earned a bachelor's degree in psychology.
In the 1970s she left home in Escanaba, completing junior college and enrolling at WMU with dreams of pursuing a career in behavioral psychology. But her senior year, an illness left her unable to complete her courses.
"I just never got back to it. Life happens," says Moguel, whose youngest daughter just graduated from WMU last year. "I worked three jobs my senior year and I met my husband, had kids, did all of these things and just never got back to doing classes."
Seven children and a three-decade career in the Kalamazoo County court system later, Moguel decided it was time for a change. In 2016 she accepted an administrative assistant position WMU's Department of Blindness and Low Vision Studies, reinvigorated to be back on a college campus.
"Blindness and low vision studies is the best kept secret at Western. It's an amazing field, and our students absolutely love what they do," she says. "It's kind of energizing to me."
The return to WMU as an employee also gave Moguel a chance to finally finish her college story.
"The University is generous enough to offer tuition free of charge, so in that way there was nothing holding me back."
When you're away from the classroom for nearly 40 years, things—like technology—change. But Moguel was up for the challenge.
"I joked the first class I took that it was the baby boomer and the 40 millennials," laughs Moguel, who admits Elearning took some getting used to.
Still, she says, the challenges were worth it to finally complete her degree at WMU.