Spring is full of stories about who gets into college, but stories about who comes out the other side are just as compelling. Take the one about Kathy Vitzthum. Many students graduate after four or five years; she’s graduating after 19.
Ms. Vitzthum, 48, is a senior accountant for Micrel Inc., a technology company. Next month, she will earn a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Iowa State University. She enrolled there after her boss promised to promote her if she took some accounting courses. That was 1992.
At the time, Ms. Vitzthum’s daughter, Kristina, was eight and her son, Kyle, was six. She decided to take just one course each semester. For years, she studied late at night, after her children and husband, Keith, had gone to sleep. She took her textbooks on family vacations. She turned down many invitations to hang out with friends.
Courtesy Iowa State U.
“They would say, ‘Hey, everybody’s going boating this weekend,’ and I would tell them that I couldn’t come because I had to study for my finals,” she says.
Early on, Ms. Vitzthum struggled in her math courses. All that algebra she learned in high school had evaporated. Some nights she wanted to quit. Her husband encouraged her, and so did her parents, who had a tradition of giving their eight children gifts upon graduating from college.
A while back, Ms. Vitzthum spotted an antique curio cabinet, but she couldn’t afford it. Her father, who was seriously ill, knew he wouldn’t live long enough to see her graduate. He asked his daughter to promise him that she would graduate, and so she did. About 11 years ago, her parents bought her the cabinet—a gift from the future.
Ms. Vitzthum buckled down. Over the years, she met other adult students at Iowa State, but she didn’t get to know them well. “They all came and went,” she says. “They were taking a much more aggressive approach than I was.” Recently, Iowa State’s online offerings have allowed her to double up on courses.
Ms. Vitzthum’s daughter earned a bachelor’s degree in 2005. Her son will earn a nursing degree the same day that she receives her diploma. But first she must study for two last exams, one in Management 478, and another in a course called “Human Development and Family Science.”
Her diploma will bring peace of mind, Ms. Vitzthum says. If she ever lost her job, she knows that she would need a bachelor’s degree to find another one.
And then there’s the curio cabinet, which stands in her living room. “My father said ‘you don’t own this until you graduate,’” she says. “Now, I’ll own it.”
