Melanie Fontenot saw her husband graduate from the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Then, saw two of her children graduate from UL Lafayette. All the while, she was only 18 credits away from finishing her own degree.
At the age of 55, Fontenot could no longer ignore the call to complete her degree.
“I'd been talking to my boss about it. He went back to UL Lafayette through the online General Studies program. Heonly needed six hours to graduate,” Fontenot says. “He said, ‘Look, if I can do it, you can do it.’”
That nudge came back to Fontenot when her position in retail went away in 2018.
“That's when the idea started creeping up that this might be a great time to finish that degree. I'm retired, and I'm too young to just sit here.”
(Re)Starting Slow
After being out of school for 37 years, Fontenot was worried about jumping into 100% online courses.
“I started with one class because I was nervous about testing; I was nervous about proctoring. I was nervous about the new technology — all of that,” says Fontenot.
Soon, Fontenot was building momentum. She took advantage of 8-week terms to knock out the sixteen courses standing between her and her degree.
"I could get a lot of hours completed by enrolling in A- and B-term classes,” Fontenot says. “I started adding on more once I realized it wasn’t as hard as I feared. You just have to stay on top of the reading and do what they tell you to do.”
That’s not to say Fontenot didn’t struggle. Earning a degree is a challenge, and she felt that. But her family was usually waiting in the wings to give her perspective and support her. She credits that support for getting her through the rough times.
"When I thought, ‘There's no way I can do this,’ my kids would say, ‘Mom, you got this.’ My niece would come over to help and say, ‘think about it like this...’,” says Fontenot.
Finishing Strong
That support came through on graduation day, as well.
Fontenot’s cheering section was substantial. We-can't-all-fit-in-the-photo substantial.
Children, nieces, nephews, sisters, neighbors, and friends came to celebrate Fontenot and her achievement.
“It surprised me because I didn't know a lot of those people were coming. But it was neat, and it still warms my heart because they came from Tennessee, Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, all over.”
Soon after graduating, Fontenot began a new job as a Branch Office Administrator at a local Edward Jones office. Earning her degree online gave her more confidence and taught her a lot about herself.
“I love my job. I'm using everything that I was taught in online classes, especially the computer class. When I walked in, I wasn't intimidated by the computer. I wasn't intimidated by learning. Had I not gone back to college, I would have walked into this job very differently,” she says.
“I’ve realized I can be independent. I can support myself. I can continue to learn. You know, it doesn't stop. There's no age where you just stop learning, and I'm capable of doing it a lot more than I thought.”
