Every year, the University opens its doors to certain “nontraditional” students—those who are not of conventional college age but still wish to pursue a post-secondary education. Deb Hall ’11 is one of these students. Hall’s decision to attend Wesleyan as a full-time student was largely based on her lifelong dream to pursue medicine. A neuroscience major and mother of two teenagers, Hall is set to complete her academic experience in a week. She will be starting medical school next fall at the University of Connecticut.
Argus: How did you first decide to attend Wesleyan?
Deb Hall: I had been going to community college and taking one course at a time for years. A point came when my husband and I had a conversation, and we decided that I was going to very seriously pursue medical school. We mapped out a timeline, and we decided that this would be the best time for me to transfer to a four-year school.
A: What was it like applying to Wesleyan as a student of nontraditional age?
DH: In the end, I applied to five schools in the Connecticut area. I had no sense as to how an admissions committee would view me and how competitive of an applicant I would be. One of my community college professors suggested that I apply to Wesleyan and said that I would be a good candidate because they like community college transfer students.
I applied here and on the day of my interview I realized that Wesleyan was the only school that would require me to take either the ACTs or the SATs. I had never taken them. The Admissions Office told me that I could take the test and that they would hold my application file. So I came in, interviewed, and took the ACTs, and now here I am two and half years later and 10 days away from completing!
A: Wow! So you finish in 10 days?
DH: Yeah! This Friday I have a class from 1-4, a reception for December graduates with President Roth, and then that’s it. I have a paper due next week and then I’m done!
A: How were you able to finish so quickly?
DH: I transferred, so I already had all of my Gen. Ed requirements. I’ve almost exclusively taken classes for my major or for my pre-med requirement at Wesleyan. However, this semester’s been fun for me because I’ve gotten to take classes in any department just because they sound interesting. I took a dance class!
A: What’s your major?
DH: Neuroscience and behavior. Neuro was what I wanted to study. I used to be an advocate for families with children who have neurological disorders, and I was really interested in studying learning processes, human memory, and the neural correlates of those.
A: Can you tell us about the research you did during your time at Wes?
DH: I spent a year including breaks and a summer research fellowship working in the lab of [Professor of Biology and Neuroscience & Behavior] Jan Naegele. The research that I did with her was a project that we had talked about before I had even started at Wesleyan. We partnered with a lab at another school to do research on a target protein in audiogenic seizures in fragile X syndrome. There’s a genetic mutation attributed to repeat on the 23rd chromosome that leads to a phenotype that primarily affects boys because they don’t have another copy of this gene code. These boys have audiogenic seizures that result from being exposed to high intensity, high frequency sounds, such as car alarms or fire alarms. There is a protein that is either mutated such that it’s not functional or absent in children who have fragile X syndrome. We looked at the relationship between that protein and these seizures.
A: You live off-campus–how has it affected your Wesleyan experience?
DH: I live off-campus with my husband, our children, and our dogs. Sometimes living off-campus has its own problems with the University administration. Every year I have to write to ResLife to explain to them that I can’t live on campus, and I have to write a separate e-mail to be let out of the meal plan. It definitely makes a difference. All those pieces of time in between my classes, I can’t just go back to my room, take a nap, or study. I’m here carrying my books around looking for places to study. So in that way, it affects me.
When I was doing research, it definitely would have been convenient to live closer to campus. It means I have to run down here a lot, but it has helped that I’ve come to be friends with a lot of my classmates here, so I can sometimes home-base at their places a little bit.
A: Have you interacted a lot with other students of nontraditional age?
DH: Not so much. There’s another nontraditional student who also has children and a spouse and lives off-campus. She just started here this semester and we have quickly become friends.
A: Have you gotten the chance to participate in any extracurricular activities during your time at Wesleyan?
DH: Definitely. I started a student group my first semester here. With some other students we started a chapter of the American Medical Student Association. This year I started an initiative for the Collegiate Health Service Corps. I’ve been involved in MAPS and a bit with ASHA and some other groups.
A: What’s been your favorite part about being a Wesleyan student?
DH: I love this school. I love the intellectual curiosity of the students and the atmosphere that promotes really thoughtful conversation. I love that almost all my professors are engaged in research. I love how smart the people in my classes are, and that they push every conservation and every thought process to a whole new level. I constantly feel like I’m working really hard to keep up with the level of the depth of analysis and I love that. I feel like I have been pushed to think in new ways that I really never would have otherwise.
A: How did you first decide to pursue medicine?
DH: I was six years old when I decided I wanted to go into medicine. I had seen a commercial for St. Jude’s Children’s Cancer Research Centers and decided that’s what I wanted to be, a pediatric oncologist. A variety of life circumstances converged to draw my life in a different direction but ultimately this has always been what I wanted to do. The only thing in my life that I ever would have regretted would be not doing this [pursuing medicine]. I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to go back [to school] and do this.
A: What field do you see yourself working in once you complete medical school?
DH: When people ask me what kind of doctor I want to be, I tell them a good one. I definitely see myself as being an advocate for my patients. I don’t know what field of medicine I will do this in, but I can picture myself in pediatrics because I have a lot of experience working with families and children.
A: What advice would you give to other students of non-traditional age?
DH: Don’t get freaked out by the concepts of time and age, and these timelines that we think we need to do things on. I’ve had a very unconventional timeline and a very satisfying life. I’m reaching all of the goals I had set for myself so far.