Grant Daubenspeck (l) and Warren Fargo were two of the 118 adult learners who graduated this past Saturday.

Spring commencement on a college campus brings a picture of bright young twenty-somethings in cap and gown, flushed with the excitement of the day, processing to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance. In this day and age, you might want to look again.

Of the 487 students who graduated from Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, this spring, 118-nearly one-fourth-are over the age of twenty-four. Sixteen are over the age of forty, and one graduate is over the age of sixty-five. College isn't just for kids anymore.

One of those adult graduates is Margaret Morrison, a chemistry major with an exceptional grade point average and two children.

She completed her first semester at Penn State Behrend in 1990, but left to marry a Marine. They started a family, moved several times, and finally ended up back in Erie. Morrison returned to Penn State Behrend in 2000 on a part-time basis, and this spring completed the goal she set years ago.

Another of those adult graduates is Warren Fargo of Corry, a former locomotive engineer who earned two associate's degrees: one in electrical engineering technology from Penn State Behrend and one in telecommunications from Penn State University Park. He's already had an interview with Westinghouse Air Brake. Fargo's studies included two math classes with another adult student, Dr. Grant Daubenspeck, a retired Erie orthodontist, who received an associate's degree in plastics engineering technology. Daubenspeck has a totally different story.

"When I told folks I was attending Penn State Behrend, they wondered why a dentist would be interested in plastics," said Daubenspeck, who returned to higher education several years ago to learn about a material that played an important role in his 32-year dental career. "The truth of the matter is that dentists use plastics in their offices every day for items such as invisible braces, splints, retainers, mouthguards, dentures, and tooth-colored fillings." Daubenspeck's goal, he said, was to learn about plastics first-hand, so that so he can work to improve some of the shortcomings of the dental plastics currently in use.

Daubenspeck did more than just attend Penn State Behrend, however. He was so pleased with the plastics program that he and his wife, Bonney, created the David G. and Bonney C. Daubenspeck Trustee Scholarship, The scholarship, created to assist undergraduate students with financial need enrolled in the plastics engineering technology program, grew from Daubenspeck's first-hand experience as an adult student.

"The changing job market has brought many adults back to college for retraining or to explore new career paths," said Mary-Ellen Madigan, director of Admissions and Financial Aid at Penn State Behrend. "As the pace of that change increases, I know we'll see more and more adults will find their way back to higher education."