Hi, I’m Michael Roney, a 47 years old grad student at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Why go back to school so late in life? To understand why I am here you have to look at where I have been and the road along the way.
I grew up in Columbia, South Carolina and graduated from High School in the top 5% of my class of 1977. Technology was booming and it made sense to go straight into college to follow my goals of becoming an engineer. I had the grades, the desire, but not the finances. Coming from a lower middle class family with 9 children at home there wasn’t college money available for any of us. Financial aid was scarce except for a chosen few with special talents.
If my goals were to become a reality, I had to earn the money myself. The Army seemed like a reasonable alternative at the time. The plan was to serve for three years, save enough money and go to school. However, plans change. Near the end of my first enlistment I found myself married with two children in the middle of a bad economy. So my goals went on hold for those more important than I, my family.
The Army moves a you around a lot, so I never seemed to stay in one place long enough to make much progress on my education. Almost half of my career was spent over seas in Germany with much of the rest at remote posts in the states such as Fort Huachuca, Arizona and Fort Irwin, California. During Desert Storm served in Israel, and later did 6 months in Saudi Arabia.
During my military service, I tried to stay involved with the latest technology working on everything from radars to test equipment to electronic warfare equipment. By the end of the 1980s computers and computerized equipment were in growing usage. In 1989, the Army trained me on the PATRIOT Air Defense Missile system, a highly digital state of the art piece of equipment. My interest in technology soon narrowed to the Computer Science field.
Finally in the mid 1990’s I returned to Fort Bliss to finish my military service. El Paso offered many educational opportunities to start on the goals that had so long been out of reach. Working full time as a PATRIOT maintenance supervisor and taking a full load of college classes left little time for anything but school and work. Yet, I felt if I didn’t finish my degree now, I never would.
In 1999, my Army retirement and graduation with a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science took place in the same month. Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC) hired me the following month as a programmer analyst working on Air Defense Missile system simulations. My unique combination of military experience and computer skills turned out to be a valuable asset.
Looking back perhaps things have turned out better than I had planned in High School. I have been places, done things, and met people I don’t think I would have going straight to college. Most of all, I never lost sight of my goals and found you are never too old to achieve them. That is why I came to UTEP. Once you achieve your goals, there is nothing to do but set more goals.
So if someone asks me why go through the work and sacrifice of graduate school so late in life. The answer is simple, BECAUSE I CAN. When this goal is complete, the future is wide open to whatever I think up next. For me, it’s what keeps life interesting.