The Second Degree
Empire State College began with students like Dr. Susan Kimberly Turben. It was early 1972. Already involved in highly innovative work in child development, Turben was offered the opportunity to design infant stimulation programs at the State Department of Mental Hygiene's Eleanor Roosevelt Developmental Services Unit in Albany. The catch was, she had only a two-year degree. With very little money, children aged 3, 6 and 7, and a husband suffering from multiple sclerosis, Turben knew she had to continue working while she earned a four-year degree. She looked into Empire State College, and became what she believes was the College's second student at its office in Albany.
"With a degree, I could earn $20,000," she says. "Without it, I could only earn $11,000. I had to have it to support my family. I had no money, my children were small, and my husband was only able to work part-time."
Turben was awarded the equivalent of a year's credit for her pioneering work in childhood education. Relying on neighbors and members of her church to help her juggle multiple responsibilities, she received her B .A. in September of 1972.
"I'm almost positive I was the second student, because there wasn't anybody else there,"she recalls.
Three years later she moved to the Cleveland area, where she served as executive director of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. her husband died shortly after that.
Turben has since remarried and built a new life, and in 1987 she earned her Ph.D. from Kent State University in early childhood and special education.
Her children, now adults, "consider me a survivor, for sure, and i think that's high praise," she says.
Today, Turben lives in Mentor, Ohio, 25 miles east of Cleveland. She is president of her own consulting and contracting company which provides child development and parenting services for adults and young children, particularly handicapped youngsters. She and her part-time staff of seven write grant proposals and do in-service training, and they recently began producing a series of video tapes on the developmental aspects of children.
"If it weren't for Empire State College, I probably would never have had the career I have," she says. "That the College has done so well means that the concepts was right. Easy access to a college degree does not mean it's the easiest degree. I just means it's the easiest way to get into the system, and that's very important. Why should a college degree be inaccessible?"
Free Parenting Videos by Dr. Susan Turben
Order one or both of Dr. Susan Turben's Free Parenting Videos today. Available on DVD and VHS.
