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Liza Kerwin started Russell Sage College in the early 2000s, after earning an associate degree at Hudson Valley Community College. She left Russell Sage two classes shy of her bachelor’s in sociology.
At that time, she went to work for the employer she would stay with for 17 years until she was affected by COVID-related restructurings.
“When you try and find a job after that, many places require you to have a four-year degree, not even taking into consideration that you have worked somewhere and have all this experience,” she said.
Her previous work was in a corporate legal department, and she eventually found a position as a discovery analyst for the Rensselaer County District Attorney. She acknowledged, however, that working for an elected official is inherently precarious. “Am I going to be back in the same spot, where I need to have a four-year degree to find a job?”
So, as Kerwin’s son prepared for his final year at his college in central New York, she reached out to RSC’s admissions and advising offices to ask about re-enrolling. She learned the classes she needed would just about fit into her lunch hour, and if she enrolled in fall 2024, she could graduate before her son. Serendipitously, Kerwin’s office is across the street from RSC’s Troy campus, and she is on track to complete her degree in December.
Professor of Sociology Michelle Napierski-Prancl was one of Kerwin’s first professors at RSC and is her professor again this semester. She’s also one of the people Kerwin reached out to when she prepared to return to campus.
“She’s been really great helping me get back. I told her how nervous I was, and she said, ‘OK, we can meet over the summer. I can show you this example on the computer, so when you come into class, you’ll have an idea of what we’re doing.’ So we met on Zoom, and we also met in person over the summer. And we talked a lot on email.”
“I’ve finally got the hang of Moodle,” Kerwin added, referring to the software that Russell Sage uses for course materials and assignments. “The first week, I had to go to a couple of kids in the class and ask, “What am I supposed to do?’”
They were happy to help, she said. “I’m definitely more comfortable as the semester has gone on.”
And she has more in common with her younger classmates than she expected — notably, the challenge of balancing work and school.
“Seeing all the students in my class, a lot of them work and work a lot,” she said. “And they all have full-time class schedules. There’s so much pressure on them, and I have my own pressures. None of us are skating free.”
“I was saying that to my son, and I think he was grateful that I expressed that to him,” she continued. “It’s a wake-up call for sure, what all these kids are going through. I give praise to everyone who’s doing it.”
Kerwin said she always wanted to work in the legal field, although she did not want to be an attorney. Russell Sage’s sociology program was a great fit for her original career goals and complements her current work.
“I’m not done yet, but I can see the finish line,” she said as the end of the fall 2024 semester approached. “Everybody’s not on the same path, but we all get to where we want to be or need to be eventually.”
And while she’s eligible to walk in Russell Sage’s May 2025 commencement, she’ll instead be celebrating her son’s graduation that weekend, as he receives his bachelor’s in writing for film and television.