Mireille Uwase Adams was just a few weeks into her college career at the University of Illinois Chicago when she found out she was not eligible for financial aid because of her refugee status.
Uwase Adams had fled Rwanda before the genocide took the lives of her mother and brother. She could not afford to pay for tuition out of pocket.
“I walked out of the financial aid office, and I never went back to class,” said Uwase Adams, who now lives in Humboldt Park.
That was more than two decades ago, but it’s been a drag on her life ever since.
After leaving school, Uwase Adams worked a string of odd jobs before landing a steady role in healthcare. But, despite taking on more responsibility, she could not get a raise or promotion.
“Because of my lack of education and just not having a diploma, I hit a plateau of how far I could go with the company and the things I was allowed to do and the rooms I was allowed to sit in,” said the 44-year-old. “I was like, ‘Well, I guess this is where I’m gonna be the rest of my life.’ ”
Uwase Adams is far from alone. Across the country, nearly 40 million adults have some college credit but no degree.
Two years ago, Uwase Adams found out about a program at Northeastern Illinois University on Chicago’s Northwest Side designed specifically for people like her. The program was a game changer for her, but financial challenges mean only a handful of students every year get the same opportunity.
Called the University Without Walls, it’s based on a model that’s been around since the 1970s and awards students course credits for life experience.
“[It’s] for those people who are like, ‘What do I bring to the table? I only have this many credits,’ ” said Lisa Modenos, who has written about the University Without Walls approach and teaches at the only other remaining program in the country at University of Massachusetts Amherst. “And it’s like, ‘Well, you started your own business over that time,’ or, ‘You raised a family,’ or, ‘You advocated for your disabled child.’ ”
Students enrolled in University Without Walls are paired with a faculty advisor who helps them craft their work and life experience into a narrative portfolio.
Through Northeastern’s program, Uwase Adams’s work at a COVID testing site became a science credit. Her experience taking calls on a domestic violence hotline satisfied a communications course requirement.
Modenos said the process helps transform any shame students may feel about their time away from school.
“You have and bring so much knowledge, and we’re going to honor it, integrate it and help you reframe how you see yourself and your knowledge and your history and give you a college degree with that knowledge embedded in it,” Modenos said.
At age 44, Uwase Adams was able to earn a bachelor’s degree in just over two years, and is finally eligible for a promotion. She graduated from Northeastern in May.
“I sat next to a woman who was in her 60s,” Uwase Adams said about the ceremony. “And she said, ‘I’ve been working for this for 40 years — 40 years trying to get a degree.’ And I asked her, ‘What are you gonna do now?’ She’s like, ‘Well, I’m going to go to grad school.’ ”
University Without Walls could be transformative for so many students. But it requires consistent one-on-one advising, which takes a lot of financial support. And state funding for Northeastern Illinois University is a fraction of what it was two decades ago.
Zada Johnson, a faculty advisor for Northeastern’s University Without Walls program, said they only serve about 10 to 20 students at a time.
She said she wishes they could serve more, but it would require more state and federal funding.
“That becomes a challenge when you have such a high demand and you have a small shop,” she said.
Modenos said it’s emblematic of a national struggle to serve nontraditional students.
“This is true for a lot of programs, not just something like [University Without Walls]: they are either consolidated or centralized or just completely erased in higher education because of revenue issues,” Modenos said.
Lisa Kurian Philip covers higher education for WBEZ, in partnership with Open Campus. Follow her on Twitter @LAPhilip.
