Baxter said while some students are looking for a career change, other students are looking for ways to get a degree or professional certification at a lower cost.

“A lot of older students are facing unemployment and they’re trying to fine tune their skills or finish the degree they never finished,” Baxter said. “Especially right now [having a bachelor’s degree] is such a deciding factor whether someone gets hired or even interviewed for a job.

For some people maybe having a master’s would help them move higher up. Some just have a personal interest in finishing [their degree].”

The center allows students to receive their bachelor’s, master’s or other professional certification from its 19 participating institutions at its Grayslake or Waukegan campus. The center doesn’t have its own faculty, rather, faculty belong to its member institutions.
The center in Grayslake has a cafe, living room furniture in comfortable meeting places, classrooms that are equipped with cutting-edge technology, a science lab, computer lab, faculty offices and a conference wing.

“It needed to have a welcoming presence,” Schnadt said, adding that its designers did not want older students to feel intimidated about returning to school. Its conference rooms can also be rented out by local organizations and businesses for different events.

“We wanted to give people a comfortable place – to allow learning to extend outside the classroom,” Schnadt said.

For Justine Romito, 26, of Antioch, being enrolled in Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Elementary Education teacher preparation program through the center exceeded her expectations. She said when she graduates in December she won’t just have a degree, but lasting friendships as well.
Romito has been taking classes full-time with the same nine students since she enrolled in the program in early 2011.

“We grew together as a group and worked on projects together,” Romito said. “With the faculty you get one-on-one attention. They know me by name. I’ve been very impressed.”

Taking evening and weekend classes at the center allows Romito to balance a busy schedule – she works full-time from home as a credit analyst and student teaches at Woodland Middle School in Gurnee as part of her degree requirement.
If Romito had to move to Southern’s main campus in Carbondale to pursue her degree she would be too far away from her close-knit family and finding a job would be stressful, she said.