In order to obtain a college degree, one does not have to be a traditional student in their early 20’s who has continued their education right after high school. UNI student Jim Keane is a prime example of this.

Keane, 52, is a non-traditional student in every sense of the word. Keane is married with three children and has been working as a carpenter in construction while continuing his education. He plans to graduate this spring with his B.A. in philosophy.

Before coming to UNI, Keane was working one day and had a realization. He was on his way back to his hometown of New Hampton from a construction job in Fargo, ND and decided that he wanted to go back to school.

“I got to get out of construction,” Keane said.

He then went to North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) to find more information about what he had to do to become a math teacher. The people at NIACC advised him that there was a scholarship available for people who wanted to return to school.

Keane wrote an essay, won the scholarship and began his schooling at NIACC.

“I started going to NIACC, did really well and won a couple of big scholarships,” Keane said. He even won a national scholarship for $40,000 a year.

After obtaining his A.A. degree, Keane came to UNI to become a math teacher. However, he soon learned that it was not what he truly wanted to do and changed his major to philosophy.

“I thought to myself at my age, this is my only shot,” Keane said. “At my age, I feel like … this is my one chance, and I thought, ‘I want to study something that I enjoy,’ and I like thinking about things that philosophy encourages you to think about.”

After graduating with his B.A. in philosophy, Keane plans to obtain an M.A. in English by continuing his education this fall at UNI.

Along with English, he also hopes to obtain two or three M.A.s in history and possibly communication. His goal is to become an instructor at a community college.

Along with his studies, Keane has become involved with on-campus organizations. After seeing flyers, Keane decided to become involved with the Interpreter’s Theatre and participated in a production called, “Facing Our Truth: Short Plays on Trayvon, Race, and Privilege,” based on the Trayvon Martin case.

“This is my last semester here … I’m going to give it a shot!” Keane said of his decision to tryout.

After auditions, Keane received the role of George Zimmerman. He explained how playing Zimmerman was a challenge. His director told him that he had to try and make the audience sympathize with the character.

“It’s hard to generate sympathy for a guy like George Zimmerman, but the director was really fantastic and made playing George Zimmerman into a challenge for me,” Keane said. “It was a challenge that I am thankful for.”

Keane’s new opportunities and experiences didn’t stop with the Interpreter’s Theatre.

Recently, he won a slam poetry contest that was held on campus in front of a fairly large attendance. Keane took a poetry class for his minor but had never written a poem before attending the class. He enjoyed the class so much that he decided to take some of his poems to the contest.

“I will say this…for a 52-year-old construction worker, entering a college poetry slam is not an easy thing to do,” Keane said.

Keane said that he was surprised by how encouraging and cooperative everyone was and that the competition aspect became secondary as many encouraged others to do their best. One of the standout poems that Keane performed was entitled, “In 1994, I Poured Blood on the Pentagon.”

Keane went on to explain how he thought he would not fit in at UNI because he was a nontraditional student and how many have even mistaken him for a custodian.

However, he said that he has been impressed with the UNI student body.

“The students here are astounding,” Keane said. “They accept me, they befriend me; they treat me just like an equal…like one of them, and that is extremely impressive.”

Keane said that his favorite thing about his experience at UNI has been all the friendships he has made.

Though Keane only expected to obtain his degree here at UNI, through his experiences, he  realized that he took away much more .

With these experiences and further plans to continue his education, Keane stressed the importance of not taking things for granted.

“I really hope that people understand how grateful we all should be for the opportunities that we have,” Keane said.