The NTSA - President 2024-2025 / VP 2023-2024

I began my journey as a non-traditional student just before my 41st birthday. I spent the decades before that running a business and going to school for visual art and animation in my late twenties and thirties. This was more out of fear that I couldn’t hack it in the profession that I really wanted, which was medicine. I wasn’t a stellar student in high school and had undiagnosed ADHD back in the 1900’s (yes I am that old). That early childhood experience allowed a severe lack of self-confidence to brew for a very long time. I met my husband in my early twenties and started my family at what today would be considered the young age of 25. You could say that I did things in reverse a bit but I would not trade my journey and experiences for anything because I am who I am today because of it. 

As I got older and increasingly unhappy in my profession I started exploring what I wanted for my future self and for my family. Being ashamed to admit you want to be a physician in your late thirties / early forties was a hard place to be in. While I did enroll in community college part time to see if I could even handle college again, I found myself still dependent on what others might think of all of this. Is she crazy?? Yes, but that’s not relative here.  I slowly tested the waters with people around me, suggesting maybe I would go into nursing, which turned into maybe PA school.. until my mom got sick. Navigating all of the ins and outs of her treatment options and then handling her care during her long recovery was a significant wake up call. I realized in that moment that we only get to live this life once. What was I doing wasting my time hmmm’ing and hawwwing over my age? None of that mattered. What mattered was happiness and life. I would give anything to take that painful time away from my mom, seeing someone you love distressed and trying to beat an illness makes you really take stock of things. I consider that time in our lives difficult but also poignant. I had the greatest privilege of my life to be able to care for her the way that she had always cared for me and thankfully she is healthy and strong today. 

When I finally stopped being ashamed of the life I wanted for myself I stopped playing games and dove straight in. I was working 70+ hours a week at the time and going to community college part time in Irvine, CA when the pandemic hit and I was laid off. I knew this was the time for me to go all in. As non-traditional students we all know how hard the finance side of things can be, with a lot of sacrifice, my husband and I decided it was best that I just start attending full-time as this road is a long one and doing it part-time would just prolong the journey even more. 

I admittedly applied to 4-year universities too soon as I was missing some prerequisites needed for my first major choice (Human Biology) however Psychology was always very interesting to me and I knew that a major in that and a minor in general biology would only help me be more well rounded when treating patients some day. By some miracle I received an acceptance to UCSD for Fall 2022 as a Psychology major. 

When I arrived here, I had no idea what to expect. I was nervous, anxious, wary of what such a large campus would be like. I knew absolutely nobody so I found the UCSD Subreddit and created a post looking for other older non-traditional students. I was pleasantly surprised to find several of us on this platform. That evolved into a discord community for us all. From that community I was able to meet my other fellow co-founders JB and Courtney in our Psych 105 class (shout out to Tim Brady!) And thus the NTSA was born. 

To say that this past year and a half with my fellow officers and the past year with our fellow members has been amazing is an understatement. I never imagined that I would have found such lifelong friendships at my age and at a University no less. I am extremely grateful to have met these individuals and while I will be the sole remaining founding member for Fall 2025, I know that I can always reach out to them for advice (you are my rock Courtney), trivia night togetherness (thank you to Ben the Trivia god), advice on new ideas for outreach and baking tips (Karli, you are the best) or a bad but hilarious pun joke (JB).  Each person in this organization has changed my life for the better.

I say all of this in the hopes that whomever stumbles across this who may be feeling isolated, too old or missing a sense of community realizes that there is a community out here for you. This is why we started this organization. For someone who felt so disconnected starting at UCSD, The NTSA and the people involved have given me a place to feel at home in a school that can sometimes be overwhelming. I want to personally thank every founding member who has helped me through the craziness of our first building year. You are all going to go on and do such amazing things and I can’t express enough to each of you how proud I am to know you and how much each of you has touched my life. You each helped create and foster such a beautifully strong and passionate team. 

I will still be here next year! My only wish is to see this organization continue to grow and be the go-to organization for our community in the many years to come. I promise as the incoming President to put my everything into continuing to make this organization as impactful and meaningful to our demographic. When I graduate next year I will make it my number one priority to find a new generation of non-traditional students to hand the reins over to who are just as committed to and passionate about our mission.

~ Kell