At 75 years old, Carol McSween-Brooks is graduating from the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) this May. Fifty years after beginning her collegiate studies at Brown University, Carol will have completed a difficult major--earning a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems with a minor in Data Science, plus a UMGC Certificate in Data Analytics.
In addition, Carol graduates Summa Cum Laude and on the Dean’s and the President’s Lists. Carol also has memberships in three honor societies including Phi Kappa Phi, Alpha Sigma Lambda, and Upsilon Pi Epsilon.
“I have so many cords to wear on my graduation robes that my daughters say it looks like I’m decorated like a general,” she said. “This is me. I am a scholar, I am a learner, and I am a teacher,” she said, “and it's always been a part of me.”
Carol was born in Washington, D.C. and always had a deep interest in science, math, writing and learning. “Academics were my thing,” she says. Graduating in 1968 from Western High School, now Duke Ellington School of the Arts, in D.C., Carol received a scholarship to go to Brown University intending to major in biochemistry. That continued for about two years until she met a cadaver and realized that that level of personal detail was not for her!
Fortunately, Carol was introduced to another field of study. Carol met a young man who had a burning interest in computers, and this led to her spending a great deal of time in the computer labs at Brown. “I was fascinated with how these machines worked and how they were operated,” she said. “That was the beginning of my passionate interest in technology. When I left Brown and got married, it was in the very early days of computers. I had learned to work with the big IBM mainframes and the midsized computers – I was on the ‘bleeding edge’ of computer users!”
While she really wanted a job that involved her love of writing, Carol found she could be more readily hired for computer jobs and started off as a computer operator in 1972.
“I worked on the old IBM 1440s with small local companies where we had big disks and card decks! I found I was really good at it,” she said. “Computers were so new that no one asked if you had a degree.”
Carol also found time to raise four daughters -- all of whom were weaned on computers – and she kept up with developments in computer technology. While working as a computer operator, Carol found a way to combine her love of writing and her knowledge of technology by writing and teaching applications classes on the PC.
“I have always been able to explain things in ways that people can understand and use the information they received,” she said. “I always put something creative and bigger than the task at hand into the classwork, so that people will want to learn more and revisit their learning as a tool that they can use in their work.”
As computers became common office equipment, Carol created and facilitated application courses for everyone from managers to secretaries because beginning in the 1990s, people were discovering that they needed to learn to use personal computers even at home. So that formed the crux of a 50-year career as a technology instructor and consultant.
While Carol acknowledges that discrimination and bias have often negatively impacted her career and academic goals, she said the purpose of getting her degree now is not just to open new career opportunities but to continue her empowerment through learning.
“I foresee a future where I’m involved more in my social and professional communities with a strong focus on using technology for diversity awareness in learning,” she says.
Carol is so excited about graduating that nothing will stop her from participating in the Grad Walk at Adelphi—not even some major health problems which she’s experienced during her years of study. Throughout her academic journey, her health challenges have been catalysts for her to overcome and persevere and even take up a new area of study, Data Analytics.
Carol enrolled at UMGC in the fall of 2019 taking advantage of the university’s Golden ID program that offers tuition assistance to Maryland residents over 60. Carol’s perseverance over health challenges included overcoming COVID-19 in 2020, which put her out of commission for three weeks during the term; a lobectomy to remove a cancerous lung tumor, and surgery to fight a necrotic viral infection. Neither could two automobile accidents and a heart attack just this past February deter her from graduating this spring.
“At times, I’ve been told to pause my studies,” she says, “but my faith and belief in God have guided this whole journey and my passion for learning.”
In her life, she has learned “a lot of things about discrimination, diversity awareness, and the limitations that the world tries to put on you,” she said. “Those things have pushed me to be the best I can be and that’s who I strive to be right now.”
The great thing about UMGC is its flexibility in the learning experience, she said. “My initial major was Information Systems Management, but with the addition of Data Science as a minor in 2022, my major changed to Management Information Systems. UMGC offers flexibility and a lot of options in putting together a program that suits your learning needs and personal growth. This opened up a whole new world of technology and data analysis for me. Now two of my daughters have been inspired to continue their master’s and bachelor’s degree learning journeys this fall at UMGC.”
This is also not the end of Carol’s academic journey. She’s already looking at master’s programs and intending to go forward from there.
“What do you think of a PhD at 80?” she mused. The only question now is if she has decided to use a cane or not when she walks across the stage to receive her diploma. Either way, she said, “I see it as a walk to remember for this rousing milestone.
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