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Located in the cozy confines of the TRIO Disability Support Services office is the lead tutor, David Smith. Smith is a current senior, adult learner, and transfer student at Wichita State. In 2009, Smith earned his associate’s degree at Butler. However, after working in a factory for 11 years, he decided to return to school. In 2022, Smith found himself at WSU.

When considering coming back to school, Smith preferred to pursue something he loves. Smith believes passion is more profound than seeking something more pragmatic in school. “I wanted to come back and pursue a degree in something that I like, something that I love, and I like biology,” he expresses. “I could get an English degree,” he begins, “I can read and write, I’d be dreadfully bored, but I could do it.” 

While Smith understands the rigor of majoring in biology —from the complex terminology to the hours spent studying —Smith explains, “It sucks. It’s hard. There’s a lot of crap, a lot of studying.” He then goes on to demonstrate why he loves it despite how challenging studying biology may be: “It engages people, I like people, and I like anything that can engage other people.” He illustrates how he’s been engaging people. He’s been working on a project, looking for bugs, and in that process, he enlisted at least 20-25 other people on campus to help him. “I just say, hey, if you ever see something, pick it up or let me know,” he says.

Furthermore, while transfer students and adult learners may seem like your everyday students, they face their own challenges. “Some challenges that I faced, honestly, I think it just comes down to time management,” Smith says. He explains that, like many others, he has school, work, and a home life to balance.

Additionally, Smith demonstrates how adult learners differ from many other students, making community vital for them and transfer students. “The biggest difference between me and people like me and the more traditional student would simply be experience,” he says, “in the classroom, but mostly in life.” This advantage provides Smith with more opportunities to assist his peers. “I may not always have the right answer, but I’m also not afraid to ask or say the wrong thing so we get taught the right thing… maybe I show people that it’s okay to be a little courageous or a little silly.”

On top of that, Smith understood he wouldn’t be getting the so-called ‘traditional college’ experience this time around, so he decided to tailor his own. “I wanted to design my own experience,” he says, explaining his thought process. “I wasn’t gonna get the four-year experience. I wasn’t gonna get the dorms and the parties and the fraternities and all of that. I’m too old, so I wanted to make my own experience,” Smith says. Therefore, Smith decided to build his own community.

Smith emphasizes the importance of having a strong support network. In the Shocker Success Center, Smith found a great support system in the community. “I’ve had a lot of good fortune. I’ve got Adult Learning. I’ve got my TRIO group. I’m a part of the other TRIO group,” he says. “Honestly, without Adult Learning and without TRIO DSS, I have no idea what my trajectory here would have been,” he expresses, speaking on his own experience. He explains how he got a job at the Success Center by asking around, seeing if anyone needed a tutor. Smith then found himself working his way up, “You know, I went from being a tutor and SI leader to writing specialist, lead tutor, and it’s been almost too good to be true.”

Smith provides his final piece of advice to adult learners and transfer students: “and so what I want to tell not just adult learners and transfer students, but honestly, half the battle is just showing up… so if you can just show up and you tell people what you’re looking for or where you wanna go, you’ll go.”