Matt Foster
Published: September 28, 2005
It’s five o’clock in the evening.
The campus is empty, deprived of the hustle and bustle that filled its halls in the school day. Lights are turned off, doors are locked, and the parking lots are empty. People may still be found on the campus, if you know where to look, but for the most part its grounds are deprived of life.
The sun sets.
Slowly but surely the first of them begin to arrive.
Quietly they mill about the campus, sit in the hallways studying, or talk to their loved ones on a cell phone.
As the sky turns to a warm shade of orange and the clouds become lined with silver, the night students of PJC slowly file onto campus.
If you’ve only seen a PJC campus during the day, you only know half the story.
Most students take night classes in part because of working full time jobs during the day.
“I work full time doing construction,” said Jacob Dalton, a student pursuing his business degree. “I haven’t been home all day. I left the house at 6 (a.m.) and I won’t get home until 9 (p.m.).”
Parents who also have to balance children and a full time job find that night courses help to ease the stress of a hectic schedule.
“It’s very hard,” said Rebecca Waits, a night student taking microbiology on the Warrington campus. “I have to juggle a full time job and my kids. I go home, feed them then go to school. My husband watches them while I’m gone.”
Veronica Blakes, a secretary for the Escambia County School District and mother of three, shares her thoughts on night classes.
“Transitioning from work to school is hard. After you’re through with work you have to get your children to extracurricular activities that they have,” Blakes said. “It’s (the night classes) an added work load in addition to everything else. You still have your work during the day in addition to home work.”
According to Blakes, the hardest thing for night students is not necessarily the classes themselves, but the day after class.
“It’s definitely a struggle. Your fatigue is so great,” she said.
Despite the sometimes hard hours and an added work load, a common agreement among many is that night classes certainly cater to the students taking them.
“It’s fun,” said Katie Perry, a student enrolled in a classical mythology class at night. “It’s two or three classes rolled into one sitting. It’s easy and sometimes it doesn’t last very long.”
“It breaks up our day,” said Ashley Butcher, enrolled in the same mythology class as Perry. “We take two day classes and two night classes so that we don’t get overwhelmed.”
The peaceful atmosphere of night classes is also a benefit to the working parents.
“It’s friendly to the person that has a day job,” Blakes said.
“It’s alot quieter on campus,” Dalton adds. “People are more serious about their schooling.”