Robin Monroe walked into the Online and Adult Learners office at Wichita State “almost by mistake.”

“I went to the advising office in Grace Wilkie (Hall) and on the way there, I went in the wrong door,” Monroe, 57, said. 

Monroe had been through a long journey to get to that office. A former nurse, she had gone through an addiction, the loss of her job, and separation from her kids — all accumulating in a prison stay and being homeless. After getting through those challenges, she wanted to make another change. 

A new start

Monroe said she is proof that addiction and homelessness, “can happen to anyone,” but that it is also possible to come back from those challenges.

“We all have our preconceived notions about what that means, what that looks like, and I am not at all probably what comes to most peoples’ mind,” she said. “It is just proof that one bad decision or one unhealthy trauma can cause a whole host of problems that takes the rest of your life to rebuild. I think being incarcerated, losing my children, having literally (just) the clothes on my back — it gives you an opportunity. There’s nowhere to go but up.” 

Monroe took that opportunity. 

“I was sitting in my living room one day, and I said, ‘I’m going back to school,’” Monroe said. “The semester had already started. I grabbed my keys, I drove across town, I walked in the Marcus Welcome Center, and then I said, ‘I don’t know what to do, but I want to come back (to school).’” 

After talking with staff at the welcome center, she was sent to the advising department at Grace Wilkie Hall, but accidentally ended up in the OAL office, somewhere she’s since frequented during her time at WSU. 

“I had a student assistant sitting up front. I heard him talking to someone, and I came up front because anytime I hear a student, I want to introduce myself and see what I can do,” Pamela O’Neal, OAL’s associate director, said. “Robin was … almost like the quintessential adult learner because she really didn’t even know what to ask.”

Finding support

Monroe said that after taking the first step and enrolling at WSU, she still faced many challenges navigating higher education years after she was last in school. On top of the learning curve, Monroe was busy working and raising her two grandchildren. 

“As an adult learner, you feel overwhelmed because you’ve got life happening at the same speed, bills are still coming in, kids are still getting sick, you know, whatever happens,” Monroe said. “So if you have a place that can take some of the just nuts and bolts and help you with those, you can do the work much easier.”

Monroe will finish her bachelor’s in social work in May and will complete her master’s next year. While at WSU, she continued to turn to the adult learners office for help with the “nuts and bolts” of being a student.

O’Neal, who was an adult learner herself before assuming her role, said she loves her job “because of students like Robin.” 

“She’s actually someone I look up to,” O’Neal said. “Because I know what she’s been through and even on bad days, because we all have them, she finds the good. I think she finds the good in everybody.” 

These qualities are why, O’Neal said, Monroe has been nominated for WSU’s Adult Learner of the Year award three years in a row by classmates and faculty. 

The award was started in 2020, “because of people like Robin, who have these fascinating stories” O’Neal said. 

According to the university’s website, the award recognizes “an undergraduate student who, despite facing obstacles, has inspired others and deserves recognition for their exceptional journey of triumph and perseverance in learning.”

This year, O’Neal said, she was one of the people who nominated Monroe. 

“I think that says a lot about somebody when they’re nominated that many times,” O’Neal said. “It’s not just myself seeing it; it’s her professors, it’s her classmates and faculty that are seeing it — that despite all that she’s doing, she has a very high GPA and is very involved in the community. When you think of somebody doing it all, Robin Monroe does it all, and she does it exceedingly well.”

A new direction

Monroe said she feels drawn to social work because she wants to help others who are in the same place she was years ago.

“It took a lot of building back from nothing,” She said. “Literally nothing — homelessness, and, you know, trying to find space in the housing market and the job market. My intention now as a social worker is to sort of make those paths back to society much easier.” 

Monroe said coming toward the achievement of all her hard work — getting her first degree on the path to becoming a social worker feels “unreal.” But, she said, she managed it in part due to the people who helped her along the way and the resources that were offered to her. 

“Coming from where I’ve come, that just seems unattainable,” She said. “But, it has been attainable, because of the support around here.”

For Monroe, knowing that she’s close to achieving her goal of becoming a social worker, and that the first milestone, her bachelor’s, is even closer, feels “surreal.” 

“I mean, when you go from just being absolutely hopeless, and then all of a sudden you’re not only working towards a goal, which in itself, is just a remarkable feeling, but when you are this close to achieving that goal, it’s a great feeling. It’s a great feeling,” she said, adding “It’s a feeling anyone can have.”