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| Stanford Transfer Success Story |
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Check out this
inspirational transfer success story...
The road less traveled
Determined transfer student pursues college degree after four children, thirty years
(see original story at http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2007/10/29/theRoadLessTraveled)
October 29, 2007
By Luke Henesy
Around every corner of this campus, it seems, a student is lurking, building their resume so they can proceed to graduate school, secure a high-paying job, court a spouse and finally settle down with children so that they too can drudge through the entire rigamarole with similar success.
We’re often under the impression that doing these things out of order and allowing long amounts of time to elapse between them will yield less-than-desirable results. Carla Baku ‘09, however, is living proof that when it comes to going through the college process, there really is no “right way.”
Baku, a native of Eureka, Calif., finished high school about three decades ago with only vague notions of college, as neither of her parents earned degrees and didn’t offer her any assistance in that direction. Though she took a couple classes at the local community college, Baku quit after only a few sessions. In short order, she was married, and education dropped off her list of priorities.
Not until over a decade later did Baku consider returning to the academic world, and only because a long-time friend began taking classes after a similar hiatus. As a mother of four at this point, the transition back appeared daunting.
“It was a fight from the beginning, because my husband at the time was extremely unsupportive,” she said. “He had always been severely threatened any time I made motions toward intellectual expression. My four sons were still pretty young then, and twice a week I had to orchestrate my departure for class with serious strategizing.”
To make matters worse, getting to class was not even the toughest part. After having dinner prepared and bartering babysitting time with helpful neighbors, when in the classroom itself Baku found herself “so nervous that [she] could barely breathe.”
“I relaxed after a couple of weeks, though, and when I got an A in the class, I was on my way,” she said.
Four years later, Baku had divorced and moved back to Eureka, but with a newfound vigor for education. She got a job at a community college and slowly began accumulating credits. Eleven years flew by and Baku had remarried, taken a two-year break from school and finally fulfilled all her requirements to transfer to a four-year school.
“When I registered for my last semester at College of the Redwoods, I knew I really needed to go to school full time, [but] that was a financial impossibility,” she said. “So I parked myself on the couch with my laptop and announced that I needed to find someone to pay me to go to school full time.”
That’s when Baku found the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, which offered an Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship. After one of her professors enthusiastically nominated her for this prestigious scholarship, Baku was eventually selected as one of two applicants to be sent on to the national competition.
“Five long months later, I was treated to a surprise announcement in one of my classes letting me know that I had won the scholarship,” she said. “I was stunned!”
She then applied to several schools, all within a day’s drive of Eureka. Adding Stanford to her list was an afterthought, but at the rate things had been going for her, she felt no reservations about dreaming big.
“In order to apply to Stanford I had to go back, at the age of almost 50, and take the SAT at the same local high school where I had chosen not to take it in 1975!” she said. “I sat there with a whole lot of kids, all of us clutching our No. 2 pencils, hoping for the best. One little girl was so young, she didn’t even know her zip code.”
Baku had been accepted to every school she applied to, and was waiting to hear from Stanford — by far the most competitive of her choices — before deciding where to go. She had read that on average only 60 transfer students are admitted each year, and
didn’t think she had a prayer.
Last May 15, her husband came home early from work and the two of them sat down on their bed and waited for the decision to be available online. Although he later told her he was only there to console her when she didn’t get in, the first word she read was “Congratulations!” She soon learned that she was one of only 20 admitted transfer students.
“There was a lot of laughing, some tears and I think maybe some jumping on the bed — it’s kind of a blur,” Baku recalled.
Today Baku lives in Escondido Village, well on her way to graduating in 2009 as an English major concentrating in creative writing. Although how she got here is dramatically different than the typical Stanford student, she still has GERs to knock out and is currently taking PWR 2, where her classmates are younger than three of her four children.
Being 30 years older than your classmates doesn’t make things any easier, but Baku draws inspiration from the generation gap.
“I feel like the world is going to be in pretty good hands when I am done with this earthly adventure,” she said.
Don’t be mistaken — Baku may not frequent fraternity parties or play intramural sports, but she still knows how to live it up.
“I will say my fiftieth birthday party is now something of a legend,” she said. “Dirty Martinis. That’s enough about that.”
All joking aside, Baku’s story has an important lesson: It’s never too late or too difficult to do what you love.
“I am living proof that if one is tenacious and willing to work very hard, if one is willing to throw themselves into the void of the unknown, the universe will rise up to meet you in the most wonderful and unexpected ways,” she said. “Coming to Stanford has helped me see that the most crippling limits we encounter are often the limits we put on ourselves.”
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