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SUNY Plattsburgh Student Profile - Helene Carr

Age is relative, they say, and Helene Carr certainly makes it seem that way.Helene Carr, who is 47, a Special Education major, and a Fall semester "transfer" student, decided she wanted to have the whole college enchilada. That decision put her in the record books.She is the oldest Plattsburgh State University undergrad to live in the dorms (the youngest was 14). She lives on the "quiet" floor in Banks Hall.

Dorm Living Is Nothing New

Helene says that dorm living is nothing new in some ways:"My mother married a US citizen after my father died; my step-father had 9 children and my mother had 7, so there were 16 of us ranging in age from 2 to 14 who became one big family in 1967. I was #6 in line and in the 6th grade when we moved from the city of Montreal to a dairy farm in rural New York. Everything was new to me, especially English."

Sharing English as a Second Language

A native Francophone who came to the US when she was 12, Helene knows how it feels to learn a language under pressure, so she asked for an international student as a roommate, knowing that, old or young, she and her roommate would have that language experience in common; she was paired with a student from Japan."My mother married a US citizen after my father died; my step-father had 9 children and my mother had 7, so there were 16 of us ranging in age from 2 to 14 who became one big family in 1967. I was #6 in line and in the 6th grade when we moved from the city of Montreal to a dairy farm in rural New York. Everything was new to me, especially English."

Love of Learning Both In and Out of Class

In addition to attending classes and living in the dorms, she is both a work-study student and a volunteer with Literacy Volunteers; she works in the Honors Center, is a mentor with Project Help, and she has applied to participate in the Alternative Spring Break program."Everyone has been very nice and very accepting of me, despite my age, although sometimes people do not realize that I am a student."Helene's two children have a strong role model in a mother who dares to do it her way. Helene's daughter Michelle, a junior in college herself, is a history major at Wells and the child of a mother who is making a little bit of history here at Plattsburgh State.

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