For adults looking to get or complete their college degree, the college of New Rochelle School of New Resources has the answer. The college of New Rochelle was founded in 1904 and was the first catholic college in New York State for women. Today, it’s mostly coed.

The main campus is a 20-acre site located in New Rochelle, about 16 miles north of Manhattan.

The college has six campuses in the greater New York area with academic programs offered through the School of Arts & Sciences (the only one for women only), School of Nursing, Graduate School and School of

New Resources (SNR). SNR, for adults 21 and over, was started in 1972 and maintains six campuses in the city. The Harlem branch was established in 1986 and was renamed the Rosa Parks campus in 1987 in honor of “the Mother of the civil Rights Movement.” it is located in the heart of Harlem at the famed Studio Museum on 125th Street.

The Rosa Parks campus offers a state- of-the-art learning experience in an intimate, seminar-style setting with an average of 18 to 22 students per class.

The curriculum is tailored to the needs of the students. Dean Elza Dinwiddie- boyd spoke with the AmNews on the unique learning experience SNR offers.

“The School of New Resources was founded in 1972 as an adult-learner program. The college has a mission for academic excellence, as most universities do, but it also has a mission of access and social justice, as many catholic organizations do.

That piece of the mission started when the college began to move branch campuses into neighborhoods where there was not access to higher education,” she said.

What distinguishes this school from other continuing education programs? “Our courses are taught seminar- style. Adults learn best when they relate the theory and concepts to their own experience. in the seminar, the faculty person does not lecture. They may present the concept, but the adults discuss the concept in terms of their own life experience.

The teacher serves as a facilitator. The adults are not only learning, they are bringing their life experience as it pertains to that particular subject into the classroom experience,” she said.

“We offer credits for prior college-level learning. Most of the institutions in our general area don’t do that. In each of our six graded courses, students are required to create a life Arts Project, which has to do with their life experience. For example, if a student in developmental psychology is looking at autism and has experience with an autistic child, the project would have to deal with what they were learning in the classroom and their life experience with that child. This respect for the adult experience is what sets us apart from other schools,” she said.

SNR offers course development, a four-week process during which students determine the courses that they want to take. Faculty members then work to develop the curriculum.

“Our average student age is 36. it changes every decade. The 36-year- old of 1986 is very different from the 36-year-old of 1996 or 2006. We have graduates as old as 80. it’s very common to have students in their 40s

and 50s,” the dean said. “To get started, students take the Adult basic learning Exam, a standardized test that looks at your high school grade level. Next is a writing placement. Many students start in the beginning course, ‘Translating Experience into Essay.’

Traditional schools would call it ‘composition 101.’ As for math, most of our students opt for statistics because they want to go into graduate school. Though most prefer the classroom setting, those who can’t come in person can use the independent study option and study under the guidance of a mentor.

“The college approaches education through the lens of a woman, how the world would be with women running it. Rosa Parks represented a standard of social justice,” she said.

The School of New Resources offers a host of options to help you get or complete your degree. Areas of interest include communications, foreign languages, humanities and letters, psychology and social sciences.

To learn more about the college of New Rochelle School of New Resources, call (212) 662-7500 or visit www.snr@cnr.edu.