Olive Bryanton

Primary tabs

Slide - 50 Years, 50 Voices - Olive Bryanton - 00:00
 My name is Olive Bryanton, I have been around this campus almost since it
started, I been, I’ve walked across the stage three times and will be
going the fourth time next month.


Slide - Going Back to School - 0:24
I have a nursing background but I just felt it was time to change so I came
back, I took the summer off from work because my youngest son was fourteen
and he was going to be alone all summer and I didn’t think that was a
very good thing for a young boy at that time so I took the summer off and
during the summer I thought I really want to learn something new so I
applied to UPEI and was accepted. So I started with three courses and of
course one of them had to be Father Bolger because everybody loved Father
Bolger and I remember the first time I had to write a paper I said to
Father Bolger I don’t know what I should be doing and he said well you
did composition didn’t you and I said yes, he said well look at it as a
composition only longer and then of course when I got it back there was
lots of red ink so I’ve gotten used to red ink all the time and one of
the things he wrote on it was, Olive I would suggest you use a dictionary
so I went to see him and I said Father Bolger if I thought I had spelled it
wrong I would have used a dictionary but spelling has always been, not been
my forte still is not so it was kind of the acceptance that I didn’t know
everything, actually when the day I walked on campus I thought I knew way
more than the day I walked off from my undergrad degree, it was the
acceptance it was the walking across the campus with younger students and
one day coming to the Library and this young woman was walking with me and
she said you must think we’re all so dumb and I said it’s the total
opposite I think you guys are so smart and it’s me that feels dumb so it
was just that, I think, the intergenerational mix the being seen as just
one of the students and not being set apart, I really liked that about this
campus and even when I started my Phd I was sitting beside a young woman
who was half my age and our first semester was all about Philosophers, I
knew nothing about Philosophers couldn’t pronounce most of their names
let alone whta they did and I said it’s got to be this old brain of mine,
I have no idea who these people are and I’m not sure I want to know and
she looked at me and she said no it’s not, I feel exactly the same way
and the professor heard us and he said listen ladies you’re no more
special then anybody else you’re going through a journey the same as
everybody else so it kind of made you feel that sure I’m just one of the
gang.


Slide - Honorary Degree - 3:37
In the year 2000 I received an honorary degree from UPEI then I guess it
was at that time that I kind of thought to myself you know I really should
go back and do a degree that I really have to work hard on never really
thinking I would do it but when you are on campus you get that feeling that
you should be learning.


Slide - Graduate Studies - 4:08
I finally decided I would do my Master’s, I did a lot of procrastinating,
it took me a long to do my Master’s like I graduated in 2009 with my
Master’s and I think in the back of my mind I always felt I would love to
do my Phd and never thinking I could possibly do it. I finally got the
courage up to go over and talk to Martha who was the coordinator of the
Graduate Program at the Faculty of Education and she was really very
supportive and said sure why don’t you apply so I did apply but of course
one of the main issues is as a Phd student you need to have one of your
committee members or team as I had who were from the Faculty of Education
and the fact that education focuses more on youth there really wasn’t
anybody who had a lot of knowledge or interest in older adults which was
what my study was about so I did find an adjunct professor who would take
me on as she said, she said to me we had an interview she said so if I took
you on what would you expect of me? I said everything, she said I’m
taking you on so with that I had a team, five people on my committee and
they called themselves a team and so I think they almost became my cohort
throughout my studies and I think I depended a lot on them, we met at least
three times a year with everyone on my team at the meetings so it was just
that, I think that welcoming atmosphere on this campus that I really really
enjoyed and the fact there is an organization for mature and part time
students I think that adds to the welcoming from this campus. I started my
Phd in 2013 and I will be walking across the stage on the 10th of May
2019.


Slide - Mature & Part time Student Association - 6:49
Well when I first came on campus as an older student unlike the regular
students coming in you’re not coming in as a group so you’re the only
person at that moment until you get to meet some others and of course
it’s important to meet people your own age as well as all other ages, I
found there was no place to go to get together to talk we went to the PIT
but it was so noisy we couldn’t hear one another think so to speak so we
just, a bunch of us thought it would be a good idea if we started an
organization just for the mature and part time students here on campus and
it was a good time because they had to open the legislation for the Vet
College to come in so it all kind of happened around the same time so
everything, I think, has it’s time and place so we just were there at the
right time to start the Mature and Part Time Student Association, it’s
still going, it’s still very viable and it’s still very useful to older
and part time students coming on campus, I was given the opportunity a
while ago to be part of planting a tree on campus so I always look at that
tree and watch it grow and very proud to have been part of that as well.


Slide - Opening Doors - 8:24
The interesting thing is that as you go back to school the more you learn
the more doors open and you know I had an opportunity to go to a conference
in Malta which was amazing it was all about learning for older adults and
it was for learning for their purpose not to go back to work or something
like that, I was invited to Waterloo University to, as a keynote speaker
and that was totally amazing because I met all these wonderful people who
were doing research on aging and when I’d meet them after at conferences
their professor, whom they all absolutely loved and now I know why they
did, he took me under his wing as if I was one of his students as well so
that was amazing, I got invited to the International Federation on aging
conference and they paid for everything it was just, you know, so many
doors have opened I was invited to be an Executive Advisor for the
development of the Strategy for Health and Aging for older adults who are
in this Province. I’m going, I’ve been invited to go to Quebec this
summer to be a mentor for Age Well students who are using technology to
better life for older adults so I think that’s going to be exciting
there’s eighteen students and six of them will be my age, I’ll be
mentoring those so things like that that I never thought I would ever do so
it’s been an exciting part of my life.


Slide - Family & Community Support - 10:32
I think being an older student on campus you’re not only being supported
by the younger people on this campus but my own children were supporting me
and helping me get through especially the last part of my studies when it
came time to finish your dissertation, and I didn’t have the resources to
hire someone so one of my daughters is really good at formatting and
another one is really good at editing and another one is really good at
questioning me so I really got a lot of support from my children and the
boys not quite so much but they were always there rooting for me so I think
as an older student you get a lot of support from your family, from your
community, you also get a lot of people say well why would you do that? Why
are you putting yourself through this? And I know my team were also
questioned why they were wasting their time with an older person and they
did set them straight so I love a campus where everyone is welcome.


Slide - Final Thoughts - 11:50
Well I’m very proud that I’m graduating for the final time at, during
the 50th anniversary at UPEI, I really enjoy being on campus, I enjoy
everyone I meet, I enjoy the comradeship between the, all students not just
my own age but all ages. I would recommend to anyone if they ever felt they
wanted to continue their education to do it, don’t put it off because I
feel that I may have a little bit more knowledge but I don’t have very
much time left to use that knowledge or to learn new things so I think if
you want to come on campus do it and do it as soon as you can.