Paralegal Student - Vicki Ayshford
 Learning for Adult Students
Vicki Ayshford speaks for many busy adult students when she admits,
“Sometimes my brain feels really filled up.” But the energetic paralegal
student at Inver Hills processes information pretty effectively and gets
lots done thanks to her ambition, personal planner, and positive
perspectives on the world.
“Learning for adult students actually can be easier because we’re
motivated, but you also have more on your mind,” says Ayshford. “You’re
balancing family life, school, and parenting. You’re organizing your life
while trying to be a student, too. So my planner keeps me from obsessing…I
don’t have to worry about forgetting things, only rearranging them.”
Parenting is important for Ayshford, who says her own mother is her best
friend, mentor, and teacher of all things practical. “My mom saw a
description of the paralegal program at Inver Hills and said to me ‘this
describes you exactly—organized, detail oriented, analytical.’ She was as
excited as I was about starting out.” Ayshford had plenty of related
practical experience with law and contracts that spurred her interest,
including her own business, years of work experience, and child custody
matters.
With her own daughter, Ayshford is fostering the same relationship that
she has with her mother. It’s already reflected on the refrigerator door
where there is a crayon drawing of daughter, mom, grandmother, aunt, and
cousin all with coffee cups. “She drew that when she was five and I
thought it was so great that she could see herself grown up, all of us
together, drinking coffee.”
For Ayshford, full-time college enrollment and involved faculty present
plenty of stimulation. “I love my legal classes. Carol Schoen, in the
introductory class, is so concise and her lessons are so well put
together. You always know what’s going on. No confusion. That’s important
to adult students.” Her evening criminal law class, taught by Roger
Ramstad, is her favorite. “I could listen to him lecture for six hours;
the time just flies, and there is so much real-life material covered. To
have people like that teaching you, that’s why I’m here. Even after a long
day, I’m totally energized.”
Long days were a part of Ayshford’s life when she worked in sales and in
retail, and later opening up her own gift shop just contributed to the
demands on her time. Then last March, in a unique cooperative arrangement,
she joined with several other small shop owners and craftspeople and moved
into a common sales space in the Stone Mill Marketplace in Cannon Falls.
Each business has a distinct room or, in the case of some of the crafters,
display space. They split the rent, have a central checkout, pay no
salaries, and share the staffing duties, which amount to a day and a half
to two days a week. “Wrapping 10 businesses into one was a challenge, but
I’m grateful we have this arrangement because it frees me up to go to
school.” The store—which is attached to a dinner theatre and coffee
shop—is great for customers, she says, because there is so much variety in
one place. “You’ll find so many distinctive items, so much choice. In my
store I have everything from Tiffany lamps to rubber duckies.”
For her many teenage customers, who she says should be treated like
adults, not second-class citizens, she has some advice. “I tell them they
must do well in school for themselves, so that later in life they’ll have
choices. Their parents are always telling them to work hard in school.
It’s because they want you to be happy, to be able to do what makes you
happy. If you don’t have an education, aren’t prepared to learn, how can
you do what makes you happy?”
|
The
Program