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Robin Duschen, of Palos Hills, was selected as Moraine Valley Community College’s 2009 Lifelong Learner and was presented with a plaque for her commitment to education at the Board of Trustees meeting on June 16. She also was the college’s nominee for the statewide Lifelong Learning Award sponsored by the Illinois Community College Trustees Association.
The Lifelong Learner Award celebrates the accomplishments of a student who is over 50 years old and has earned at least six community college credit hours. Duschen has been taking classes at Moraine Valley intermittently since 1981 and has completed 74 hours of credit classes.
A single mother with three sons to support, Duschen began at Moraine Valley by enrolling in real estate prep classes in the 1980s. She also volunteered at the Crisis Center for South Suburbia in Tinley Park, where she was offered full-time employment as the house manager, a position she held for 10 years. Working with women who had master’s degrees in social work motivated her to continue her own schooling. This job also helped her discover her dream of helping women go back to school.
Duschen has continued general education classes at Moraine Valley. She even enrolled in a math course so she could help her sons with their math homework. She currently is taking credit classes to earn a certificate in Medical Transcription.
The college also has been a guiding hand in helping her fulfill a personal, lifelong dream of becoming a singer. She has enrolled in a voice class and has plans to take individual voice lessons to better herself even more. She hopes to join the Moraine Chorale.
“Moraine Valley’s instructors were always there to teach, help, encourage, and provide the confidence I needed to continue my dream of higher education,” said Duschen. “To understand the slight nuances in life that only an education can open to someone is immeasurable. To understand meanings in poetry and music, or to help one’s children see the world in a different light is what makes life better and what Moraine Valley has to give to any and all who seek it.”
For news media inquiries, call Jessica Crotty, College and Community Relations coordinator, at (708) 974-5281, or e-mail her at crotty@morainevalley.edu.
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Moraine Valley Community College student Robin Duschen (left) accepts the college’s 2009 Lifelong Learner Award from Sandra Wagner, vice chairman of the Board of Trustees, at the June board meeting.
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