Students who took two-week classes over the Winter Session said they enrolled so they could graduate on time or get ahead in courses that they could not fit into their fall or spring schedules.

Still, in an informal poll of 21 Winter Session students, a handful said they had other reasons.

Caleb Schaeffer, a second-year student at AACC, is one of two students who said they took winter classes for fun.

Schaeffer enrolled in two classes this winter, in ethics and massage therapy. “I need them both for my degrees, but I really like them,” he said.

Schaeffer said he is doubling up as a nursing transfer student and is working on a degree in massage therapy, adding that, to him, classes like these “feel more like play than work.”

For Autumn Foster-Fields, a first-year sports management student, winter classes are required for her to play on the basketball team. To play a sport at AACC, she explained, student athletes must retain a high GPA, aside from keeping up with the credits they will need to graduate.

“[Coaches] care about your academics just as much as they do your performance,” she said. “If you’re not doing well [academically] you shouldn’t be on the team, and I understand that.”

Other students took classes to prepare them for the work environment.
Susan Yuksel, a second-year transfer studies student, took CPR and first aid this winter to become CPR certified because she does a lot of babysitting. “It’s better to know [CPR] just in case,” she said. “Especially around kids.”

Health Professor Patricia Kuhlman taught a two-week CPR and first aid class this winter. “The students that sign up for this type of condensed session seem to have organized themselves to accommodate the work load,” she said. “Both [condensed and 15-week] learning situations can be effective.”