On any given formation morning at Cal Maritime, one thing’s for certain: the quad will be filled with early-rising cadets standing at strict attention. But if you look close enough, what you see may surprise you: not everyone lined up is a fresh-faced kid just out of high school or a year or two removed from it. Some are actually full-on adults, with years—even decades—of experience in the working world. 

Official figures confirm what a lingering glimpse suggests. According to Dr. Lori Schroeder, provost and VP of academic affairs, there were an especially notable number of so-called non-traditional students in the 2021 entering class. While the average age of students is 20, 14.4 percent of them entered at ages 22 to 29, and 2.4 percent are 30 or older. 

Even though Seamus Jameson is decades older than most of his classmates, he says Cal Maritime is just where he needs to be.

Seamus Jameson is a proud member of this latter cohort. The 52-year-old oceanography senior and father of three arrived at Cal Maritime after a varied career that’s included Navy service, driving an armored car, work as a port engineer, ship chandlering, and sixteen years in real estate. Despite his professional success—he’s worked his way into the RE/MAX International Realty Hall of Fame—he always wanted to earn a college degree, and one from Cal Maritime to boot.  

The academy first came onto his radar during high school, when he was in the Sea Scouts, the maritime arm of the Boy Scouts. Two close friends from his unit wound up graduating from Cal Maritime, one in 1990, the other in 1992. In the years since, the school has always been in the back of his mind.  

When he found out that Cal Maritime was establishing an oceanography major, he decided it was time to take the leap. “The school I always wanted to attend had the major that I want at the specific moment that I wanted to go back to school. It’s almost weird, right?” (Coincidentally, the daughter of his pal from the class of ’90, whom he once coached on the soccer field, just entered this year.) 

Timing seems to be a common element among "non-traditional"students. Unlike most undergraduates, who enter college directly from high school or a year or two after graduating, non-traditional students are less likely to see earning a degree as an obligation, something to get through on the way to a career. 

Josh Barlas, far left, with two classmates and Professor Steve Browne just prior to the commencement ceremony last May 2021. Barlas entered Cal Maritime at age 37.

In other words, these students really want to be here. That’s true even if they already have a college degree—or, in the case, of Josh Barlas, a master’s too. After earning degrees in English literature from UC Santa Cruz, Barlas worked as environmental consultant in seismic research in the Gulf of Mexico. A three-year career teaching 10th grade English followed. Ultimately, though, the water beckoned him back.

“I missed working offshore, and I figured that it was the most efficient route to getting a license and to getting back into that line of work,” says Barlas. He enrolled at Cal Maritime at age 37 with a major in marine transportation, graduating in May, after three years. His goal is to be a bar pilot in the San Francisco Bay. 

Andrew Harris got inspired to apply to Cal Maritime when he was studying supply chain logistics at a community college. He doesn't mind being older than his classmates, calling it "part of his story."

For junior Andrew Harris, 27 and also majoring in marine transportation, discovering Cal Maritime opened up a world of opportunity that he never knew existed. “Where I am from and in the community I am a part of, there is no exposure to non-traditional fields of study and occupations,” he says. 

This would change while attending Long Beach Community College. After Harris switched his major from communications to supply chain logistics, he found himself being taught by Professor James Mucci, a Kings Point grad. This chance encounter helped usher in a new chapter in Harris’s life. 

Margaret Malmquist-West came to Cal Maritime when she was 31. She collaborates with her engineering classmates and soccer teammates of all ages.

Like her schoolmates mentioned above, Margaret Malmquist-West had a somewhat winding path to enrolling at Cal Maritime in 2020, when she was 31. Growing up, she says, she believed that working in a STEM discipline would be too difficult, and she worried about “being alienated in the male-dominated engineering community.” So she spent several years in her twenties studying and working in Spain and France, which included starting a translation business and a stint working at the Apple Store in Paris, one of the company’s busiest. When she returned stateside in 2017, she worked as a fundraiser at a nonprofit serving the LGBTQ community.  

She soon realized that she wanted to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering, despite her misgivings all those years earlier. To prepare for her coursework, however, she had to take prerequisite classes in math and science at a local community college—and do it while still working full time. A trip to campus reassured her that she was on the right path. 

“After visiting on Preview Day in 2019, I knew it was the perfect school for me,” says Malmquist-West (who, it’s worth mentioning, was recently named the CSU Jack McGrory Trustee Scholar for 2021). “I love that theoretical mechanical engineering courses pair with hands-on work on the Training Ship Golden Bear. Everything I learn in the ME classroom lends itself to the questions I ask and my critical thinking process as I work on the ship. As an adult learner, this symbiotic theory-practice relationship was crucial.”    

It’s not every undergrad who’s excited by things like the symbiosis of theory and practice. But for older adult learners, enthusiasm is par for the course. So is a certain self-confidence and perspective that younger peers may lack—and come to appreciate in their older classmates. 

For example, in Jameson’s experience, younger students can be timid about speaking up in class if they don’t know something. He, on the other hand, has no qualms about asking questions. “I don't care what anybody thinks,” he says. After class, other students regularly “come up to me and they go, ‘Man I'm so glad you asked that question because I was really lost.’” 

Additionally, non-traditional students often throw themselves into activities as well as their coursework. Barlas was the among the highest academic achievers in his class and got involved in student government. Malmquist-West joined the women’s soccer team, where she credits the trainers for keeping her 32-year-old body in collegiate soccer shape. She regularly drives her teammates from the training ship to the team’s practice field; for her efforts, she’s now known as the “team mom.” 

These experiences seem to validate Schroeder’s belief that older students have a lot to offer. “ 'Non-traditional' students typically bring with them the sense of purpose and grit that we want all of our students to possess,” she says. “They are also invaluable peer role models for our more traditional-aged students that come directly from high school.” 

Still, adjusting to the default environment isn’t always easy. In so many ways, American universities are geared toward a certain type of (younger) student. “There are things that you have to put up with along the way by nature of being older than everybody else around you, but if you make the most of it it'll pay off,” says Barlas.  

Harris seems to echo this sentiment. “Sometimes it is challenging being older around the younger students because it reminds me of how long ago I completed high school,” he says. “When that thought arises I just remind myself that my story will be different than theirs but it is just as important.”  

Jameson takes the unique challenges he faces similarly in stride. Ultimately, he says, he couldn’t be happier with his decision to get a degree from Cal Maritime. “My whole quality of life,  mentally, is just so much better,” he says. “I'm exhausted and I just had midterms and it's stressful. But at the end of the day, I know now I'm where I need to be. And before -- I felt like there was a part of me missing.” 

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