{"id":49819,"date":"2017-12-14T08:47:05","date_gmt":"2017-12-14T15:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=49819"},"modified":"2017-12-14T09:26:02","modified_gmt":"2017-12-14T16:26:02","slug":"cindy-winkler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/cindy-winkler\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate Cindy Winkler: How one student\u2019s impossible dream came true, four decades later"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Carly Banks<\/strong>
\nNAU Communications<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Meet Cynthia <\/strong>(Cindy) Brewer-Loos Winkler<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Degree:<\/strong> Liberal Arts
\nCampus:<\/strong> Personalized Learning Online<\/p>\n

Cindy Winkler is many things\u2014mother, divorcee, National Park Service employee, grandmother, widow\u2014and at the age of 71, she can finally add \u201ccollege graduate\u201d to her growing list.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 15, she will walk across the graduation stage after completing her bachelor\u2019s degree in liberal arts. It\u2019s an extra special accomplishment that has been 43 years in the making.<\/p>\n

Winkler made several efforts to earn a degree between 1974 and 2012, but something always seemed to get in the way. Supporting her family took priority over studying and attending classes, so her schooling was put on the back burner. To her, earning a degree was an impossible dream.<\/p>\n

After her three children had grown and her husband had died, she figured it was as good a time as any to continue working toward her degree. She looked into different options and discovered Northern Arizona University\u2019s Personalized Learning program.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was completely new to online learning when she began with us but caught up with the digital learning curve quickly and really thrived in the program,\u201d said Jayme Davis, <\/strong>liberal arts professor and\u00a0Winkler\u2019s faculty mentor. \u201cHer academic accomplishment is even more impressive considering she can only sit and type in 15- to 20-minute increments because of severe, painful arthritis.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the learning curve, her health, a cross-country move and starting a family business didn\u2019t stop Winkler from excelling.<\/p>\n

\"Cindy<\/a>
Winkler poses with her three children.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cShe is one of the most diligent and dedicated students I’ve had,\u201d Davis said. \u201cI\u2019ve never had a student quite so enthusiastic about her schoolwork\u2014she really relishes the world of ideas, and I would sometimes have to intervene and remind her not to work so hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of her school assignments required she read \u201cDon Quixote\u201d\u2014the story of an elderly knight who, bemused by reading romances, sets out to seek adventure. His story resonated with Winkler, probably because it reminded her of her own journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cGraduating means more than reaching a long-sought goal, it means I accomplished more than I thought I was capable of,\u201d Winkler said.\u00a0\u201cAt times, I shed tears of frustration and doubt, at others I cried happy tears with each lesson I completed. I was afraid, inspired, encouraged, confident and constantly challenged. Like Don Quixote, this journey has been my impossible dream.”<\/p>\n

NAU\u2019s Personalized Learning program sparked Winkers passion for learning, and she plans to continue her education after graduation. She wants to apply to Teach for America and hopes to earn a scholarship with the Mayan Research program in Belize.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to graduate from a great school, and I did. The journey continues!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carly Banks NAU Communications Meet Cynthia (Cindy) Brewer-Loos Winkler. Degree: Liberal Arts Campus: Personalized Learning Online Cindy Winkler is many things\u2014mother, divorcee, National Park Service employee, grandmother, widow\u2014and at the age of 71, she can finally add \u201ccollege graduate\u201d to her growing list. On Dec. 15, she will walk across the graduation stage after…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":49854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}