A 54-year-old custodian just graduated from the college he cleaned at night | Hacker News Reader

A 54-year-old custodian just graduated from the college he cleaned at night

washingtonpost.com

199 pointsshawndumas63 comments

I read this when it was first published and while it's impressive for sure this is easily overlooked:

> Decades earlier, in 1982, Vaudreuil received an associate’s degree in aeronautical engineering, but didn’t pursue his chosen career in the struggling airline industry.

So he had significant prior training in a related field.

Also, maybe that's my European bias, but I'm not so thrilled about this story because to my mind it shouldn't have been so hard for him in the first place to get that education, and some more aid after a normal failure in life.

I mean, are we making lives hard so that we can then celebrate the few(!) successes as if they prove anything? Like, that making lives in one of the richest countries in the entire million year history of mankind hard is a good thing?

This is like a Roman circus, we throw people into the arena and then celebrate the few who make it out again as "heroes".

"Are You Not Entertained?" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsqJFIJ5lLs)

An associate's in AeroE would amount to nothing beyond a few calculus and physics classes. All of the important stuff is in the second two years.

> nothing beyond a few calculus and physics classes

With this quote of your own comment I rest my case :-)

So apt!

One could say that this engineering degree finally put him into the place where he belonged all these years. It illustrates that there are unfair barriers that prevent people from making themselves and their families happy and healthy. Giving them the resources to succeed and provide for their families is a net good not just for their own selfish interests but for their surrounding economy and society as well.

I think the takeaway should be more about what we can give to the average working class person who is probably more intelligent and motivated than society is willing to give them credit for. What can we do for them instead of grinding them down in undignified, barely productive poverty wage jobs.

-- So he had significant prior training in a related field.

> He had to drop Calculus 1 initially because his basic Algebra was too rusty. So he self-taught himself through YouTube videos, and went on to ace Calculus 1 -4.

I agree with your sentiment (everyone should be afforded the same opportunity) but, I feel that you are being overly cynical. After all, other employees at the university had/have the same benefits. IMO, this man should be recognized for his accomplishments.

The older you get the harder it is to change careers. Maybe this man's story will help motivate others to follow in his footsteps.

Not only that but the man did so after two family businesses failed as a consequence of the 2008 housing crash. He had a family to support and had gone through bankruptcy. A lot of people would have given up because it is very hard to regain faith, more so when you get older.

Someone should get him an angel investment then; there is a lot of talk here about backing entrepreneurs that won't give up. Here is a perfect example of that personality trait.

He never ever gave up. Good for him.

I think you read it wrong, parent is calling him "one of the few successes" which to me actually is recognizing his achievement, but instead of "this is great", what he sees in the story is "how the hell was it so hard for him in the first place, it shouldn't", so it's a difference in perspective, but not that he does not recognize his success (that's my perception).

That being said, of course I agree with you. I was once enrolled in a community college program out of fun, thinking I would actually learn something, but with housewives and retired people in the class, the progress was next to nil and I dropped out pretty quickly, at first I was angry, but it actually gave me a glimpse into how hard even the easiest things were to them. I could read something for 5 minutes and be able to recite it, they would struggle with it for an hour. Not to say I am a genius, but one should really take advantage of all the chances while young, that's what I got from it, so I guess it was worth it.

So I deeply respect his achievement.

Clarification: Though I also partly blame the teacher for the bad experience, but that's another story entirely.

Edit: In case someone missed it, not so long ago this was on HN "Learning Chess at 40", very interesting read https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11653538

I took a web design class at a local community college once and the instructor spent like 2 days explaining what a file and and directory was.

Yes, I can see (now) a different interpretation of the parent post. I get your point.

It is too bad you didn't have a good experience with CC. My experience with community college was quite different and very rewarding. In fact, when I transferred to university I was farther along in computer science and math than my classmates. However, I did have one class, WordPress (in which I was told we would learn to build themes from scratch), that parallels your experience!

> IMO, this man should be recognized for his accomplishments.

He went to school while working.

Tons of people do that. Just because this is a nice feel good story doesn't make it more impressive.

Agreed.

I did that. I do that.

In fact, most everybody in all my classes at the local CC/TC and now at the four-year I'm at works and goes to school.

This is pretty common for people getting into tech, especially the IT/sysadmin side of things.

> He went to school while working. Tons of people do that.

[After losing everything, a man in his mid 40s went back to school for the first time since 1982 while supporting 3 kids and a wife (who also went back to school) working as a janitor and, at the same time, earned an engineering degree from a well respected school.] != [He went to school while working.]

I am only 30 and finding it tough to focus on learning anything new to retrain for a different career and I am not working as a custodian at night. Even if university was universally free here, this story would still be very impressive. Also, an Associates degree in Aeronautical "Engineering" (community college training for aircraft mechanic) is hardly prior experience for a Bachelors in MechE.

Calling it a "European Bias" is provocative and disingenuous. The US sits well above the average among OECD countries in both entrants over 30 and age at first graduation. The difference is how the US media reports, not how people in the US pursue education.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/...

Downvoted for cheesy movie reference.

That's great. We all saw Gladiator. Russel Crowe is incredible. We get it.

But will that degree help him find a job? And will he get any tangible payoff from the thousands of hours of class & studying (even if it was "free")? (I get that the degree has intangible "I put myself through college!" benefits, but if he was trying to better his situation, was the degree the right choice?)

What's the job market like for newly minted mechanical engineers? Does he now face years of apprenticeship to earn his PE so he can really take advantage of the degree?

He ran a plastering business for 24 years, would he have been better off taking some business courses to learn how to grow his company and then putting those hours into his business as the economy improved?

I suppose if he hadn't gone for the degree someone could pose questions like yours about his unwillingness to retrain. And, who knows, maybe he's got a plan to reshape the engineering behind the plastering business. It's probably more profitable and more painful to ponder your own counterfactuals than someone else's.

I'm really interested in if he'll find a company that'll hire him despite the fact that age discrimination while illegal is practiced by most companies. I'm 51, and compared to when I was 21 it's way harder, and I'm not even looking for more money than the typical twenty-something.

The university will hire him to clean the college at night.

I can unequivocally say that as an employer we've hired people who are much older and re-trained because they were able to do the job. We're okay with people who have kids or are older, as long as they get the job done. If older people can't get the job done and a younger person can, then so be it.

Ahh, my alma mater! This is exciting for me because the last time WPI was discussed nationally it was due to the comments of graduate and former U.S. Representative Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin.

I had quite a few friends who excelled in Science and Tech in highschool and went on to MIT, Stanford, Virginia Tech, GA Tech, Purdue, UofI Urbana, etc.

My parents were over 500k in debt when I was applying to colleges and I had a pretty good idea what I wanted to do with my life, so I opted for an associates degree from a community college and to start my career as a computer programmer as soon as possible. I was making enough money I made it a point to travel to visit my friends and they all seemed miserable, stressed out, disappointed with their choices, frustrated, lost...

All except my friend who went to WPI. He was as enthusiastic and happy as ever eating bad Chinese food, bent over 30 half assembled hacked gameboys, same as when I'd last seen him 3 years ago.

Its the first place I want to take my son when he's looking at colleges.

I have some qualms with WPI but overall I wouldn't change anything about my college experience. You are correct, most of the kids there are passionate about what they are studying. This is an attribute I found disturbingly absent in many campuses that I visited during my college years. WPI, at least in the CS dept, is very focused on "learning how to learn" which is why I think this happens.

Another aspect is the "WPI Plan"[0]. Over the years there have been talks of getting rid of it. But if they don't, definitely encourage your son to consider WPI. Without the plan, I'm not sure what the point of going there would be...

Also... Worcester as a city tends to get a lot of shit. This is from people who have never been there or never put in the effort to go off the beaten path there. The "mainstream attractions" in Woo are pretty lame, no doubt. But Worcester is a city that rewards the open minded and creative, not those who enjoy "plug it in and it works" activities. To a certain degree WPI is the same way.

Not sure how far off you are from the college touring experience but feel free to shoot me an email (in bio) if you have ever any questions about WPI.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcester_Polytechnic_Institut...

Reminds me of good will hunting, where he was a janitor but was smarter than professors and really good at math.

They should make a movie where the professors are smarter than the janitors.

the GWH morphism problem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW_LkYiuTKE

It is getting better, but adult education options are very poor and few considering careers and jobs change often now, and the skills you need do those jobs change as well. With that environment, you have to cheer anyone past student age that tries to better themselves no matter how they do it.

Learning lifelong should be the goal of everyone, constantly improving yourself and learning that you know nothing.

See, the sad thing about a guy like you is, in 50 years you're gonna start doin' some thinkin' on your own and you're going to come up with the fact that there are two certainties in life: one, don't do that, and two, you dropped 150 grand on a fuckin' education you could have got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library!

See, the sad thing about a guy like you is, you don't read articles you comment on.

>Vaudreuil starting taking undergraduate classes tuition free at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Infinitely cheaper than your $1.50 suggestion.

He or she is quoting Good Will Hunting, I believe.

I dislike that this piece of writing leads with the guy's age.

For non-Americans, non-townies, non-Mass people, it's pronounced Woo-stuh. Not Wer-Chest-er. Yeaahhh.

This story is like the reverse of Viva La Vida - Coldplay.

Obviously it needs to be said, Good Will Hunting?

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