The student body at Waubonsee is as diverse as the community that the college serves. There is no better example of this than Dylan Norton, Waubonsee Student Success: Featured Student in February 2018.
Norton moved to Oswego from Newcastle, England in 2012—just before his high school freshman year. Before he graduated from Oswego East in 2016, he earned nine college credit hours in graphic design through Waubonsee by taking dual credit courses. It was while working on those classes that he knew he wanted to attend Waubonsee after high school.
“I knew very early on I was going to go to Waubonsee. There was never any doubt,” he said.
Of course, while in high school Norton had to adjust to the differences between life here and in England.
“[In England] I would have graduated from high school when I was 16. When I was deciding to move here I took into great consideration where I thought I would excel the best, and I felt that would be here,” he said.
Though he knew what he was eventually going to do, Norton did not start taking college classes his first semester after high school. He took his first college classes outside of high school at Waubonsee’s Aurora Downtown Campus beginning in January 2017.
Since then, he was selected to be part of Waubonsee’s second Dunham Fund Quick Path Degree Program cohort. Through this accelerated program he will graduate in May 2018 with an associate of arts degree with a business emphasis.
Sean Warren-Crouch, the Dunham Fund Quick Path Project Manager, said it was an easy decision to accept Norton into the program.
“Dylan is a dedicated student who has embraced the fast pace of the Quick Path program,” said, Warren-Crouch.
Norton plans to transfer to a four-year university next year to continue studying business. He wants to find ways to merge his interest and education in graphic design and his future degree in business to make the most of his entire education experience. As he continues through college he will develop ideas for a graphic design business he could start at some point in the future.
For now, though, Norton is immersing himself in the college experience.
“I’m really enjoying it. It’s a lot of work, but I’m getting through it.”
