Our guest blogger is for this month is Doris Susanne Cooper, a graduating student of Certificate in Law. Dorris (also known as Sue), shares her academic journey from being an interest student, to eventually finishing the program as a mature student. Her quench for learning in the legal field has been rewarding and fulfilling despite all the challenges. Read on to learn more about her story.

I grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia next door to a person whom I admired and knew well and happens to be the Dean of Law at a prestigious Canadian university is. Over the years, he encouraged me to think about attending law school after finishing my undergraduate degree. I applied but was encouraged by family members to take a year off and take a job I had been offered in Montreal as a social group worker. Life got in the way when I met my husband, a Montrealer, so I went to back to school for a degree in education and taught for three years before we started our family. Four children later, law school was not really an option; but it was on the back burner for many years.

I kept looking for online law degrees, but they were mostly American with one at the University of London, U.K. where I was accepted. Then I came across the online Certificate in Law! I first registered as an "interest" student to see if I could actually get back into the academic world successfully. 

My first course was Intellectual Property, which I liked immensely having been an editor in my student days. From then on, each course has proved to be challenging but very rewarding with each subject offering a wide range of learning techniques and experiences. My biggest challenge was computer skills - or lack thereof, so I had a computer tutor help me with the technology. I somehow figured it out with help from the Queens IT group. 

If anyone, especially my age (75 years old) and stage, is contemplating taking the course they should be adequately computer literate and be willing to work hard. There are no shortcuts. For me, the rewards of achieving a modicum of success were certainly worth the effort. The program got me thinking on a whole different level again and I hope to bring the knowledge and work ethic to benefit the various charity groups in which I am involved. Who knows - maybe my exposure to different law subjects will open doors to opportunities I never dreamed of.