Dianna Balan’s alarm goes off at 7:15 a.m. She takes her son Jacob to the school bus within 30 minutes before heading to class.

Balan, a senior from Chicago studying communication disorders and sciences, leaves the university by 3 p.m. and rushes home to meet her son at the bus by 3:20.

But her day is not over as she begins cooking dinner, cleaning, doing her homework —as well as helping Jacob with his — bathing Jacob and putting him to bed before finally falling asleep at midnight.

She goes through this routine daily as a full time student.

Balan is a non-traditional student who is making a strong impact on her and her son’s life when she graduates with a bachelor’s degree this spring.

With an eight-year-old son and a ten-year break from school to be in the workforce, Balan said transitioning back to being a full time student was a huge adjustment.

Balan attended Northeastern Illinois University right out of high school for one year before she decided to take a break from being a full time student and concentrate on her son and to earn money to care for him, she said.

She said she originally wanted to stay in Chicago because she worried about financial issues. By living at home, she would not have to pay such a high price.

“I always had the ambition to return back to school,” she said. “I always had the ambition to relocate and strive for the better, but I just didn’t know how to at the time.”

She said she was concerned with having a home for her son and providing for the two of them. While paying off bills, she was not sure how to make it happen with school.

Balan became a part time student at Truman College in Chicago in 2009. It was close to her home and after three years she earned her associate degree.

In 2012, Balan decided to attend a university to receive a bachelor’s degree in her field and applied to five different colleges.

She said she chose SIU because it offered a lot of assistance with housing for families transitioning into the university.

“The breaking point, honestly, was that support that I needed, and I needed to know that when I moved here someone was going to acknowledge that I’m a new student and I needed resources,” Balan said. “The number one person who has supported me, and she doesn’t probably even know how much she did, was Deborah Barnett.”

Barnett, coordinator of the non-traditional student services, helped Balan by emailing back and forth and helping her smoothly transition to the university, Balan said.

Barnett said non-traditional students are defined by many characteristics other than age. They can be parents, married, working full time and being student part time, or basically anything outside of a traditional student, she said.

“It’s a very diverse population, lots of characteristics even in the research that’s available, people describe it in multiple ways but these characteristics here (on the website) are traditionally what we use,” she said.

Barnett said many of the students come to the university because they are local and transfer from community colleges or for the services they provide.

“We do a survey every year and the top three reasons why students say they come here is number one it’s close to home, number two is the programs that are offered and the institutions reputation,” she said.

Barnett said many of the non-traditional students come back to finish a degree they started years ago or after a career change. Others are coming to set examples for their children, she said.

“Whatever their goal is, I just try to keep that goal in front of them,” she said. “So when times get hard, they remember that they are doing this for their children, or they’re doing this to finish a goal they had maybe years ago, or that they have returned so that they can make a better life for their family through career advancement.”

Most of the students come already very motivated and know what they want to do and what degree they want to complete, but she is still there to encourage their success, she said.

In March, the Non-traditional Student Services office held a contest called “Calling All Grads.” Barnett said they asked any non-traditional student graduating in May to send them their name, hometown, degree and what their degree means to them.

Seventy-one students sent in their information, which can be found compiled on the wall in the office and are also highlighted in the April and May newsletter.

“On the front of the April newsletter we sort of did this word cloud with all of the words that they had,” she said. “Opportunities, success and achievement were the top words they used to describe their goal.”

Almost 5,800 non-traditional students – both graduate and undergraduate – are currently attending the university.

Balan will be attending graduate school this fall at SIU to receive a Master’s degree in communication disorders and sciences, she said.

“It’s rewarding because who would’ve ever known the one school you did want to come to 10 years later you would be here,” she said. “That’s a story I would endlessly tell anybody and to honestly never give up on what you believe in and your ambitions.”