Kathleen Brown, a nutritional sciences senior in the College of Human Ecology, is a mature member of Cornell's Mature Students Association. Mature enough that one of her children is old enough to be a member of the group.

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Kathleen Brown, outside her home, stretched her college career over 13 years while she raised her family.

The association requires members to be at least 24 years old at matriculation. Brown's son and daughter are 22 and 28 years of age, respectively.

"I'm 47 and some of the other mature students are young enough to be my children," she says.

"Being different is the norm at Cornell," professes Brown. Even as an older undergraduate, she feels that she has easily blended in.

Originally from Wayne, N.J., Brown found herself in upstate New York 24 years ago when her husband got a job at Corning Inc. While her children were still very young, Brown also owned and operated a child day-care business out of her home. She served as a PTA president and a Girl Scout troop leader. She ran writing workshops for children and taught a preschool story hour every spring for six years.

Then, with her sights on veterinary school, Brown started to work and volunteer at small animal and wildlife veterinary clinics during summers. She bred golden retrievers and trained dogs in obedience for several years. Brown also raised a puppy for Guiding Eyes for the Blind, an organization that provides guide dogs for the visually impaired.

In 1993, when her children were 9 and 15, Brown, then 33, enrolled in the College of Human Ecology as a biology and society major. After commuting from the Corning area for three years, she withdrew after her junior year. Then, about a year later, she was accepted into Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine. But she turned it down.

"My kids were still young at the time, and I had to think if I really wanted to be not as involved in their lives," she explains.

Then, eight years after leaving Cornell, Brown reapplied to the College of Human Ecology and was admitted for the fall of 2004; this time, she chose nutritional sciences as her major.

"As you get older, you get more concerned about what you're eating," says Brown. There are no good or bad foods, she learned, as long as food is enjoyed in moderation and people consider their own food-related health issues.

A member of several nationally recognized honor societies, including Kappa Omicron Nu, Gamma Sigma Delta, Phi Kappa Phi and Golden Key Society, Brown says that although education is important, so are her home and family.

She has especially enjoyed cooking and is not shy about her matchless baking skills. In 2004 she won third place at the New York State Fair for her pecan pie.

Brown plans to go to graduate school in the future to study nutrition or biochemistry, or both.

Graduate student Sandra Holley is a writer intern at the Cornell News Service.