“I fell in love with the school and the classes and the learning process. Once I started, I felt like I never wanted to leave.”

Nicole Pisco dropped out of college in the 1990s and figured she’d never earn a college degree. She was doing quite well without one, and felt funny going back to school once she’d reached her mid-20s. She’d started a business with her husband, they’d nurtured it into a profitable venture, and then sold it. By 2000, she had started a family.

After giving birth to her daughter, however, Pisco developed a hankering to write. So she came to Sarah Lawrence in 2002 to take a fiction-writing course through the Center for Continuing Education. The class captured her imagination, and the prose began to flow in the supportive atmosphere of Sarah Lawrence’s small classes and personalized attention.

She soon decided to pursue her undergraduate degree at the College.

“I fell in love with the school and the classes and the learning process,” says Pisco, 35, of Mamaroneck, now the mother of two. “Once I started, I felt like I never wanted to leave.”

She dove into writing with fervor, crafting stories both poignant and humorous. This spring, she won the Nancy Lynn Schwartz Contest for Fiction for her story, “Broken,” which looks at the lives of two neglected children in Philadelphia who come together and become friends. She graduated in May, and in September, will pursue a master’s degree in Sarah Lawrence's graduate fiction writing program.

For Pisco, and many students who never completed their undergraduate studies, the Center for Continuing Education provides the perfect bridge to earning that elusive bachelor’s degree. It also provides learning opportunities for adult learners looking for an intellectual challenge or those looking to prepare for advanced study.