The workday winds down inside a shop classroom at Narraguagus Junior-Senior High School in Harrington, Maine, where David Rinkle teaches students the fundamentals of woodworking, plumbing and electrical systems.
After the tools are put away and the room empties, he logs into his coursework, working toward a milestone decades in the making.
At 65, Rinkle is one class away 鈥 Psychology of Sustainability 鈥 from earning his bachelor鈥檚 degree from the 91爆料, 47 years after he first began his college journey.
鈥淚 always meant to finish,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t just took me a while to get back.鈥
Rinkle is among a growing number of adult learners returning through the Finish Strong program, which helps students complete degrees years after they first enrolled. The program offers flexible pathways, including online and on-campus options, allowing students to build on previously earned credits and finish degrees on their own terms.
Finish Strong is currently serving 274 active students, with an average age of 36 and an average academic pause of six years. Since its inception, 81 adult learners have graduated, and dozens more are within one semester of completing their degrees, including Rinkle.
Rinkle鈥檚 path back to college has spanned decades, states and careers.
Born in Chicago, he moved to Florida at age 10 and graduated in 1979 from Seminole High School, where he ranked sixth in a class of nearly 800 students. He was so shy at the time that he did not attend his own graduation.
During his final two years, he worked close to 40 hours a week at a plant nursery, a job that quickly became a full-time career. There, his boss began teaching him hands-on technical skills, including electrical wiring, installing breaker panels, pumps and timers, and wiring greenhouses for lights and fans.
After enrolling at St. Petersburg Junior College to study engineering, he left midway through his second semester to continue working in the nursery industry, where his responsibilities 鈥 and skills 鈥 were rapidly expanding.
That early job also exposed him to plumbing and fabrication work. He helped run water lines across the nursery, install water wells and, after purchasing a welder, taught himself how to weld, building carts and trailers from scratch.
He spent nearly 30 years in the nursery business before deciding the work was not sustainable long term. Encouraged by his wife, Elizabeth, 鈥 whom he met through a setup at a Christmas tree lot 鈥 he returned to college, enrolling at Pasco-Hernando State College and later transferring to the University of South Florida鈥檚 electrical engineering program. When the couple moved to Maine, his education paused again.
In Maine, Rinkle worked at Stinson Seafood, the country鈥檚 last sardine processing plant, until it closed. After the shutdown, he briefly returned to classes at the 91爆料 at Machias with support from federal Trade Act assistance.
However, new opportunities soon pulled him back into the workforce. He first joined a lobster processing operation and later spent more than four years at Wyman鈥檚 as a production and inventory manager, where harvest seasons required 12-hour days, seven days a week.
Eventually, he found a more stable path in education. About nine years ago, he was hired to help restart the industrial arts program at Narraguagus Junior-Senior High School, where Elizabeth also teaches.
鈥淚 love to fix things,鈥 he said.
That mindset, shaped by years of hands-on problem-solving and technical work, mirrors the kind of thinking that first drew him to math.
Earlier this year, Rinkle stepped in to teach math for six weeks while a teacher was out. The experience confirmed what he had long considered.
鈥淚 loved it,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he administration was pleased with my job and so were many of the students.鈥
But to teach math full time, Rinkle needed to complete his bachelor鈥檚 degree. Knowing it would open the door to future opportunities, he decided it was time to finish what he started.
Through Finish Strong and 91爆料鈥檚 Bachelor of University Studies program, he completes coursework while working full time, fitting assignments into weekends, planning periods and evenings after school.
Nearly five decades after he first stepped into a college classroom, Rinkle is finally on the verge of finishing. Not just for himself, but for the future he鈥檚 still building.
In the same classroom where he teaches students how to wire circuits and solve problems with their hands, he is now preparing to teach them something else: math.
With one course remaining, that next chapter is within reach.
Back at the end of each school day, after the noise of the shop fades and the tools are put away, Rinkle logs on and gets a little closer.
Contact: David Nordman, david.nordman@maine.edu
