The former director of the Missouri Department of Insurance and former state legislator enrolled in the executive MBA program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Bloch School of Business.
"I have a business administration degree from William Jewell, and I have all kinds of skill sets from what I've done for a living. I've also served on lots of boards, but I've started my own consulting business now, and I think people want to see 'MBA' on my resume," Lakin said.
"Not only will this teach me something and put something on my resume, it will expand my circle of contacts and friends."
So Lakin, who hasn't been a student for 30 years, is joining the throng of adults pursuing additional formal education.
Motivated by the desire for career change or career advancement, adults are going back to the classroom in droves. Between one-third and nearly one-half of the students at some colleges are 25 or older.
"Going back to school" can mean pursuing an advanced degree, finishing a previously unfinished one, changing professional course entirely, or updating or learning skills at a technical school.
It can mean entering a multiyear program, essentially becoming a full-time student again, or grabbing a few hours of training outside of regular work hours.
Deb Grunst of Embarq opted for a quick knowledge infusion when she decided to beef up her financial acumen.
"We're being acquired by CenturyTel, and I wanted to add to my IT skills," Grunst said, explaining her decision to take a two-day business finance course at UMKC, similar to a short course on "adaptive leadership" that she took previously.
"My goal was to help people in my area and myself when we're going through change and uncertainty."
It's that goal of career betterment that is propelling many adults back into classrooms.
At the Metropolitan Community College Business & Technology Center in Kansas City, for example, 60 percent of the students are 25 or older. At MCC's Penn Valley campus, half of the students enrolled in its specialty health care programs are 25 or older.
"Our specialty programs, like discountschoolsupply coupon discount industrial technology and maintenance mechanics, are, for example, attracting production workers who have experience but want higher-level skills to improve their employability," said MCC-BTC spokeswoman Lelain Lorenzen.
One MCC-BTC class this summer, an introductory Cisco networking course, "is full of adults who don't know computers," she said. "And we definitely have people from American Airlines, Ford and General Motors who are retraining in HVAC and industrial technologies."
The need to be more employable also fuels adult enrollment at TechSkills, a provider of certification classes in a variety of occupational areas, such as information technology and medical services.
Patrick Nelson, campus director at the Lenexa TechSkills site, said prospective students sometimes come simply because they've seen a certain requirement repeatedly requested in job descriptions and they want to become qualified.
TechSkills enrollee Rachel Littleton, 21, had been working at a gas station and at Wal-Mart since she graduated from high school.
"But I had dreams and goals," Littleton said. "Try Discountschoolsupply.com coupon
"I've always liked working on computers and helping people out, so going into information technology excited me, but I was hesitant to try. Would I fit in? Could I fit it in my schedule?"
Littleton decided to try. She got an $8,000 loan -- "payments are cheaper than my car payments!" -- and expects to complete her IT training program in August.
A fellow TechSkills student, Terry Awasom, also had dreams of a better work life. At 45, she aims to pass licensing exams that will give her a credential to help operate a medical coding business, Awasom Medical Billing Coding LLC, out of her Kansas City, Kan., home.
"I got a tuition grant through the Kansas Workforce Development to cover half of my costs for the anatomy, physiology and transcription classes," Awasom said.
"I've been through Donnelly College's pharmacy tech programs. I went through a Penn Valley Community College program for phlebotomy. I've jumped in and out of school, and I finally decided that I didn't need a degree. I needed job training instead."
Lynn Matthews, director of career services at TechSkills, said their vocational programs are seeing more students from partnerships with Walgreen and Target, employers that tell the school what skills they need and hire graduates who get them.
Rick Moehring, dean of learner engagement at Johnson County Community College, said adult learners often need "quick fixes" for their work lives.
"Someone with three kids at home who's the breadwinner can't always take time out," Moehring said. "It takes years to become a teacher or a nurse, for example. That's a long-range plan, not a near-term solution.
"So we see students who are frustrated that the jobs that seem to satisfy their desire for fulfillment are outside of their reach. That's a very tough place to be."
Moehring said his campus has seen an influx of enrollees from Sprint Nextel "who had lots of experience, but their resumes were short on education before they went to Sprint." Now they've returned to school to finish degrees "and be a more marketable candidate," he said.
And because layoffs in this recession have been widespread throughout industry, Moehring said, one of the most predominant back-to-school trends is found among adults who yearn to go into business for themselves.
"People are deciding to take whatever they've been doing to make money for someone else and try to figure out how to make money for themselves," he said.
In addition to pursuing entrepreneurship education, some returning adult learners are restyling themselves for "hot job" industries, notably the biomedical and health fields.
Also, hands-on jobs, such as automotive technology and culinary arts, are attracting adult students who are keen on careers that can't be outsourced.
Basic professional skills remain the draw at DeVry University in Kansas City, said Shane Smeed, president of the campus. But returning adult students, especially, want very specific credentials.
"We're seeing growing interest from midcareer learners in Web graphics design and multimedia design and development," for example, Smeed said. "People don't just want a business degree. They want a concentration in an employable field -- hospitality, finance or security, for example.
"What people are looking for is peace of mind that comes from going into a marketable field when they graduate."
Smeed said DeVry tries to offer education that reflects employers' current needs. At a tuition cost exceeding $60,000 for a bachelor's degree program on the Missouri campus, students want to know their education will lead to job offers.
At Grantham University, which serves an online student body of mostly military personnel, school president John LaNear has seen a 25 percent increase in enrollment in recent months.
"It's across the board. Military and veterans at all levels are trying to acknowledge their military training and translate it into meaningful careers," LaNear said. "They're looking for notches on their belts to be more competitive in the business world."
That's also fueling enrollment growth in business classes just about everywhere.
At the University of Kansas' Edwards Campus in Overland Park, the MBA program is showing the biggest growth. Spring enrollment was up 23 percent, said Mary Ryan, associate dean of academic affairs.
Another popular program is the marketing communications graduate degree.
"We're really working with working adults for the most part," Ryan said. "Our students who have experienced job loss are trying to use this time to accelerate their studies and move more quickly to a degree."
Business and human resources classes also are experiencing increases at Ottawa University, said Susan Webb, director of career services.
"The increase in students is most apparent in the accounting area and in health care management," Webb said.
About the only thing slowing adult enrollment growth is the expense-controlling decision by several employers to eliminate or reduce tuition assistance.
There's another sobering cloud over adult retraining .
The New York Times recently reported that a sample of Michigan adults who had been enrolled in government-sponsored retraining programs had rehiring experiences that were "small or nonexistent" compared with laid-off people who had not undertaken retraining.
Job retraining needs job creation to be effective, the study concluded.
TRYING AGAIN: Re-entry, or nontraditional, students -- generally considered to be those 25 or older -- can find a gold mine of information at back2college.com. The site is devoted to adults who want to update their professional skills by returning to school.
That's a big demographic, according to the Association for Nontraditional Students in Higher Education, which reports that on some U.S. campuses, nearly half of the student population is 25 or older.
EDUCATION VALUE: More than eight in 10 American adults 25 or older have at least completed high school, according to the census. One in four has a bachelor's degree or more.
Although job cuts in this recession have affected the most- and the least-educated workers, an "education premium" still holds true. Generally, the more education, the higher a person's lifetime earnings. A recent census report said median annual income for employees with a high school diploma was $27,915; for a bachelor's degree, $51,206; for a master's or doctoral degree, $74,602.
Projections of job growth by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that at least three-fourths of the "hot jobs" will require some type of certification or licensing, if not a college degree.
THERE IS A COST: Going back to school requires a hefty investment. According to the College Board, average costs for the past school year were:
--Four-year private college -- $25,143.
--Four-year public university -- $6,585, in-state; $17,452 out-of-state.
--Two-year public college -- $2,402.
--Technical or other for-profit school -- $13,046.
Costs vary regionally and by institution. The College Board, Princeton Review and CNNMoney.com Web sites have calculators to help estimate costs of schools.