Local senior Mary Sneed goes back to school

Peering through reading glasses at two desktop monitors with her ears covered by large silver headphones, Mary Sneed sits at a wooden desk typing away. Like a doctor, accuracy is key for the aspiring medical transcriptionist as she sorts through a discombobulating aural stew of medicinal jargon and types out the monotone doctor’s diagnosis, verbatim.

Sneed is at an age when most people retire, but instead the 73-year-old student spends 30 hours a week sitting in a classroom learning the technique and terminology of medical transcribing at Orange Technical College. Sneed said she’s always been fascinated by the medical world, but wasn’t able to pursue a college career after graduating high school in 1961 because she had to work several jobs to provide for her son, Sheldon.

“I needed to support Sheldon, so that’s what I did,” said Sneed, who has been a single mom since her early 20s.

She worked in customer service jobs, as a housekeeper and a warehouse worker; and while none of it satisfied her, the flexible hours allowed her to attend her son’s extracurricular events as he grew up.

While a member of the Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University band, Sheldon earned his degree in graphic design from FAMU, and his mother was always there to support him at his music performances.

As she would sit in the audience, Sneed could see her son scanning the crowd searching for her, relying on her presence.

“He was never comfortable about performing anything until he saw my face,” Sneed said.

Now a 49-year-old married man with a wife and three children, Sheldon encourages his mother through a weekly phone call from New Jersey.

“He loves whatever I do,” Sneed said. “He likes me to be active because he knows I am.”

Sneed keeps up with her college-aged and middle-aged classmates, even though she’s the oldest one in the room, including the teacher.

“Mary is who I want to be when I grow up,” said Debbie Wolfe, a 62-year-old Winter Park resident who has taught the medical transcription class at Orange Technical College for the last 18 years.

The medical transcriptionist program involves 1,200 hours of study, which lasts about a year. Sneed aims to work part-time from home or in an office as a medical transcriptionist.

Before she started this class at Orange Technical College in August, Sneed earned her associate’s degree in social science in 2013 from Fortis College.

Wolfe admires Sneed’s determination to keep pursuing education, even in her age.

“In this field, age doesn’t matter,” Wolfe said. “Most transcriptionists work from home. You interview over the phone. They have no idea if you’re short, tall, young, old, so for someone like her, it’s perfect.”

Wolfe said everyone in the class adores Sneed, and they even go to her for advice, since she has more life experience.

“I just find it fascinating to be around young people,” Sneed said. “They don’t consider me like, ‘She’s old.’ In fact, they come to me for advice, and they’ll ask me questions.”

As a woman of faith, Sneed said she owes God for helping her through the difficulty of raising a son alone while working multiple jobs.

“I think God places me in places where I need to be because somebody there needs somebody, so that’s why I’m here.”