Alumni Profiles

B.S., business management, 1990
Owner/director, Jan Secor School of Real Estate

Jan Secor ’90 says she can identify with the hundreds of real estate agents who pass through her school every year, having been an adult student herself. “I have real empathy with the juggling, with the scheduling, and then having the desire and the commitment (to go to school),” she says.

Secor sold real estate for 25 years and then taught for another 10 before opening her own real estate school in 2007. With branches in Greensboro and Winston-Salem, the school does both pre-license and post-license training, as well as the required continuing education that Realtors must complete each year. The school might have as many as 200 students at one time, Secor says.

One doesn’t need a college degree to sell real estate, or even to teach the licensure courses. But nevertheless, after several years of success as a real estate agent, Secor enrolled in Guilford at the age off 33. “It’s been 25 years since I made that decision. It took me seven years, but my goal was to have my degree by the time I was 40. I came to school at night, and sometimes during the day,” she says.

“It’s so interesting. My career was as good as ever. You just learn to juggle what you need to juggle… I was working, I was still selling real estate back then,” Secor remembers. “I never considered myself a really disciplined person, but I did accomplish [completing my degree]. I have to tell you, I did not take off any summers, though. I was so afraid if I stopped one summer… I knew myself. If I stopped one summer, I probably just wouldn’t come back.”

Her younger sister had also attended Guilford as an adult, and Secor acknowledges that there might have been a bit of sibling rivalry motivating her. “I just wanted to be better,” she says. “I guess I just expected that of myself… you’re 30, you’re 33, and people say, well you’re too old. Well, you’re going to be that age whether you do this or not.” Watching how hard her sister worked, and seeing friends talk about going back to college but never following through, made Secor determined to achieve her goal.

“What I can remember about Guilford is that, even though the curriculum was challenging, once I stepped foot on the campus, it was like it all went away. The feeling on campus, I just loved it,” she says. “I always felt like, if I needed help, it was there. I never felt like a fish out of water. I didn’t feel like a number. I just felt so at peace on campus. I enjoyed my experience, I really did.”

“I don’t know if it’s a competitive spirit, an accomplishment thing. I’ve always liked challenges, and the accomplishment. It’s really an inner trait. I never even thought about getting it easy… I just decided that I wanted to accomplish that goal. And I’m so glad I did,” she says.