LEWISTON – From the outside, the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College isn’t the most impressive.

There’s no ivy on buildings. There’s no quad. No dorms.

“It’s an industrial park,” said Mark Coursey, one of 1,747 in USM’s Class of 2008.

But things are not always what they seem, said Coursey, who won a competition to deliver Saturday’s student speech for the class during graduation ceremonies.

“Everything about this college is different than what people perceive,” he said. “This place, despite the leaky roof and shabby brown carpets, is on the cutting edge of what education is becoming. It’s certainly had an enormous impact on my life.”

Like many at the college, Coursey graduates as a nontraditional student.

He’s 40, the father of two. Before returning to college, he worked in retail, then was a stay-at-home dad.

“I wasn’t ready to go to school at 18.” He was raised in Manchester, Conn., with the expectation he’d go. He did, to the University of Southern Maine in Portland and Gorham.

“But once I got there I really had no idea what I was supposed to be doing.” He signed up as a political science major. “It was like, ‘Whatever.’ ” That, plus he became so ill with mononucleosis he needed to be hospitalized, ending his first college try.

He married someone he met in college. He went to work. They started a family.

When his wife, Beverly Coursey, got a job as principal in Sabattus, he stayed home to raise their sons.

“But when I was registering my youngest son for preschool, I decided didn’t want to go back in the work force without a degree. So I came here.”

At first he was reluctant to go back. His first experience left him with a bad taste about college. The second time was different.

“Here it was like coming home. I know everybody. It’s a little community … The focus is very much on the student. Professors are known by their first name … (It’s) much more of a peer relationship.”

In many of his classes 40 was not old. Older students meant a more interactive learning, he said. “Almost all of my classes were in a circle. The professor is a member of the circle, not up pontificating.”

And when he came back “on my own dime with many more responsibilities and things to do, I was a better student.”

On Saturday he’ll get his bachelor’s degree in leadership and organizational studies.

His wife and sons, ages 5 and 10, will watch. Through him he hopes his sons learn not to give up, “and almost all mistakes can be corrected if you work hard at them,” Coursey said.

His speech will recognize accomplishments graduates have made and how college “changed the way we think.” Often people are overwhelmed by the enormity of problems and don’t try to do anything about it. “The skills we’ve learned can really help even on the micro level, in the orbit of our own lives,” Coursey said. “That’s how the world is changed, one little bit at a time.”

College has made him a different person. He’s gained confidence.

He said with a chuckle he needs to again earn an income. “My last day of gainful employment was Aug. 17, 2001.”

But work will have to wait.

He’s been accepted at the University of Maine School of Law, something he never thought possible for him. “In a dream maybe.”

There’s a lot more Lewiston students like him marching Saturday in caps and gowns, some with gray hair.

“My story is not unique,” Coursey said. “This is what happens here.”