Everybody loves a good love story. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl get married. Boy and girl start a family. Boy and girl — attend college together? For Christopher and Niki Collis, both juniors at APSU Fort Campbell Center, this is as normal as it gets.
“I am a Chief Warrant Officer 2 Ammo Warrant,” Christopher Collis said. “Since I have such frequent deployments, [Niki and I] decided to attend school together so we could spend more time together.”
Many couples who go to the same college at the same time would say their reasoning is for convenience, or for timing purposes, but not the Collises.
The couple’s primary purpose for taking the same classes at APSU is to spend more time together between Christopher’s deployments.
Christopher Collis is a criminal justice major, and Niki is pursuing a degree in social work.
Niki plans to pursue a job with the Department of Children’s Services after receiving her degree. Christopher hopes to work for the Clarksville Police Department SWAT team.
“I love attending class with my husband,” Niki said. “I am so sad that after the fall semester we will only be able to take two more classes together since our majors are pushing us in separate directions. He is a riot in class and a real motivator for me.”
The idea of sharing a life inside and outside of the classroom is valued by both members of this marriage.
“You know that nervous feeling you have the first day of class when you don’t know anyone? Well, with my wife in class I don’t ever feel that way,” Christopher said. “It makes [college] so much more fun.”
Of course, this love story is not all Hollywood all the time. There are some downsides to a married couple taking the same college classes.
“A hardship of attending class together is that we can’t take any night classes,” Christopher said. “We have kids at home and one of us has to be home with them every night.”
Scheduling is also difficult for the couple. It is a challenge for one student to get into the class that they need before it fills up. It is a greater challenge to get two students in the same class and the same time slot.
Having children is something many students at APSU deal with. The Collises consider this less of a drawback and more of a unique characteristic of their college journey.
“We have three children,” Christopher said. “Madison is 12. Brenden is 9 and he is autistic. Katelynn is nine and she has Marfan’s syndrome. They are a motivator [for us] and just the best kids. They don’t make attending college together more difficult, just interesting. There is never a dull moment at our house.”
The couple is incredibly optimistic about their situation.
“Having two special needs kids requires a lot of time and doctor’s appointments,” Christopher said. “But I think that could also fall under the perks section [of our situation] because if one of the kids has an appointment, then one of us takes them and the other goes to class and takes notes.” Christopher considers his wife Niki to be the better note taker, so he opts for the doctor’s appointments most of the time.
Christopher works as a casualty assistance officer, who is currently working with an Army wife that recently lost her husband in Afghanistan. In order to complete his duty, he has already had to miss several classes.
There was a time when the couple thought that going to college together was not such a good idea.
“When we were stationed in Colorado Springs, [Niki] was attending school and I was home 11 months of that time,” Christopher said. “She did stop going while I was gone. [It was] way too much with the kids to go to school and to work.”
Christopher is not set to deploy again until March of 2011, and Niki is scheduled to graduate that summer. The Collises are grateful for good planning.
Christopher and Niki are not only handling being married, being parents and being a military family; they are also managing to use class time as a way to spend quality time together.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Christopher said. “She is so much fun to have in class and when she isn’t there, I miss her.”
“I feel the same way,” Niki said. “When Chris has to miss class, it’s a bummer. I always look forward to when he will come back.”
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