Robert Jenkins was just about to turn 40 years old when he and his wife decided they needed to do something different.

So Robert and Robin Jenkins quit their jobs, sold their house in Jefferson and spent the next five and a half months hiking the Appalachian Trail.

“It gave us plenty of time to think on things and get our perspectives back,” said Robert.

He decided to go back to school. Jenkins originally graduated from Eastern Maine Vocational Technical Institute in 1985, but going back was different.

“I think maturity might have something to do with it,” he said.

The school is now Eastern Maine Community College, one of seven colleges in the Maine Community College System.

Maturity works for him and against him, he said.

“Going back to school now I studied a lot, I cannot retain things like I did back then,” he said. At the same time being older gave him perspective. He said he realized how important school was in a way that he could not quite grasp when he was in his 20s.

Jenkins joined the electrical program, but a student in his physics class started telling him about the Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heating Program, and he decided to switch majors.

“That program is always full,” Jenkins said. “There’s always a waiting list,” but he got accepted.

Now he maintains a part-time job during the school year and a full-time job during the summer. He serves as treasurer of the Student Senate and vice president of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, Air Conditioning Engineers student chapter, and helps tutor other students in addition to his own studies.

Doing what he did took a lot of dedication, Robin Jenkins said. “He’s impressed me.”

He impressed his teachers, too. On April 10 Robert Jenkins was named EMCC’s Student of the Year at an awards luncheon at the school.

In their letter of recommendation for the award, Charlie Veilleux and Jim Peary, department co-chairmen, called Jenkins “intelligent, enthusiastic and energetic.”

Jenkins’ 4.0 in the program seems to support their assessment. As for his response to the award, he said, “I’m extremely happy. It shows my instructors saw the potential in me.”

The only drawback as far as he could see is that he has to speak at graduation on May 19.

As he talked about the award Jenkins smiled and pointed to his wife, “I wouldn’t be Student of the Year if it wasn’t for her.”

She never complained about his schedule and quizzing him on what she calls “Greek.”

“It’s a small sacrifice,” she said. “It’s OK.”

Now that he’s graduating, Jenkins plans to work at Thayer Corp. in Auburn, where he worked part-time this winter.