Joyce DeFauw of Illinois is an example of how nothing is too late for anyone. the super-senior graduated college 90 and received a degree.
This past day, the 90-year-old received the bachelor’s degree in general studies at Northern Illinois University and is thought to be the oldest person ever to be a graduate of the school.
“I’d never thought that I’d be here in this moment but now I’m here,” DeFauw said about her educational journey, according to WREX. “I’ve discovered that I can achieve things that I didn’t think I would be able to do with the help of other people. You can never quit learning.”Love vs diploma
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Joyce was enrolled at her school of choice in 1951. The college was at the time known under the title of Northern Illinois State Teachers College. In the beginning, she pursued an education degree, but later changed her focus in home economics.
She was just a few years away from finishing her degree when she met a handsome man in the church. She ultimately got married Don Freeman Sr. of who she had three kids before his death.
Joyce was remarried to the late Roy DeFauw had six more children which included the twin sets. In the year 2019 when she reached her 80s, she made the decision to enroll herself to finish the course she began years back at the institution that is now Northern Illinois in DeKalb.
With a laptop computer that was given to Joyce as a gift, Joyce took her classes online, even during covid-19 pandemic shut-downs in 2020.
As she walked through the graduation stage on Sunday afternoon, Joyce stated that she was hoping to encourage others who, like her thought it was not worthwhile to return to the school.
Her advice is “Just keep going. Don’t give up. ……. Many of us get lost in our own thoughts or whatever however, we can always go back. Don’t give up.”Others “never quit” seniors
Another intriguing article in The Independent
In 2007 Nola Ochs was an American woman was born in Jetmore, Kansas who in graduated from college at 95. She was also certified by Guinness World Records as the oldest person to graduate from college.
Then in the year 2016 Japan’s Shigemi Hirata broke the Guinness world record for having the degree of Bachelor of Art at Kyoto University of Art and Design. Kyoto University of Art and Design at the age of 96.
Horace Sheffield, 88, from Barnesville, Georgia, graduated from Shorter University with his Bachelor of Science in Christian Studies.
Violet Edwards, a native of South Florida said, “It’s never too late,” after she received her associate’s degree in liberal arts at Mercy College at age 96.
The old wisdom says, “never say die.”
