Joyce DeFauw of Illinois is living proof that nothing is too late in life and this super senior graduated from college at the age of 90 with a diploma.
Last Sunday, the 90-year-old received a bachelor’s of general studies from Northern Illinois University and is believed to be the eldest person to ever graduate from the school.
“I’d never dreamed I’d be around at this time, but here I am,” DeFauw said about her academic journey as reported by WREX. “I’ve learned that I can do things I never thought I could do, with the help of others. You can never quit learning.”
Love vs diploma
Read More Stories From The Independent
Joyce enrolled at her alma mater in 1951, the school was known at that time as Northern Illinois State Teachers College. Initially, she pursued a teaching degree but switched her major to home economics.
She was a few semesters away from completing her degree when she met a good-looking guy at church and eventually married Don Freeman Sr. of whom she had three children before he died.
Joyce remarried – the late Roy DeFauw – raised six more children, including two sets of twins. In 2019, when she was in her late 80s, she decided to sign herself up to complete the degree she started all those years ago at what is now known as Northern Illinois in DeKalb.
Using a computer given to her as a gift, Joyce took her classes online, even during the covid-19 pandemic shutdowns in 2020.
After walking across the graduation stage Sunday, Joyce said she wanted to inspire others who – like her – wondered whether it would be worth going back to school.
This is her advice — “Just don’t give up……. A lot of us get sidetracked or whatever, but go back. Don’t give up.”
Other “never give up” seniors
Another interesting story from The Independent
In 2007, Nola Ochs, an American woman from Jetmore, Kansas who in graduated from college at the age of 95 and was certified by the Guinness World Records as the oldest person in the world to become a college graduate.
Then in 2016, Japan’s Shigemi Hirata set a Guinness world record by attaining a Bachelor of Art from the Kyoto University of Art and Design at age 96.
Horace Sheffield, 88, of Barnesville, Georgia, graduated from Shorter University with his Bachelor of Science in Christian Studies.
Violet Edwards from South Florida said, “It’s never too late,” after she earned her Associate’s Degree in liberal arts from Mercy College at age 96.
As old wisdom has it, “never say die.”