A 90-year-old woman finally received her college degree on Sunday, 71 years after beginning her studies at Northern Illinois University.
Joyce DeFauw had been waiting for this moment since 1951.
“There’s so much going on that it’s hard for me to take it all in and absorb it all. It’s fantastic,” she said.
Just over 70 years ago, Ms. DeFauw enrolled at Northern Illinois State Teachers College. Starting with elementary courses, she then studied home economics, German, typing and accounting.
“In my church, there was this attractive young man. It was reciprocal because we decided to be together,” she told WGN9.
Her husband died and she remarried. She had nine children in total.
Despite everything, she never forgot school. It was thanks to her children that the lady decided to enroll in university.
Knowing that their mother regretted not having finished her studies, her children bought her a computer in 2019.
So she enrolled at Northern Illinois University and took classes online.
“There were times when I wanted to give up,” she admits.
But she persevered: at 90, she received her baccalaureate degree in general studies.
“There are so many things to learn, life is so exciting and we all have different talents,” she believes.