Great-grandmother, 90, graduates from Northern Illinois University 71 years after starting college

A 90-year-old woman has received her degree – 71 years after she first enrolled at university.

Joyce DeFauw started at Northern Illinois University in 1951 and planned to graduate with a degree in home economics. But before she could complete her degree, she fell in love and left to marry her late husband, Don Freeman, with whom she had three children.

She told CNN that after he passed away she remarried her late second husband, Roy DeFauw, with whom she had six children.

Ms DeFauw, who is a grandmother of 17 and great-grandmother of 24, said her large family encouraged her to return and complete her studies.

And so she enrolled back at Northern Illinois in 2019 and received her diploma for a Bachelor’s degree in General Studies last weekend.

“People see things in you that you don’t see in yourself,” she said. “I feel these people had faith in me, and I can only give thanks.”

“I guess I mentioned I was upset that I didn’t finish school and my children encouraged me to go back,” she said.

And so she began taking classes on a computer at the retirement home where she lives.

“It was my first computer,” Ms DeFauw said, “My children had to teach me how to use it.”

“Don’t give up. Even if you do quit, go back,” she added. “Just hang in there. Keep learning. Keep giving thanks. It’s there for you. Just go for it.”