With her story, Joyce DeFauw is a true inspiration to anyone who sometimes doubts themselves. The retiree finishes her studies at the age of 90.
DeKalb – “Good things take time”, this proverb clearly applies to American Joyce DeFauw. The 90-year-old is one of the oldest people ever to graduate from Northern Illinois University (NIU) in the US state of Illinois. She has been holding her degree since the beginning of December. “I never dreamed I’d be here one day,” the senior says in an interview with her college about her. She had already started studying 51 years ago, but she had to drop out at the time.
The 90-year-old completes his degree after seven decades
Joyce DeFauw was born in 1932. She first enrolled at NIU at age 19, using her maiden name, Joyce Kane. She dropped out of college a few semesters before graduation. She married twice and had nine children in all. She is now also a grandmother to 17 grandchildren and great-grandmother to 24 great-grandchildren. It is obvious that there was not much time to study at the university. Today she lives in a retirement home in the United States and has finally graduated. The most important thing for them is never to give up. “A lot of us get distracted by whatever,” says DeFauw. That’s why she advises: “Never give up.”
Above all, education is good for the 90-year-old who “cannot be valued enough”. Every opportunity that presents itself should be exploited. She also implemented this motto when she returned to NIU in 2019, a full 68 years after she first matriculated, with her then-still student card in black and white, of course.
American allegedly ‘often thought about quitting’
It certainly hasn’t been easy for Joyce DeFauw. The coronavirus pandemic made her studies difficult, but fortunately she already knew how to use the computer then. However, she struggled. In an interview you admit: “I often thought about quitting, I almost did it”. Thanks to the support of her family and financial aid through a scholarship, she never made it that far. And today – about 71 years later – the ninety-year-old, lover of markets, homemade bread, memories and prayers, can also be defined as a graduate.
