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Associate Degree in Letters, Arts, and Sciences Student, Joyce Thompson
Joyce Thompson is looking forward to receiving a very special 75th birthday present—a Penn State degree. It's a goal she had hoped to reach several decades ago, but as it often happens, life experiences have a way of changing one's priorities.
After graduating from high school in 1950, Thompson took a summer job in her local newspaper's circulation department to help support her divorced mother and four younger siblings. That job eventually turned into a full-time position which, when combined with raising two children, left her no time to pursue her dream of becoming a high school French teacher. "When the youngest started high school, I went back to work in the business I knew so well, the newspaper business, as an advertising director. During those years I had no time to pursue a higher education."
After working for twenty-five years, Thompson retired in 1990 and found that she finally had the extra time to go back to school. However, it was not until 1996, when one of her eight grandchildren was accepted at Penn State, that she recalled the dream that she once had about getting her college degree. "When we visited the campus, it brought back old memories and a desire to obtain a degree. I wanted to go back to school. I wanted a degree," she says. Thompson was inspired to contact a Penn State Student Services representative, who introduced her to the distance education program.
She was accepted on January 8, 1999, and finished her first online course in July of that year, after some initial apprehension about her first exam. "I knew that my brain cells weren't what they used to be, but passing that first exam gave me the confidence that I could do it and overcome my fear," she says. Since then, Thompson has completed 54 credits and is only two courses away from receiving her degree. "It has taken me seven years, but every course has been a wonderful learning experience," she explains.
More than half a century after her initial college dream was postponed, Thompson just might have the opportunity to teach French. After completing her associate degree in letters, arts, and sciences, she hopes to become a tutor in either French or in the English as a Second Language program in her community of West Grove, Pennsylvania. "The old saying goes 'you are never too old to learn,' and I can testify to that; it does keep the mind active and healthy and is something that more retirees should try."
Thompson credits her family and her Penn State advisers with helping her along the way and providing inspiration to finish her degree. "It is fun to talk grades with my three teenage grandchildren," she says.
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