DEKALB, Ill. -- Few people finish their college education in a retirement facility. But that’s what it took for 90-year-old Joyce Defauw to complete her bachelor’s degree in General Studies from Northern Illinois University, a milestone nearly seven decades in the making.
Defauw, a great-grandmother from Geneseo, Illinois, became one of NIU’s oldest graduates in a ceremony Sunday. With the phrase “Super Senior ‘22″ written atop her graduation cap, Defauw smiled at a cheering crowd as she got up from her wheelchair to walk across the stage, finally reaching a lifelong goal.
“We can never quit learning,” Defauw said. “If we have the opportunity, and we are given the ability, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t go for it.”
