Woman gets college degree 6 decades after dropping out
EDEN, UTAH » Mary Spencer was 19 years old when she dropped out of college. Now, over 61 years later, the 80-year-old has earned her bachelor’s degree.
In a virtual Brigham Young University-Idaho commencement held last month, Spencer was awarded a bachelor of science degree in marriage and family studies.
“I had always wanted to, and I regretted that I had stopped, that I had quit,” she said. “That was a mistake, I felt like. And I liked school. I just thought, well, I’m not dead yet.”
Spencer began attending St. Benedict’s School of Nursing in Ogden, Utah, in 1959. During her time there, she and her husband decided they wanted to get married. In order to attend the school, however, she was required to live on-site at St. Benedict’s Hospital. So, she quit.
“I quit, then we got my husband through college, then the kids got through college, then the grandkids got through college, then I decided it was my turn,” Spencer said.
Four years ago, Spencer told her son, Mitch Spencer, that she could either be an 80-year-old without a bachelor’s degree, or go back to school and turn 80 with a bachelor’s degree.
Choosing the latter, the octogenarian enrolled in BYU-Pathway — now BYUPathway Worldwide — and started taking online classes toward her degree. Her younger classmates, she said, treated her just like every other member of the class.
“I guess not a lot of people go back to school;
Mary Spencer at her home in Eden, Utah. they’re not as crazy as I us,” Mitch Spencer said. am,” Spencer said, laughing. He and his siblings organized “I don’t know why everybody a celebration for her though it was different.” accomplishment — as much of one as COVID-19 would
In 2016, when she returned allow, anyway. to school, about On the day of the commencement, 16% of college students nationwide a small were over the age group of her family gathered of 35, according to the National around a computer Center for Education and watched as her picture Statistics. Of women seeking flashed on the screen a higher education, 18% and an announcer read her were older than 35. name with a short bio. Spencer
The median age of a college wasn’t disappointed by student is 26.4, according the ceremony being forced to a 2017 report online, she said, because it from policy think tank was similar to two of her New America. At 36, that grandsons’ graduations in age is higher among those May. seeking a degree or certificate “She’s got great-grandkids through BYU-Pathway now, and I don’t know Worldwide — a program how much she thought many with unfinished degrees about it, but this is really flock to in an effort something inspiring to the to reach the finish line. great-grandkids that education
Unlike many who work to is important,” Mitch obtain a higher education, Spencer said. Spencer wasn’t looking to Next, Spencer hopes to advance her career. She just return to writing and volunteer hoped to learn and check work. She has previously an item off her bucket list written children’s — one her son Mitch says is books and served as a very long. court-appointed advocate
“It felt good that I had for children. She hopes to accomplished a goal that I use her degree in both endeavors. had put off for 60-70 years,”
Spencer said. “It just felt so Spencer said neither her good to complete what I age, nor the COVID-19 pandemic, started — to make a goal will slow her down. and finish it.” “We’re not dead yet,” she
“She’s a goal setter and said. “There are still things she’s tried to instill that in to do.”