How do you get older without getting old?
One good way is to accomplish something that is traditionally identified with young people. We’re talking about getting a college degree.
That’s just what Sarah Simpkins will accomplish in May, earning a diploma from Brightpoint Community College in Chester, Virginia. She is 101 years old.
You can read her fascinating store here and here.
What’s interesting is that Sarah was able to attend classes for free because Virginia’s Higher Education Act of 1974 enables people over the age of 60 to pursue higher education, either for credit or simply auditing classes.
Like many of her generation, Sarah had to drop out of university (Allen University in Columbia, SC) when she had her first child at age 20. She went on to have 11 more children.
At age 96, she moved from Brooklyn, NY to live with her granddaughter and the two of them both enrolled at Brightpoint. The article quotes Sarah: “So that I might inspire somebody else I returned to school. It was never out of my mind. Enjoying every step of it. Being with the other students. When I go to do the homework, that’s easy. Piece of cake.”
Her granddaughter, Halimah Shepherd-Crawford, helps her study and do homework: “I study the assignment, explain it to her, and then she gives me her answers. I’m her hands and eyes, but it’s her brain. She’s still super sharp.”
Super sharp, indeed. She’s carrying at 3.5 GPA. And her field is also interesting: Early Childhood Education.
Halimah also said: “It’s special because we both will finish together, and we’ll both walk across the stage together. It made us work harder. And that was our motivation. We’re gonna do this together. We’re gonna finish together.”