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84 year old earns degree

After raising five kids and retiring at age 77 from her secretarial job, Janet Fein couldn't be blamed for finally relaxing, but that's not her.

Fein, now 84, went back to school and will accomplish a long-held goal this week when she graduates from the University of Texas at Dallas with a bachelor's degree.

"I didn't have anything to do in retirement and I didn't think that playing bingo was up to my speed," said Fein, who majored in sociology because she felt it was "substantial."

She said she enjoyed all the reading and writing papers. "With each class I already knew a lot, but then I also learned a lot. And that made me happy," she said.

People 65 and older make up less than one per cent of U.S. college students. In 2015, they accounted for about 67,000 of about 20 million college students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

"Keeping oneself active and vital and giving yourself something to look forward to like that is just a really positive move," said Dr. Carmel Dyer, executive director of the UTHealth Consortium on Aging at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Fein took part in a state program that allows people ages 65 and older to take up to six credit hours for free at public universities in Texas. About 2,000 people took advantage of the offer last year, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Fein said she wanted the degree "with all of my heart" and kept going to classes even as she transitioned from living on her own and driving herself around to needing a walker and oxygen and eventually moving to a senior living facility. Then her knees gave out, so she did a semester of independent study and took online classes to fulfil her degree requirements.

"She did not give up in the midst of her challenges ... she just kept plugging along," said Fein's college adviser, Sheila Rollerson.



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