Marilyn Sanderson is one of many who graduated from Jackson College this year. It’s been more than 40 years in the making.
The 81-year-old originally attended Jackson College in 1978.
“My daughter went to Kindergarten, and I went to JC,” she said.
She said she probably would have been a social worker had she graduated back then.
“But, I had to go to work. Life got in the way,” she said.
Now, after just more than a year of finishing her credits towards her associate degree she checked one more goal off her list.
“It was something I didn’t finish and I wanted to do it for me,” Marilyn said.
It was a team effort to help Marilyn achieve success in the classroom but it wasn’t because of the studies.
“It was the computers,” she said. “I can’t find my way around computers and that was the hardest and they were tremendous. I have gone to student services forever and Melissa [Potter, Student Success Navigator] helped me get everything organized. In one of my classes we had to work in groups and I will say the kids were really good. They were like my grandkids.”
Marilyn says age is just a number.
“If I could get on a pedestal enough for all of Jackson County to hear I would tell everybody that’s over the age of 65 to come here and take classes. I have more gray cells popping in my head now from all these classes than you can believe. They should come here and take the classes and it doesn’t necessarily have to be for credit. You can just learn whatever is something that interests you, something that you never had. Sit in class and learn.”