美国老太太赶在孙女前哈佛毕业

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都市快报

　　在8日举行的哈佛大学继续教育学院毕业典礼上，出现了一位特殊的毕业生———一位满脸皱纹的82岁老太太。她身穿毕业生礼服，头戴学士帽。除了由哈佛校长颁发的毕业证书，她还获得了一个表彰其学术成就和品德的奖项。

　　她叫伊丽莎白·麦克尼尔。1941年她高中毕业，之后便结婚生子。

　　26年前，她成了哈佛大学的工作人员。学校良好的学术氛围让她对学习产生了兴趣，她开始在哈佛“蹭课”，但她始终缺乏勇气注册成为正式学生。

　　9年前，她制订了“10年”学习计划，但都没考虑要去拿学位，直到两年前，她年仅13岁的孙女也开始盘算未来的大学生活，才让伊丽莎白下定决心，赶在孙女前大学毕业。

　　如今，伊丽莎白梦想成真了，她花了7年，修完了23门课程。由于她不会用电脑，她的毕业论文是手写成的。(康娟 都市快报)



At 82, she takes a degree
Everett woman graduates from Harvard today
By Caroline Louise Cole, Globe Correspondent | June 8, 2006

After working for Harvard University Health Services for close to 20 years, Elizabeth V. McNeil figured it was high time she took advantage of the university's educational benefit.

So along with three co-workers, McNeil enrolled in ``History of Boston 1630-1865," taught by Thomas O'Connor, a Boston College professor who was teaching in Harvard's Extension School.

Today, seven years and 23 courses later, McNeil, 82, will suit up in a black cap and gown and accept her bachelor's degree as the oldest member of the class of 2006.

She will march into Harvard Yard this morning along with the university's 6,709 other degree candidates and receive her diploma with her 262 graduating Extension School classmates in an afternoon ceremony at the Loeb Drama Center.

``No one is more surprised about this than me," said McNeil, who admitted that for many years she shied from taking Harvard courses because she didn't think she was capable of Harvard-level work. ``It's Professor O'Connor who I have to thank for this, because in that first class he made learning so much fun I had to come back for his second semester. Then when that was done, I just kept coming back."

College wasn't an option for McNeil when she graduated from Chelsea High School in 1941, she said. Shortly after marrying James McNeil in 1951 and moving to Everett, she had four children in rapid succession, Louis, Patricia, Karen, and Joan.

Once her children were in high school, McNeil took a part-time job at the Parkway Manor Nursing Home near her home off Broadway. Then when her children moved out and she had more free time, McNeil began taking classes at Bunker Hill Community College, receiving an associate's degree in 1976.

``Back then it was mostly a matter of something to do," she said.

Her son, Lou, said he and his siblings often teased their mom about her college career.

``She'd tell us she'd have her degree by 83, and we'd just roll our eyes hoping she'd live so long," Lou McNeil said. ``The truth is, even when we were little she was always taking a class in something."

McNeil, whose degree is in liberal arts, is one of several Harvard students in their 70s and 80s, said Lynn Rublee, who has served as McNeil's academic adviser.

``Harvard Extension courses are one of the few places in the country where you can be in a class with an octogenarian like Betty and a 15-year-old," said Rublee, who noted that some 12,000 people take courses in Harvard's continuing education program annually, though most not towards a degree. ``While the average age of our students is mid-30s, we do have a number of high school students and some that are traditional college age."

While Harvard has relaxed the admissions requirement for extension school students, the caliber of the work expected in the courses is the same as for regular Harvard College undergraduates, Rublee noted.

In 1999 a co-worker suggested that McNeil and others at their lunch table take O'Connor's class together. Because McNeil, then 75, was thinking more about retirement than commencement, her biggest decision was whether to audit the course for free or pay the $40 Harvard was then charging for employees to take a single course for credit.

``I finally decided to pay the fee because I figured I'd take it more seriously, that I wouldn't be as inclined to skip a class or the homework," McNeil recalled.

But even after McNeil re discovered that she loved learning for its own sake in that first history class with O'Connor, she said, she didn't contemplate going for her bachelor's degree until two years ago when she realized her sole granddaughter, Shauna, then 13, was beginning to think about college.

``That was it," said McNeil. ``I decided that I had to beat her to a BA."

Over the years McNeil has become a familiar figure at Everett's Parlin Library, where she has spent hours researching papers and working on her homework.

``I've invited two of the reference staff, Stacy DeBole and Mark Parisi, to my graduation party because they've been so helpful finding books I needed," McNeil said.

And while she has amassed a credible 2.80 grade-point average, she has never worried too much about her grades.

``Most of the time I tried to do my best, but if I got busy with other things and I let some work slide, well, it wasn't like I was headed to a new career," said McNeil, who served as an Everett delegate to the Democratic Party Convention in Worcester last weekend.

McNeil's only real concession to her age is that she doesn't own a computer and lets her daughter type her papers.

``I write out everything in longhand and then turn them over to Joan," McNeil said.

Just because she is getting her prized sheepskin today, McNeil said she isn't done with learning. She has already signed up for a directing class in Harvard's drama department this summer and is thinking about taking an acting course in the fall.

``Maybe that will convince me that I should think about the stage or maybe the movies," she said.

Caroline Louise Cole can be reached at [email protected].

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/06/08/at_82_she_takes_a_degree/