Hazel Soares received her Liberal Arts degree on May 15th and was part of the 2010 Mills College graduating class. The only glaring difference between her and the rest of the class is that Soares is 94-years-old – almost 70 years older than most of her class. Soares has 6 children of her own and over 40 grandchildren.Soares became the world’s second oldest college graduate.
“There’s no reason why you could not go back to school. Some people do give the idea or postpone the idea. It’s too late. It’s too much work. They may not realize that once you try it it’s exciting to go to school,” said Soares.
The mother of 6 was born in Richmond, California in 1915. Soares always wanted to attend college, but she graduated high school during the Great Depression and her education stopped.
“Unless you had some help, it would have been impossible to go to college,” Soares said. “However I never lost the desire to go.”
Soares plans to parlay her degree into a docent job at a San Francisco Bay art museum.
