Joanne Hanson ’17 closed a six-decade circle when she completed her degree at age 78 – 60 years after first enrolling in college.
“It just plain made sense to me,” Hanson says of her decision to complete her degree.
Hanson, an arts and humanities major, started college in 1957 and took classes at two local colleges for 12 years as she raised five children. Eventually she put her education on hold.
As her kids grew, she watched all of them go off to college – three attended Linfield; Eric Hanson ’91, Suzanne Hanson-McKenzie ’10 and Molly Hanson, who finished her degree at Portland State University.
“I saw in my children the changes being made in their lives and wanted the experiences from a formal education myself,” she says.
Motivated, she applied to Linfield in 1997 and spent the next two decades working toward her degree. Her thesis, “Music Gifts Spirituality,” focused on Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th Century Benedictine nun. Next on her list – learning American Sign Language to sign the Gregorian chants that were part of her thesis.
“Taking all these classes finished the circle for me,” says Hanson.
– Liam Pickhardt ’20
