结束循环
53 Years Later, 爱达荷瀑布 Man Finishes College
托马斯·格里格斯1969年秋天开始上大学.
然后，生活发生了.
He left after one year at what was then Rick’s College, 现在是杨百翰大学爱达荷分校, to go on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 他结婚了. 有了孩子.
Griggs returned and soon withdrew to focus on putting food on the table.
在他成年早期, 格里格斯参加了工作, managing a heating and air conditioning warehouse in East Idaho and selling computer supplies in Twin Falls.
In 1989, 寻求职业转变, 格里格斯再次尝试接受高等教育, earning 67 credit hours in nuclear engineering at University of Idaho.
但生活又给了他一个难题. Griggs’ prospective employer announced a hiring freeze.
实现目标永远不会太迟. 托马斯Griggs, 71, who completed a bachelor’s decades after starting college in fall 1969
到那时, he had taken courses over two decades and spent thousands of dollars — earning enough credits for a degree, 如果演职员表排列得很好. 但这并没有成功.
Having grown up in the railroad hub of Pocatello, Griggs set his sights on joining the railroad industry, 他父亲和祖父都工作过的地方.
的职业, which included stints as a railroad conductor and engineer, reaffirmed his passion for the tracks and the intricate machines that chug along them.
After Griggs retired from railroading in 2016, his wife, Linda, posed the question.
“你打算什么时候拿到学位??”
一开始他犹豫了.
“剩下的太多了，”格里格斯回忆说.
但在计算了这些数字之后, Griggs discovered he could finish bachelor’s degrees at both BYU-I and U of I within a few years. And he could do it for cheap — using the state of Idaho’s discount that lets Idahoans age 60 and up take courses for $5 per credit hour, 加费用.
Preparing to crack open textbooks again, Griggs walked into Debbie Caudle’s office in 2018. He brought the 爱达荷瀑布大学 student services coordinator a diet cream vanilla Coca-Cola and asked for her help to finish school. Caudle and a BYU-I advisor figured out which courses would transfer between colleges. Soon, Griggs was registered for classes at U of I and BYU-I.
他让我微笑. And boy, I’ll tell ya, he could’ve just retired and not even worried about going back to school. But he closed the loop, and I am so proud of him. Debbie Caudle, 伊利诺伊大学工程学院 student services coordinator
School had changed a lot from his first attempts. Gone were the days of chalkboard lectures and pen-and-paper assignments. In were the days of PowerPoints, widespread computer ownership and online classes.
鸡冠，在 伊利诺伊大学工程学院格里格斯很快就适应了.
He swapped his flip-phone for a smartphone to use dual-factor authentication apps for class. 学生服务 helped Griggs turn in work online. Professors let him submit some physical assignments.
His passion for the railroad also showed in full force. Griggs pursued an ambitious senior project for his 工业技术专业 — to restore a decommissioned Union Pacific railroad maintenance car that hadn’t operated 20 years.
格里格斯完成了这个项目, decorating his 65-page paper with photos and journal entries chronicling the car’s journey from a rusted “tin can,正如他所说的那样, to a reliable cruiser that traverses remote stretches of railroad tracks. The bright yellow car — only large enough for two people — caught the eye of Caudle, 谁每年举办一次车展. When Griggs showed it there in 2021, he won spectator’s choice.
“他让我微笑，”考德尔说. “And boy, I’ll tell ya, he could’ve just retired and not even worried about going back to school. But he closed the loop, and I am so proud of him.”
5月, Griggs, 71, 转动他的金流苏, 获得bet365亚洲官网理学士学位, one year after completing a bachelor’s in general studies from BYU-I. The degrees are stitched together with classes across decades at several universities.
在某种程度上, he earned his degrees to prove to his grandkids that going on to higher education is an important goal — one to which he can even lay claim.
但他说，这也与勇气有关.
“You don’t have to be young to do it,” Griggs said. “我现在可以说，‘是的，我做到了.“但我只花了53年就做到了.”
“实现目标永远不会太迟,” he said.