It's Never Too Late to Graduate : Inspiring Stories of Success and Advice by Older Students. This item is unavailable.It's Never Too Late to Graduate : Inspiring Stories of Success and Advice by Older Students

It’s Never Too Late To Graduate! is a collection of eighteen interviews from students who returned to school after the traditional age, most of them in order to pursue their academic dreams. They range in age from 27 to 90! Some had to put college “on the back burner” in order to raise a family. Some had never given up on a particular occupation, and their dream never left them. Others had a degree, but wanted to step up to an advanced degree in order to compete in the job market with younger graduates who were earning better salaries. Their backgrounds and stories are varied, and there were many surprises for them when they went back to school. All of them found studying easier than when they were younger. For those attending college for the first time, The book’s chapters also include investigating careers, and what college or program is the right one for them. There are chapters on admission requirements for senior students, financial aid and state supported scholarships for seniors, application preparation, identifying their support system, modern technology and online classes, tips for making the college experience easier, interacting with younger students, and best of all, wonderful inspiring and encouraging stories and advice from the students who were interviewed. The book is also helpful for high school seniors who are applying to college. They are having to navigate the same steps that older students do. An effort has been made to include male and female students and various ethnicities. The author returned to school at the age of 42, to attend a small community college and get an Associate degree Sciences. She fell in love with learning and graduated from Georgia State University with her B.A. in Anthropology at age 53, and her Master’s in Heritage Preservation at 55, using this latter degree to put three historic homes on the National Register of History Places in Dunwoody, Georgia, and Co-Founding the Dunwoody Preservation Trust. She is a Native Atlantan and her passion is older adult education. She describes this book on Adults returning to school as “small, but mighty.”

Lynne Barfield Byrd was born in Atlanta, Georgia. She was raised in the Morningside, Virginia Highlands neighborhood before moving to the “country” in 1956 (Sandy Springs, Georgia), where she commuted to Grady High School to finish her high school education. She went to the University of Georgia for one year after high school and then married her high school sweetheart, Jim Patrick. They had two boys within four years. Lynne worked outside the home for twenty-five years in the medical field as a medical transcriptionist, secretary and part-time assistant to several prominent Atlanta doctors, and Administrative Assistant to two Atlanta Hospital CEOs. After the death of her first husband, she remarried three years later and her second career was as a realtor with her husband Noah Byrd. This second career lasted another twenty-five years. After going back to school and earning her B.A. in Anthropology and Master’s in Historic Preservation, she concentrated on selling historic homes and properties. Lynne’s hobbies are reading and writing. (she co-authored “The Story of Dunwoody-1975 – 2001) with her friend Joyce Amacher, and has written her memoir, “The Sweetness and the Pits – Remembrances of a Georgia Peach.” She also enjoys collecting and preserving antiques, singing in her church choir with Noah, and traveling. Lynne has always kept a “bucket list” and has completed all but one thing on her first one, and that is to go to the Galapagos Islands, a result of her B.A. in Anthropology at Georgia State. She would like for her readers to know that she “Loves being Southern.”