86-year-old achieves lifelong goal of a college degree
Wednesday, December 14, 2016 2:00 AM
News
Pittsburg, KS
Beatrice Normadine Scott has accomplished a lot in her 86 years.
Despite never going beyond the 10th grade in school, Scott’s been successful in business and has been active in her church and community and served on national and state boards. She’s been a wife, mother to seven, grandmother to five and great-grandmother to 16 and today is the director of development for KOZJ, the public television station in Joplin, Mo.
Scott is proud of the fact that her name is on the Eisenhower Memorial at Gettysburg and she’s proud of the many community, state and national awards and honors she’s received over the years, but there’s one achievement that has eluded her – until now.
Scott will be among the estimated 500 students who will receive their degrees at Pittsburg State University’s fall commencement exercises on Friday, Dec. 16. Scott will receive a bachelor of general studies degree in a ceremony that begins at 8 p.m. in John Lance Arena.
“A college degree was my number-one goal in life that I had not achieved,” Scott said. “And now, due to the dedication of the faculty and staff at Pittsburg State University, I will have reached that star!”
Scott’s life journey is a tale of highs and lows. She was born in 1930, but her father died when she was just an infant, leaving her 18-year-old uneducated mother to care for her in the midst of the Great Depression.
“Mother and I returned home to live with her mother and younger brother in Gentry, Arkansas,” Scott said.
Life was hard, there, and Scott said some of her earliest memories were of family members, who had never gone past eighth grade, admonishing her to get an education.
When Scott was 12, her mother married a successful Joplin businessman and farmer and life improved. Her plans to go to college, however, were replaced by an early marriage before she could graduate high school.
The marriage proved to be an abusive one that ended in divorce after 13 years.
Scott worked in a department store in Topeka, Kansas, to support her two children before marrying a western Kansas wheat farmer who was widowed with three children of his own. Together, they had two more children in a happy and successful blended family.
Still, there was one thing that bothered Scott.
“I could not erase the feeling of being inadequate when I filled out any papers that asked about my education –‘when and where did you graduate?’” Scott said.
Eventually, Scott got her GED. Although she had her high school diploma, Scott wanted more. Over the years, she took classes at Washburn University, Crowder College and Missouri Southern State University, moving ever closer to that brass ring of a college degree.
The one hurdle she just couldn’t seem to overcome was the math required for most degrees.
Then she met David Hurford, chair of PSU’s Department of Psychology and Counseling and director of the Center for Reading Research. Scott’s granddaughter was having reading problems in school and they came to have her tested for reading disabilities.
“Dr. Hurford, with his program of learning to read, literally saved my granddaughter’s life,” Scott said. “Left undiagnosed and remedied, she would have not continued her education...When she began to read, her world changed dramatically for the better and she is now on a great career path.”
Scott said Hurford was also able to understand her problem with math.
“His diagnosis was corroborated by my medical doctor,” Scott said. “Goodness, Dr. Hurford even had a name for it, a really long word I had never heard before, dyscalculia. Maybe I wasn’t so stupid, after all!”
Scott worked with Assistant Dean Bobby Winters in PSU College of Arts and Sciences, Adviser Craig Fuchs, and Barbara Van Becelaere in the Registrar’s Office and individual members of the faculty to finish the work necessary to complete her degree.
She worked hard, but it was a labor of love.
“The classes I have taken in history have opened up the world for me,” Scott said. “There have been so many world-changing events that I have learned about. The classes in sociology have shown me the needs of the human race around the world. Music and art classes were fun. Religion, geology, science, strengthened my belief in a supreme being, God. All of these classes have intensified my continued desire to reflect and learn about the foundation of the world and the peoples that inhabit it.”
Scott said the decision to return to school at PSU wasn’t a difficult one and she gives credit to the support she’s received from family and friends as well as faculty and staff at PSU for making this dream come true.
“Despite the poor beginnings and many setbacks in my life, I feel I have been granted numerous blessings,” Scott said. “Throughout this endeavor, my family and close friends have been there, giving assistance and encouragement every step of the way and they have encouraged me to attempt this final challenge.”
On Friday, Scott will conquer that ‘final challenge,’ but don’t expect this energetic 86-year-old to sit back and relax.
Asked what’s next, after earning her degree, Scott said with a smile and a twinkle in her eye, “Well, my resume’s out there.”