vra> SJSU's Over 60 Program

[Vladimir Vrabec]

Vazeni pratele,
na "http://omicron.felk.cvut.cz/html/o-czech6.html" je smernik na dokument
"Campus Papers on the Net". Jeho prostrednictvim jsem si dnes rano precetl
v beznem cisle casopisu "Sparta Daily" studentu statni univerzity v San
Chose zajimavy prispevek, ktery pripojuji.
                                   Prijemny den preje
                                                     Vladimir Vrabec
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   Linkname: SJSU grandmother to graduate at 79
   Filename: gopher://aphrodite.sjsu.edu/00/News/SPDaily/today/cara.5-17

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By Cara Broglia

Spartan Daily Staff Writer

     She has built a home with her bare hands, taken care of the sick

for almost 40 years, and now, at the age of 79, Charlotte Elizabeth

Beecher Dykstra will take part in commencement ceremonies at SJSU.

     Dykstra, who completed her baccalaureate degree in American

studies in December, will be turning 80 years old on June 6.

     She will be participating in the commencement on May 28 through

SJSU's Over 60 Program. The program, instituted in the late 1970's,

originally costs its applicants only $5 a semester.

     To enter the program, participants must be California residents

over 60. They can take classes on a space available basis at any of the

CSU campuses.

     Five years ago, Dykstra decided to come to SJSU to pursue her

life-long goal of obtaining knowledge thorugh a higher education. A

self-proclaimed history buff, she chose to focus on the subject because

she has interesting family ties to the American past.

     She has studied her family geneology and dicovered her mother is a

descendant from the Mayflower. Dykstra also found out she is a distant

relative of the abolitionist family the Beechers and to John Hart, a

signer of the Declaration of Independence.

     As for her interest in history, "I didn't (like it) in high

school. My husband was interested in history and got me interested in

it," Dykstra said. "When I had history in high school it was all dates,

now they give more background."

     Dykstra was born in El Paso,Texas and her family moved to Venice,

California during her adolescence. After her father died, the family

could not afford to pay for college, so Dykstra entered the nursing

program at Seaside Hospital in Long Beach and became a registered nurse.

     The family moved to Honolulu in 1941, and lived through the

bombing of Pearl Harbor. Dykstra career spanned almost forty years and

once her husband passed away, she moved to Washington with her son's

family.

     At 65-years-old, Dykstra helped to build her son's house- -digging

the foundation, puring concrete, helping with framing, roofing and

plumbing.

     "I was a slick chick," she said. "Carrying two-by-fours up the

stairs helped me to keep my shape."

     Dykstra said she would consider coming back in the fall to pursue

a minor in either English or French history. She has gone to college

intermittenly for the past 15 years.

     As for SJSU's Over 60 program, Dykstra considers it a golden

opportunity. It costs only $23 a semester for registration- -$5 for

admission and $18 for the student services fee.

     "If you have any inclination to go back to school, do it," Dykstra

said. "If anybody doesn't do it they're nuts."

     Barbara Green, Dykstra's daughter, works for SJSU in the office of

the Director of Fiscal Services. She is proud of her mother's

accomplishments.

     "I am really proud of her and prooud to be the daughter of such a

wonderful woman," Green said. "I wish everyone was as fortunate as I

have ben with such a wonderful role model for a mother."

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