Oldest graduate in history to receive their undergrad from Northern Illinois University
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Granny got the degree! Last Sunday a new graduate walked across the stage to receive their diploma that they had waited since 1951 to achieve. This time, however, the graduate happened to be the oldest undergrad recipient in Northern Illinois University’s history – 90 years old. After waiting almost seven decades, Joyce DeFauw of Geneseo received her bachelors of general studies. DeFauw had originally pursued a teaching degree and then home economics. However, after being a few semesters away from graduation, she met her husband and had nine children throughout the years.
After nine children, including two sets of twins, she had her hands full and decided it would be best to put a hold on her degree. It wasn’t until 2019 that she decided to go back to school to finish the degree she had pursued back in 1951. Due to the pandemic, DeFauw took courses online in order to accelerate the process, using a gifted computer – the first computer she ever owned. The pandemic gave a lot of time for people to consider their education goals, and for DeFauw, she felt it was her time to give it another go.
It was definitely a change for her, but she told a local news station, WREX, that it wasn’t something that she had always planned to finish. DeFauw is one of the few people in their nineties in history to decide to go back and pursue education.
DeFauw always valued education and wanted to remind others that it’s important to never give up on your dream, even if you get sidetracked. She is a reminder that anything is possible if you put your mind to it! The grandmother of 17 and great grandmother of 24 said it was ultimately her family that encouraged her to return to NIU, known then at her time as Northern Illinois State Teachers College. As she put it, “Don’t give up. Even if you do quit, go back. Just hang in there. Keep learning. Keep giving thanks. It’s there for you. Just go for it.”
Did you know? Many popular movies were filmed in Illinois
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Gotham City, Ferris Bueller’s Parade, and Bill Murray’s never ending Groundhog Day. Chicago and countless other places in Illinois have transformed time and time again under the influence of Hollywood. Many popular films have used the Windy City, and other places in Illinois, for their iconic sets. The Land of Lincoln has ideal filming sets for Hollywood with Illinois’ robust diversity of locations from skyscrapers to farmlands.
The Dark Knight, featuring a thrilling battle between Batman and Joker, is a well-known movie to have been filmed in Chicago. But did you know, Miracle on 34th Street, Uncle Buck and Sixteen Candles were also filmed in the Chicagoland area? Miracle on 34th Street, while set in New York as a little girl defends an old man who thinks he is Santa Clause, was actually filmed all around Chicago. Places like Lincoln Park Zoo and Mount Carmel Senior Center were used for scenes. The iconic comedy Uncle Buck, about an unprepared bachelor watching his brother’s children, was filmed in various spots around the city, such as the Cubs stadium. Sixteen Candles, featuring 80s superstar Molly Ringwald, was filmed around Chicago’s North Shore, mostly at Niles East High School.
Ringwald returned to Illinois to film another iconic film, The Breakfast Club. The tale of five teenagers stuck in detention together was shot in Des Plaines at Maine North High School. The library scene was actually a larger library they built in the school’s gym. Another famous movie filmed in Illinois, but outside Chicago, was Groundhog Day. A 90s classic were Bill Murray’s character is stuck in the same day over and over again. Most of the film was done in the Woodstock area. Another comedy, Wayne’s World, about two friends trying to organize a concert, was filmed in Aurora and Berwyn. While not all of the film was shot in Illinois, some scenes have an Illinois background.
Illinois was used as a set in many iconic Hollywood films, and it does not seem that will stop anytime soon. Movie sets continue to flock to our state for action packed films done in Chicago, comedies using the backdrop of a nice suburb or dramas and romances using the beautiful scenery Illinois has to offer.
University of Chicago Researchers and how they’ve changed the world
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“Everything begins with an idea,” said Earl Nightingale. Ideas have the power to change the world. University of Chicago has played host to some of the most powerful ideas in the world. A new series of video shorts from University of Chicago aim to highlight the role the researchers and scientists of the University have played in changing the universe and our understanding of it. The series is called “The Day Tomorrow Began” and portrays compelling stories in video, podcast and written formats. Every story details a groundbreaking and gripping idea or discovery.
Could you ever imagine a star collapsing in on itself? A light, once shining so bright, suddenly turning into the darkest void you have ever seen. Indian-American scientist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar could imagine it. He is the first story topic covered, for his role in discovering black holes. In 1931, at only the age of 19, Chandrasekhar was the first person to calculate that stars would ultimately collapse in on themselves at the end of their lives. And if the star had enough mass, it would create a black hole. This is only one of the fascinating stories the series has to tell.
Thinkers and scholars of the world have always advanced our way of life. Today, higher education and its researchers are facing challenges when it comes to lack of funding. The series was created, in part, as a hope to reinvigorate people’s passion for research and new ideas. “There’s a tremendous belief that universities need to play, and do play, a role in helping drive innovations and breakthroughs that really reshape our world,” said Paul Rand, vice president for communications at the University of Chicago.
To watch or listen to the captivating series “The Day Tomorrow Began”, you can visit here.
Did you know? The first American woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize is from Illinois
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“The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life,” said Jane Addams, the first American woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Addams spent her whole life fighting for the good and equality of everyone. She was the second woman ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize, the first American woman and the first woman from Illinois to win the award. She founded the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in 1919, and during WWI she worked tirelessly for many years for the great nations of the world to disarm and conclude peace agreements. Before America joined the war she chaired a women’s conference for peace held in the Hague Netherlands, and pleaded with President Woodrow Wilson to mediate peace. Instead America joined the war efforts, and Jane Addams became a loud and outspoken opponent to WWI. Once a peace treaty was made in Germany, the American government recognized her efforts for peace.
She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, however she did more to achieve this award than fight against the Great War. Jane Addams was born in Cedarville in 1860 and died in Chicago in 1935. In 1881 she graduated from Rockford Female Seminary at the top of her class. During her life she worked to help the poor and stop children from being used in industrial labor. She ran a Hull House in Chicago, a center which helped immigrants, and it was the first settlement house in the United States. She would give speeches all across the nation advocating for the Hull House.
Jane Addams was a strong woman and courageous advocate for peace and equality. She, along with other women reformers, was instrumental in successfully lobbying for the creation of a juvenile court system. Addams also worked to establish a School for Social work at the University of Chicago. She was active in the women’s suffrage movement and was an officer in the National American Women’s Suffrage Association. She was outspoken about women’s rights once saying, “Old-fashioned ways which no longer apply to changed conditions are a snare in which the feet of women have always become readily entangled.”
Jane Addams accomplished much in her life, always seeking different ways to help those around her. She was a remarkable women who helped to improve Illinois and the lives of many.
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