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Apr 29, 2007

"It's the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance. It's the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance. It's the one who won't be taken, who cannot seem to give, and the soul afraid of dyin' that never learns to live." --Amanda McBrooom

A College Graduate ... At 95

Nola Ochs is not your everyday student. When she graduates on May 12, at the ripe age of 95, she'll be the world's oldest person to be awarded a college degree. Ochs didn't plan it that way. She just loved to learn, first as a teenager, then as a teacher at a one-room school, and later as a farm wife and mother. At 5-foot-2, her white hair pulled into a bun, she walks purposefully down hallways to classes with her books in a cloth tote bag. Todd Leahy, history department chairman, wondered at first if Ochs could keep up with the other students. After her second week, all doubts were gone, as he discovered she could provide tidbits of history! Ochs’ plans after graduation? "I'm going to seek employment on a cruise ship as a storyteller," she says, smiling.