85-year-old graduates from ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥
- June 13, 2010
Ida Cotton has made a living overcoming challenges.
She would not let foot problems, carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis and a host of other health complications stop her from fulfilling a promise she made as a teenager to her mother.
The 85-year-old fulfilled that promise Saturday by completing her education and graduating with a master's degree in counseling and gerontology from ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥.
"I thank God for the many blessings he has bestowed on me, and the many friends who have helped me along the way," she said. "I hope and pray for long life and good health."
It is her faith that keeps her at ease even as she faces her latest challenge: the possibility of being homeless.
Cotton has been living in student housing on the campus during her three-year tenure at the university, and must find a new place to live since all graduating students are required to move out. She has no family in the East Bay, and campus officials are looking into extending her stay until she can find a home.
"It will all work out," Cotton said confidently in the comfort of her quaint apartment Thursday.
Living around students has made her feel young again, she said.
"The kids (on campus) are so sweet," Cotton said. "I never had a problem with them turning up their music or making their cars go 'whoom!' — that's young life for you. I'm glad they can drive and can afford a car."
Cotton's childhood was much different from other students'.
She grew up in the South during the Great Depression and worked around her school schedule to help her struggling family.
Cotton killed and cleaned chickens before finding work at a restaurant. She worked an 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift and then went to her high school classes at 9 a.m.
Her grades suffered as a result of having to provide for her family.
Dreams of attending college would be put on hold when, at 21, she married a man twice her age. The couple raised five children in North Carolina.
When her husband died in 1977, and with her children grown, she found an opportunity to return to school.
After stints in community colleges in North Carolina and Maryland, Cotton relocated to Foster City in 1985.
In the Bay Area, Cotton attended the College of San Mateo and earned her associate degree in 1992.
At that point in her life, she developed a hunger for education that is still with her today.
After earning her associate degree, she attended Mills College in Oakland, where she would overcome another challenge.
Cotton suffered a leg injury that would require surgery and put her education on hold. She risked losing her leg by opting for surgery after, at age 71. By then, she had earned a bachelor's degree in political, legal and economic analysis.
"I was the first one in my immediate family with the opportunity to go to college, and there's no way I was going to throw it away," Cotton said. "I told (my doctor) I'd rather get my education because if I lose one leg, I'll still have another one."
Cotton would take the next decade to recoup and heal her body by moving in with her daughter in Fremont.
In 2006, her hunger to learn grew, and she enrolled into ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ after learning that the CSU system allows fee waivers for seniors.
"Ida has been an inspiration for what education can mean," said Sally Murphy, who has served as an education adviser to Cotton at ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥.
Murphy, also the university's director of general education, said students have learned the importance of education after meeting Cotton. One of those students is Krystaelynne Sanders, 19, who met Cotton in the dorm's laundry room.
Sanders said she had mistaken Cotton for a student's grandmother doing laundry and was amazed to learn that Cotton was taking classes on campus.
"Just by being around her, I've learned that with the right amount of motivation, you can do anything — and she is a prime example of that," Sanders said. "You are never too old to achieve your dreams in life."
But Cotton now is focusing on a more immediate problem: trying to find a new home.
She can't move back in with her daughter because the woman now lives on the second floor of an apartment complex in Foster City, and Cotton finds it very difficult to go up and down stairs.