COLUMBIA, S.C. — A 66-year-old woman named Aliza Burton is making waves. She's set to graduate from the University of South Carolina with honors: magna cum laude on Monday.
"I'm nervous, and I don't know why. It's just the culmination of a lot of years of hard work and putting myself out there, and now it's done," Burton said.
Burton said that when she started college 48 years ago, she didn't do well and faced financial constraints, self-doubt and societal pressures. But she promised herself she would finish school and earn her degree.
Now, she is doing just that, earning her Bachelor's with a major in English and a minor in creative writing.
Burton said she took a semester at NYU when she was 26 and working full-time, but it wasn’t in her budget to finish then. Then, in 2016, she said she started up again, taking three classes a semester as she was nearing 60 and working part-time.
When she moved to the Palmetto State in 2020, Burton said she discovered she could attend college for free once she established residency, so she started at USC as a sophomore.
She said she didn't mind being the oldest in the class in some cases.
"Nobody ever guesses that I'm 66, but it was fine. It was great, you know? I can talk to anybody about anything pretty much. So, it was just like being one of the other students," Burton said. "The professor was weird because they're all, they were all younger than me. So, they were like my peers. So, I had a peer group of professors and a peer group of students, and both [were] actually pretty awesome."
Burton said two friends and her fiancé are coming to see her graduate. Her daughter, mom and brother will be watching online.
"Just do it, you know, don't limit yourself, never limit yourself. Always think of the possibilities," Burton said. "I don't like to start and not finish things that are really important to me. So I always gave myself that push, that I would finish, and I did little by little, and I always knew I would, whatever it took."
The plan after graduation is to continue her writing. Burton said she's working on several things.