{"id":10950,"date":"2024-05-13T09:03:41","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T14:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=10950"},"modified":"2024-05-13T09:03:41","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T14:03:41","slug":"soon-to-graduate-at-72-uwm-student-reflects-on-the-life-lessons-shes-learned","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/soon-to-graduate-at-72-uwm-student-reflects-on-the-life-lessons-shes-learned\/","title":{"rendered":"Soon to graduate at 72, UWM student reflects on the life lessons she\u2019s learned"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
As a nontraditional student, JoAnne Potter brought a different perspective and energy to her classes at UWM. \u201cOne of the great things about having someone with such profound life experience in class is that I can see it inspiring other students to think about the process of aging and becoming a full person,\u201d said one of the teachers, philosophy lecturer \u00c1g\u00fast Magn\u00fasson. (UWM Photo\/Sarah Vickery)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

JoAnne Potter is 72 years old. That makes her among a very small group of older seniors working on a bachelor\u2019s degree at UWM, and almost certainly the oldest student ever in the Honors College. She\u2019s set to graduate this month with her bachelor\u2019s degree, 55 years after she first began college.<\/p>\n

Though she\u2019s learning from her UWM professors, Potter has plenty of her own wisdom to share. Here are some of the life lesson\u2019s she\u2019s picked up along the way.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s never too late to finish what you started<\/h3>\n

Potter began her college career in 1969. She entered UWM without much of a vision. After a year that went \u201crelatively poorly,\u201d she decided that perhaps college wasn\u2019t for her.<\/p>\n

Instead, she moved to Illinois and went to work for a small steel manufacturer as a secretary. She eventually worked her way up to become one of its vice presidents, but, \u201cI had a hard time rising through the ranks without a degree,\u201d Potter said. \u201cNothing specifically held me back, but I think it wouldn\u2019t have taken as long (with a degree).\u201d<\/p>\n

After 14 years in the corporate world, she and her husband retreated to Richland Center, Wisconsin, where they built up a small hobby farm. Potter took on jobs as a freelance writer and worked for a friend\u2019s public relations firm, but her true joy was in teaching at a small private school. She found that she loved educating young minds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that that\u2019s primarily my vocation, and has been for a really long time,\u201d Potter said. \u201cBut I couldn\u2019t exercise it because I didn\u2019t have the degree to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She did take classes here and there when she could \u2013 Potter jokes that she completed her sophomore year of college over 25 years \u2013 but after her husband passed away, Potter moved back to Milwaukee and found herself without much to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized I could go back to school,\u201d she said. She conceived the idea in November 2021 and began classes at UWM in January of 2022. And, she was delighted to find, all of her past credits were accepted. Potter was on her way to her degree.<\/p>\n

Surround yourself with people who accept you and challenge you<\/h3>\n

Potter calls herself a person of faith, but she had questions about life that her long years in church hadn\u2019t answered. When she started school once again, she decided to major in philosophy, searching for new points of view. She found them, not only in her classes and in the Honors College, but in the mentors and classmates she met along the way.<\/p>\n

In particular, Potter found a kindred spirit in philosophy lecturer \u00c1g\u00fast Magn\u00fasson.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a man of faith, and as a philosopher, that\u2019s extremely unusual,\u201d she said. \u201cWe clicked from the very first semester, and we\u2019ve developed a relationship of sharing that\u2019s helpful in processing some of the things that I couldn\u2019t make sense out of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her classmates are also a source of delight; Potter has enjoyed her time in the classroom alongside students of all ages. \u201cWe don\u2019t all think alike, but we all think in the same direction,\u201d she said with a smile.<\/p>\n

And in return, she\u2019s left her mark on them. Magn\u00fasson reflected on the impact that Potter has had on his classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe perfectly embodies the idea that true wisdom comes from knowing that we don\u2019t know, that we are always beginners,\u201d he said. \u201cShe approaches every conversation and every topic with such joy that it inspires the rest of us to try to live up to her standards, both as a student and as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your age is what you make of it<\/h3>\n

Most college students intend to use their degree to help them advance in their chosen career. Potter is past that point in her life, but she has plenty of things that she wants to do with her degree. She wants to start writing her own poetry and start her own poetry critique group in her community. She wants to emulate the French salons of the Enlightenment days where groups of people meet to pose difficult questions and puzzle through them together. She wants to start a program where she teaches cooking skills to college kids who may not have learned them.<\/p>\n

In the short term, she\u2019s planning to finish the last of her college credits by traveling to London for a two-week study abroad program through the Honors College. She\u2019s leaving the day after graduation and plans to complete the class, extend her European travels by visiting Paris for a few days, and then sail back to the United States aboard the Queen Mary, a trans-Atlantic cruise ship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my graduation present to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Potter does not view her age as an obstacle. Indeed, Magn\u00fasson said, her wisdom and experience have improved the classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the great things about having someone with such profound life experience in class is that I can see it inspiring other students to think about the process of aging and becoming a full person,\u201d he added. \u201cI think many young people today are profoundly afraid of growing old, associating that process with negative qualities such as becoming more close-minded or angry. JoAnne is such an amazing antidote to this kind of thinking. She is joyous, vibrant and energetic. I think all of us who know JoAnne can\u2019t help but think to ourselves: \u2018That\u2019s what I want to be like when I get to be that age.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

If you point out Potter\u2019s distinction as one of the most mature students to ever graduate from UWM, though, she brushes it off.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it\u2019s pleasant to be recognized for something I\u2019ve waited a long time to do, but my achievement is a small one compared to some of my fellow philosophy nontraditional graduates who have not only taken heavier schedules, held jobs, and tended to young families,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are the ones who should be congratulated. I just got old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps \u2013 but she also got wisdom, a wealth of experience and now, finally, her degree.<\/p>\n

\n

Written by Sarah Vickery<\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/soon-to-graduate-at-72-student-reflects-on-the-life-lessons-shes-learned\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JoAnne Potter is 72 years old. That makes her among a very small group of older seniors working on a bachelor\u2019s degree at UWM, and almost certainly the oldest student ever in the Honors College. She\u2019s set to graduate this month with her bachelor\u2019s degree, 55 years after she first began college. Though she\u2019s learning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":10952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[107],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-10950","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-milwaukee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/10950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=10950"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=10950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}