SAN MARCOS — Of the more than 4,000 students who graduated from Cal State San Marcos over the weekend, few had waited as long or were as excited as 76-year-old Kathryn Cook, the oldest member of the Class of 2024.
Cook, a San Carlos resident, completed the 16-month accelerated sociology program at CSUSM in early 2023 after completing an additional year and a half of MiraCosta College coursework.
The grandmother and avid volunteer said she always wanted to return to university for a bachelor’s but hadn’t had the chance to until now. She decided to pursue a degree for herself in honor of her late husband, Ed, who passed away in 2019.
On May 17, her children and grandchildren came to watch her walk onstage at the commencement ceremony. Her graduation cap was decorated with roses, her husband’s favorite flower.
“I’m really excited. I feel like a kid,” Cook said. “It’s so important, because I’ve wanted it for so long.”
Decades before she would walk the stage at CSUSM, Cook began her secondary education in 1965 at Grossmont College’s dental assisting program. It’s also where she met Ed, whom she described as her “better half.
She worked in the dental field for 20 years until she and Ed had their children, at which point she took a step back from full-time work to raise them while also working part-time painting houses. She later worked in a local school district in a variety of aide positions and at Sharp Healthcare, working her way up to the role of educator trainer.
Working two nights a week at the hospital and 30 hours in the school district, she fulfilled her passion for helping others.
“I absolutely loved it,” she said. “That’s one of the things that just thrills my heart — to be present, and to be where you’re meant to be, because you never know when you might change someone’s life.”
In 2007, she went back to school for her associate degree in communications at MiraCosta College, and she was looking forward to further schooling. However, Ed became sick around this time, and she committed herself to being his main caretaker after graduating in 2008.
After battling prostate cancer, seizures, open heart surgery, a stroke and diabetes that led to blindness in his left eye — with his wife there every step of the way — he passed away in 2019.
“He was the sweetest person. He had the kindest heart. He wanted to help people,” Cook said.
While losing her husband was difficult, it also made Cook examine what she wanted to do next and decide to pursue a four-year university education. She enrolled in MiraCosta in 2021, where some of the professors also taught at CSUSM, and Cook decided to apply there to obtain a sociology degree.
“I was like, okay, I’ll give it a try. So I applied, and I was so excited when I received an acceptance email,” Cook said.
Because of her history of working and volunteering with the homeless and underprivileged children, sociology has always fascinated Cook, and she felt passionate about helping people in need, such as women affected by domestic violence.
Cook said she loved her classes in the online accelerated program, which covered topics from family and intimate relationships to race, gender and equality. She said she was the oldest in her cohort and enjoyed getting to know people from many different walks of life, including folks who were married or had kids or others who wanted to pick up a second degree.
“Even though we’re all online, we get to know one another,” Cook said.
One of the friends she made in class was 50 years her junior, and they were finally able to meet in person at the graduation ceremony.
Now that she has graduated, Cook said she is already considering getting another bachelor’s and maybe even a master’s in social work. For now, though, she is trying to enjoy the moment and focus on giving back wherever possible.
“The thing that’s next on my bucket list, I want to take a hot air balloon ride in Temecula. I haven’t been to Disneyland in a long time. I want to do more volunteering with the homeless. I want to just make my life count and do something that will hopefully make a difference,” Cook said.
