IUP honored 459 new graduates yesterday at the KCAC, and one of them journeyed for 47 years to walk across the stage and get her degree. 65-year-old Aretha Swift of Abington, Montgomery County, completed her bachelor’s degree after re-enrolling in 2023, taking two classes per semester – a total of seven – to earn the 21 credits she needed.
She began at IUP in 1978 but had to leave school for financial reasons. Her journey back to IUP has included more than her share of adversity, including an abusive marriage, raising three children as a single mother, chronic kidney disease that has required two kidney transplants, and most recently a diagnosis of breast cancer. Her adventurous life has also included plenty of triumphs; becoming a successful business owner, working with her church, founding a company that supports and encouraged those suffering from chronic kidney disease, and seeing two of her children graduate college, with the youngest soon to complete her degree.
You can read Swift’s story in an excellent article published by IUP last week:
https://www.iup.edu/news-events/news/2025/12/philadelphia-woman-returns-to-iup-after-four-decades-to-complete-degree.html
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