René Neira had spent 70 years pursuing a university degree.
He started in the 1950s, but he fell in love, started a family in San Antonio, Texas, and his job at a bank kept postponing that dream again and again. He tried in the 80s. He resumed it after being widowed in 2009. And in 2016, already 82 years old, something unexpected happened: he ended up at a community college with his granddaughter Melanie, fresh out of high school. A year later, they both entered the University of Texas at San Antonio together, he in Economics, she in Communications, and they kept each other company between classes, lunches, and quiet afternoons studying in the library. A mild stroke forced him to stop again.
At 88, he was facing a terminal illness in palliative care. That is why his family asked the university to award him an honorary degree in December 2021, before it was too late. Photos of René and Melanie in cap and gown are already making their way around the world. “I truly admired his drive, strength, and perseverance to keep moving forward no matter what”, she said. Seven decades later, René crossed that finish line.