The Fairfield Ledger

By: Lacey Jacobs, Ledger staff writer

07/02/2008

An inspiration to her classmates and teachers, Sheasgreen was recognized with the Golden Student Award during a ceremony Friday night at the Argiro Center. During her speech, Sheasgreen spoke of how her education had helped her to develop her full brain potential and taught her to know herself and know her purpose in life.

Betty Sheasgreen is proof a person is never too old to achieve his or her lifelong ambitions.

At 88 years old, Sheasgreen received her diploma - the culmination of her work toward a bachelor of arts degree in art - during Maharishi University of Management's graduation ceremony Sunday. Finishing her degree was something she had always wanted to do since abandoning her study of interior design at the University of Minnesota.

"While in my fourth year, World War II broke out, so I enlisted in the Navy [Women Accepted for Volunteer Service]," Sheasgreen recalled. "They called me for duty before I graduated, and so I never got my degree."

The sense of duty was strong in her hometown of Fairmont, Minn., where most of the young men enlisted in the ROTC were killed when their unit was bombed shortly after the start of the war.

"It was such a tragedy to this small town that all the young men were gone," Sheasgreen said. "That was what decided me to find some other way to attain peace."

Her experience with the horrors of war made her believe there had to be a better way. And many years later, Sheasgreen believes she's found it.

Before Sheasgreen was introduced to Transcendental Meditation though, she worked as a flight attendant - "we called them hostesses in those days" - for TWA after the war, flying across the United States and as far away as Paris, France; Lisbon, Portugal; and Cairo, Egypt.

After four years and more than a million miles, Sheasgreen married, and she and her husband settled in San Francisco, where her husband owned several restaurants.

It wasn't until 2006, when Sheasgreen joined the Invincible America Course, that she found a way to fulfill her lifelong ambitions of working toward peace and finishing her education.

"The university here is so understanding no matter age, You're welcome," Sheasgreen said. "where else could you go to a university and the students be so kind--and the instructors too of course."

I'm so proud and happy that even at 88 years, my mother is not showing signs of decline as most people her age, but keeps getting better in mind, body and spirit." said Sheasgreen's daughter Cynthia Arenander. "Each year I see her getting more vibrant and lively."

An inspiration to her classmates and teachers, Sheasgreen was recognized with the Golden Student Award during a ceremony Friday night at the Argiro Center. During her speech, Sheasgreen spoke of how her education had helped her to develop her full brain potential and taught her to know herself and know her purpose in life.

The only student to receive a standing ovation Friday, Arenander said her mother melted their hearts and "really won the crowd over."

Having tackled two ambitions in one stroke, Sheasgreen said the next step may be teaching or the pursuit of a master's degree.