News Media: 71-Year-Old Charlotte Woman Graduates College While Teaching In The Same Institution Simultaneously
A 71-year-old cosmetology teacher with more than 50 years of experience, has joined the graduating class of 2019 at Gaston College. The Charlotte woman identified as Hazeline Dye, is reported to have also been teaching in the same institution simultaneously. She said:
“It was an adventure for me. I never in million years thought I’d be going back to school at my age.”
According to her colleagues at Gaston College’s school of Cosmetology, Hazeline doesn’t look at all 71. Co-worker and instructor Sandy Sinclair even said, “Don’t let her age fool you”.
“The students love her, and they can see that she has that passion.”
Dye’s been a beginner cosmetology instructor at Gaston College going on 11 years, with nearly 50 years of experience. However, in 2010, community college rules changed, requiring instructors to have or be working towards at least an associates degree. Dye explained:
“They wanted all the instructors to have a degree if the students are getting a degree, which is only right.”
So she enrolled in the very college that she was teaching and still teaches at today. She said;
“With me going to class, and my students being in the class with me, it was great because it was like I could teach them in someone elses class.”
“I kept pushing, I was going to drop out, they said ‘no you’re not, you’re not dropping out.”
Seventy-four course credits and nine years later, Dye is walking across the stage with her associates degree in Cosmetology in hand. The 71-year-old said:
“I never, in a million years thought I’d be graduating from college.”
“I’m 71 and I did it so, that’s what made me feel good, even my students they’d say, you can do it Mrs. Dye, and I said you know what, I sure can.”
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