PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Years ago, a North Philadelphia woman put her children ahead of her own high school education. Now, at the age of 69, she’s finally earning her diploma.
Betty Williams didn’t graduate with her class in 1972. She got pregnant twice, dropped out of Kensington High and started working a succession of jobs — at a sweater factory, at a thrift shop, as a butcher and as a certified nursing assistant.
“They put food on the table and clothes on my kids’ back,” Williams told KYW Newsradio. “The whole time I was working I didn’t need a diploma, and it really didn’t bother me.”
That is, until her children were grown. “It was just the fact that I’ve seen people really older than me in their 70s, 80s and 90s had went back to school. And that was a motivation for me.”
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In January 2022, Williams enrolled in the Educational Options Program — or Adult Diploma program — run for the School District of Philadelphia by the nonprofit One Bright Ray. “English and history, I kind of remembered from when I was in school,” she said. “But the two subjects that I didn’t know anything about was algebra and chemistry.”
Williams is one of 290 adult graduates in the district this year and said she had perfect attendance at the program’s daily classes in Strawberry Mansion.
On July 28, Williams will receive her high school diploma at a graduation ceremony at Temple University. “This is the greatest feeling ever,” she said, her voice briefly choking with emotion. “I’m not mad that I didn’t do it then, because I feel so complete ‘cause I did it now.”
Williams plans to continue her educational journey, telling KYW Newsradio, “I have already applied to Community College [of Philadelphia].”
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