WOODLAND HILLS : Graduate, 79, Savors Degree of Distinction

Annette Roden is one college graduate who won’t be looking for work in the real world. She did the real world already.

Roden, 79, picked up her Associate of Arts degree Thursday night from Pierce College. It’s a piece of paper that gives her peace of mind.

“All you hope when you’re as old as I am,” said Roden, of Calabasas, “is that you will come to achieve it. It’s a great feeling.”

Roden always wanted to attend college, but twice had to sacrifice her own ambitions to support others in her family. The first time, she was a teen-ager in Chicago during the Depression. Her father died of a cerebral hemorrhage, and besides, “I was a girl.”

Then, as a single mother years later in Los Angeles, she needed a job to take care of her three children. “I was too busy to ever think about going to school,” she said. “School is a luxury.”

From 1954 to 1988, she worked in the mortgage banking industry. Finally, at 72, she decided to retire and go to college.

She took a history course to see if she was ready to do homework and take tests. She was more than ready.

“Once I went back, I loved it,” Roden said. “I was very fortunate. I had a terrific teacher.”

Since then, she took two courses each semester for about five years to earn her degree, including geography, marketing, business law, algebra, English and anthropology. She scored a B+ average.

“At first, the young people are a little wary of me,” she said, but “eventually, in just about every class I had, I made a friend. I’ve had great relationships. Some would call me and we’d talk about the tests we were going to have.”

Roden has no regrets that she waited so long to get a degree. “You can’t live your life backwards,” she said. “I’m real pleased I could do it now. My children are proud. My grandchildren are proud.”

They certainly are.

“She’s taken responsibility for herself and hasn’t fallen into the pitfalls of being a senior citizen,” said Sherry Dolkart, her daughter. “She set herself a new goal, and this was her answer.”

Nor does Roden have plans to do anything special with her degree.

“I wanted the degree for the satisfaction of knowing I could earn it,” she said. “It was all for myself. I’ve had a very successful career.”

In fact, she intends to take more courses at Pierce in the fall.