In 1969, Sam Kaplan graduated from high school and did not even consider going to college. At age 68, he decided to go back to school and after studying for four years, he became the first of his seven siblings to earn an undergraduate degree.
The 72-year-old graduated from Georgia Gwinnett College on May 11 with a degree in cinema and media arts. His 99-year-old mom attended his graduation ceremony and was excited to see him graduate.
"She’s very excited," Sam said in a news release from the college. "She’s excited, happy and proud."
His mom said that after earning his degree, "he’s going to be so successful in anything he does."
On Instagram, Georgia Gwinnett College is described as "the first four-year, public college created in the U.S. in the 21st century. Changing the future for students at all levels, of all ages, since 2006."
Sam said he was driving one day and heard an advertisement on the radio for the college that said it offered scriptwriting courses, which immediately caught his attention because he has always loved creating stories.
"Five minutes later, I was registering for the fall semester," Sam said.
Before deciding to go back to school, Sam did a variety of different jobs. According to the college's news release, he previously ran a cleaning service and a telemarketing company then worked in customer service and also worked as a taxi driver. According to the Gwinnett Daily Post, he retired in 2013. He also raised five kids and eventually had 15 grandkids.
Although he always enjoyed writing and telling stories, "life just got in the way" of going back to school.
Though he had a lot of life experience, going back to school was intimidating; after all, most of his classmates were much younger than him and had been in school more recently.
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Sam decided that he would challenge himself to talk to at least one fellow student per day.
"When you ask a student about what they want and plan on doing and find out what they want to do with their lives; I think that’s uncommon with a lot of kids — they don’t get that with people," he said. "I think I have a good relationship with them. I got hugs from a lot of them on the last day of classes."
Sam said he "really enjoyed being in college" and is "really glad [he] did it."
