An 87-year-old woman in South Korea is set to enroll in university after graduating from high school this week, seven years after returning to school.
Kim Gap-nyeo graduated from Ilsung Women’s High School, an institution for adults in Seoul, on Feb. 25 and will begin studying Social Welfare at Sookmyung Women’s University this month.
“A goal? I don’t have one. I just enjoy learning and being with people,” she said in an interview with Korea Times.
Kim’s story gained national attention after she appeared on the popular TV show “You Quiz on the Block” on the tvN channel last October. She told the hosts, “My life opened up when I started school.”
Her daughters, now grown, take pride in their mother’s accomplishments.
Kim was born in 1938 in Cheongwon County, North Chungcheong Province. She began elementary school in 1945 but had to quit halfway through to help her parents with farming and care for her younger siblings.
At 17, after her father passed away and the family’s finances dwindled. Kim went to Busan to work as a housemaid in a shoe store. A year later, she moved to Seoul, got married, and had five children. She said she worked tirelessly at markets, snack factories, and kimchi production facilities to support her family.
In 1985, her husband passed away after 15 years of illness. From then on, she worked as a back scrubber at public bathhouses for 23 years, determined to raise her children and provide for their education.
At the age of 80, Kim decided to return to school. Thanks to a friend’s introduction, she enrolled at Yangwon Elementary School, an adult education institution for older individuals.
Initially, she only planned to learn reading and writing, but she gradually became more interested in advancing further.
Her homeroom teacher at Ilsung Girls’ High School, Kang Rae-kyung, described Kim as an exemplary student, rarely absent or neglecting her homework, according to Korea Times.
Kim received both the “Perseverance Award” and the “Grace Award” during her graduation ceremony.
