A bachelor's degree 3 decades in the making

A lot has changed since Danny Breen first walked into a classroom at Memorial University in 1979 — different hairstyles, clothes and what we now call a phone — but the end result remained the same, a bachelor of arts degree.

Partway through his political science degree, a job opportunity came up and Breen bailed on his higher learning.

"I decided to take the job," he said. "I got married. We had our kids a couple of years after that. Then you're putting your kids through university and taking care of them."

When his youngest daughter graduated a few years back, Breen set his sights on finally finishing his degree.

"I started about three years ago doing one course at a time," he told CBC News.

"I did most of them online, but sometimes I couldn't get a course that I needed to do online so I had to do it on campus, so that was a good change too. Online and distance learning is great but the in-class discussions is also pretty interesting."

'I never thought it would be this exciting'

Classes on campus meant the St. John's city councillor sometimes showed up a little overdressed for the casual university environment.

"It's kind of strange at times when I'd show up to class in a suit, shirt and tie," he said. "People would look at you a bit oddly but they were great."

On Thursday, 37 years after first enrolling, Memorial University awarded Breen a bachelor of arts in political science, with his biggest supporters, his family, on hand to take it in.

"I never thought it would be this exciting," said Breen, who works for a company that sells group insurance.

"It's nice to have this done. It's one of those things that I always wanted to go back and finish and I was able to do it."

Sitting among his fellow graduates, decades his junior, Breen had some advice from one of this convocation's oldest graduates.

"The world is so different now. These young people today have so much more experience, so much more knowledge than I did at their age."

"The opportunities ahead of them are endless. They should take advantage of every one of them."