80-year-old NC A&T State University graduate proves value of perseverance
After persevering through a series of setbacks, she's finally donning a university cap and gown.
Vera Andrews has excelled in school from a young age. She became the valedictorian of the class of 1962 at Randolph High School in Liberty.
Andrews wanted to take learning to the next level at North Carolina A&T State University.
'My goal was to go to college, but as life presents itself, everything don't fall into place, so I took another route,' she said.
Her first husband died in 1977. She started at NC A&T in 1978.
Life circumstances beyond her control over the years meant going to school when she could attend.
'Stopped again, and I went back. Stopped again, and I went back,' she said.
In 2022, she was determined to stop that cycle.
'One day I said, 'I'm going to take a day off of work, and I'm going to go to A&T, and I'm going to find an advisor, and they're going to help me,'' she said.
It turns out that Andrews went back at the right time.
The advisor informed her that she already had 100 hours on her record and only needed 20 more to graduate.
'I said, Wow! Bravo! Splendid! Hurray! And I went for it. I went for it. She said, 'We have money for you'…I said that's even better.'
Through Aggies at the Goal Line, a program that helps returning students earn a bachelor's degree, Andrews was able to finish what she started.
Andrews graduated from North Carolina A&T in December 2024 at 80 years old with a Liberal Studies degree.
She says it's not just an accomplishment that means a lot to her but to her entire family too.
'There are 13 of us, and my father died at a young age,' she said.
'My dream was to always finish college.'
'It means a lot that my siblings that sacrificed, and not only the two that are here today, Freeman and Clementine, but the other older ones, they also quit school so they could help mama raise us, so it's very important to me to finish the goal that I started out a long time ago.'
Earning a college degree is the icing on the cake for a woman who is beloved in Randolph County and has already brought so much to the community.
Many know Andrews as the owner and operator of Vera's Kiddie Kare.
'I served from 1985…started off in home daycare and ended up in 2021 – that many years of service to the community.'
The Liberty Heritage Museum recently honored Andrews for her service to the community.
Her husband, children, and siblings have supported her through this journey and celebrated the milestone with her.
'For her to graduate, is God just blessing her with something that's just for her as much as she's stood by all of us and helped us through our trials and tribulations. This graduation was something that God allowed just for her, and we are so happy and so proud of her,' Andrews' daughter Renee Matthew-Jones said.
'Never give up. Never. Sometimes you have to rest if you must, but don't quit,' Andrews said.
Andrews recently turned 81.
She hopes to use her degree to open a center that will address drug addiction, domestic violence and housing needs.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Atlantic
an hour ago
- Atlantic
Five Baha'i Lessons for a Happier Life
Want to stay current with Arthur's writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. One of the biggest gripes I have about my academic field of social science is that it explains a lot about human behavior but is very short on prescriptions for how to live day to day. Even when it does have something suggestive to offer, the research almost never supplies evidence of whether its widespread adoption would have a positive effect. The same deficiency is even truer for philosophy, a realm in which big thoughts about life usually remain abstract ideas. In my case, I can resort to a branch of human knowledge that parallels social science and philosophy and is a true laboratory of human behavior and experience. In this field, people think big ideas and act differently because of them, and then we can observe whether doing so enhances their lives. I am talking about religion. Religions in effect ask people to opt into mass human experiments, which require them to convert to a new way of thinking and to live differently from nonbelievers, all in pursuit of particular benefits (both in life and after death). Even for those who don't practice a religion and merely observe religious people, such study can be an invaluable source of information. Indeed, researchers have shown that learning about different faiths promotes a deeper understanding of psychology and culture. Listen: Can religion make you happy? I was reminded of this recently when my friend Rainn Wilson (of The Office fame), who hosts a popular spiritual podcast called Soul Boom, texted me some words of encouragement from his personal faith, Baha'i (pronounced buh- high), in response to a note of desolation I had sounded about the state of the world: 'All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization.' 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Bahá'u'lláh himself was first imprisoned and then exiled; many of his followers were executed. To this day in Iran, the Baha'i faith is illegal and its followers are persecuted—barred from attending university, holding a government job, or inheriting property. Despite this repression in its place of origin, Baha'i's message is remarkably positive and nonapocalyptic. The faith now counts more than 5 million adherents worldwide, including about 175,000 in the United States. Bahá'u'lláh spoke often about happiness in spite of worldly troubles, which he saw as a normal feature of life, even a part of God's plan. 'Happy is the man that hath apprehended the Purpose of God in whatever He hath revealed from the Heaven of His Will,' he said. 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In the faith we strive to walk both paths—seeking internal enrichment and wisdom while also trying to make the world a more loving place. To a happiness specialist (and devoted Catholic) like me, this is deeply compelling. As Rainn knows—because he couldn't resist adding: 'You should definitely convert, bro.'
USA Today
a day ago
- USA Today
Untitled Art's non-alcoholic beers are sometimes boring, sometimes magic
I like non-alcoholic beer. Well, I like the *idea* of non-alcoholic beer. Being able to recreate the relaxing ritual of cracking a beer without the concern of a minor hangover or the massive calorie load of a boozy IPA is a wonderful hypothesis. But for too long, non-alcoholic beer all tasted the same -- crisply carbonated but undeniably loaded down with cereal grains that made you feel you were sipping a bowl of Grape-Nuts, not a lager. That tide has turned in recent years. Breweries, grasping for market share when America is drinking less alcohol than it has since prohibition, have turned to the NA sector for new streams of income. That's meant a rising tide of THC drinks and booze-free beers. Untitled Art has been kicking around in my fridge since back when it was 3rd Sign -- makers of a pretty good porter but shuttered due to distribution issues. In the years since they've experimented wildly across the spectrum of beers and NA beverages and eventually got bought out by Asahi. 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Malty, effervescent and with juuuuust a little citrus involved to make everything a bit more complex. These powers combine to make it refreshing and poundable. It's a great warm weather beer, though it holds up well enough regardless of climate. Chocolate Dark Brew: A First thing first: this smells incredible. Cracking the can unleashes a wave of rich chocolate like you just unwrapped one of those $6 bars of cacao. It smells like a fresh mug of hot chocolate. A really nice start. The first sip is thinner than expected. The carbonation is crisp, and while this is heavier than a lager it's about the same mouthfeel as, say, a big juicy IPA. You get that chocolate flavor, but also some roasted porter notes as well. You go from sweet up front to malty before a crisp, not-quite-dry-but-close finish. It's great. What's even better is the lack of NA cereal vibes coming from it. This tastes like a full-fledged chocolate porter. Maybe not a heavy, eight percent beer, but a lighter version. If you put this in a lineup of six similar, full ABV beers and asked me to pick out the impostor I might still land on it, but that's no guarantee. This sounds like faint praise, but almost anyone who's had a bunch of NA beers knows that distinct taste and how it stands out from your regular sip. Not this Dark Brew. It's sweet and crisp and a little complex. Untitled Art went for a dessert beer and wound up making something that would be just about perfect for a fireside fall night. Even without the alcohol. Oktoberfest: B Let's finish with my favorite beer style. Marzens, festbiers, anything that's a malt bomb is gonna be an easy win for me. Can Untitled Art balance those toasty, crisp and refreshing flavors with the inherent cereal-ness of a non-alcoholic beer? It pours with a fluffy white head. It smells mostly like the real thing, though a sweet, Grape-Nut tinge settles in toward the end. While the sweetness carries through on your tongue, that NA taste is minimal. The feeling you get here is Munich-adjacent malt. It's a bit thin and definitely too sugary, but it's not a typical non-alcoholic brew. That leaves it in a weird spot, but kind of a logical one. Untitled Art's best NA beers are sweet -- the sour and the chocolate dark. That sweetness again crops up to mitigate the feel you're drinking a beer with less than 0.5 percent alcohol by volume. That doesn't jive with your typical marzen, it does sorta work here. While I miss the crisp finish of those beers, this is unique, interesting and refreshing. On the other hand, I can put down a liter of Lowenbrau without issue. This? This would be much more difficult. Still, it doesn't taste like NA beer. That's a win. Would I drink it instead of a Hamm's? This a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I'm drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That's the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm's. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink Untitled Art's non-alcoholic beers over a cold can of Hamm's? The sour and the chocolate dark are good enough to be sipped regardless of alcohol content. The others helpful recreate the ritual of cracking a beer. All in all, it's a solid lineup so, yes. This is part of FTW's Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Exploring faith and identity: Jewish teens program to debut in Delray Beach
Have you heard of J-T-Q-E? It stands for Jewish Teens Questioning Everything, and it's a new program launching this school year at Temple Anshei Shalom in Delray Beach. Geared toward students in grades 8 to 12, the classes will take place bimonthly, alternating between in-person and Zoom sessions. With growing antisemitism on college campuses and in classrooms, J-T-Q-E will focus on Judaism and showing kids that being Jewish is something to be celebrated. Each week, a different topic will be discussed, including: Did G-d create humans or did humans create G-d? Really, I have to say thanks? A dollar bill is Jewish? Holocaust: A dying memory Superman, Spiderman, Bat Girl are Jewish?' Students will be encouraged to freely express their points of view, ask questions and engage in debates and open conversations, according to Andy Greenberg, a Temple Anshei Shalom member who created the program as a volunteer. The Lake Worth resident said he has been educating Jewish students for more than 25 years, nine of them in South Florida. The program has a one-time $18 enrollment fee to cover security costs and does not require participants to be members of Temple Anshei Shalom. However, teens must be residents of Palm Beach County. Classes are scheduled to begin Sept. 8 with a virtual orientation session and end May 18. The deadline to enroll is Sept. 4. To sign up, visit or email JTQE@ For more information, call 561-495-1300. Solve the daily Crossword
