WHEN SAN JOAQUIN DELTA COLLEGE holds its 91st commencement ceremony tonight, two members of the Class of 2026 will appear a little more seasoned than the usual youthful graduates crossing the stage.
That’s because Veronica Smith, 80, and her daughter Virginia Ordaz, 55, are among the 3,532 degree-holders in what the college says is its largest graduating class in memory.
The pair, both retired and living in Stockton, returned to college after long, successful careers in public service while raising children.
They plan to attend the ceremony at Adventist Health Arena, which will pay homage to a graduating class that’s nearly 800 students larger than last year’s, said Delta spokesman Alex Breitler.
There are several reasons for bulging enrollment at the community college. Some majors are booming, such as those related to health care. Also, there are more adult learners like Smith and Ordaz.
Smith last set foot in a college classroom more than 40 years ago. She needed only three classes to graduate, but she left school to pursue a career as a court clerk and raise three children.
She retired in 2007, and since then, Smith says she has been enjoying life, including hiking, loafing and “a lot of babysitting.” But it was time to finish what she started.
“The only reason I decided to go back to school is to get the degree and show the kids, ‘Hey, if your grandma can do it.’ These days, you really need a college degree to get ahead.”
Veronica Smith, Delta College graduate
She said she wanted to set an example for her eight grandchildren about the value of higher education.
“The only reason I decided to go back to school is to get the degree and show the kids, ‘Hey, if your grandma can do it,’” she said. “These days, you really need a college degree to get ahead.”
At Delta, she enrolled in her final three courses: Norse mythology, offered through the English Department, ethnic studies and counseling. She is graduating with a degree in interdisciplinary studies, a major that wouldn’t require another year of classes.
Fewer distractions, more time for learning
Smith said that being an older student has its advantages: “I learned a lot of stuff on this go-around.”
She’s not sure what students half a century younger thought of having her as a classmate. But she has a hunch.
“They must have thought I was a professor or something,” she mused.
Ordaz decided to join her mother on campus when she also realized she was just a few units short of a degree. One of her sons suggested the idea when she retired in 2024.
Initially, Ordaz studied journalism at Delta starting in 1989, and later, criminal justice. She stayed for a few years, but went off to become a fire dispatcher and raise two kids and later two grandchildren.
Like her mom, Ordaz said she couldn’t help but take note of the age difference with her fellow students.
“They related to me like their mama bear, and I related to them like my children’s best friends,” she said.
She said she felt like she was a better, more attentive student this time. She wasn’t distracted by work and child-raising.
As soon as she went back to college, where she switched majors to focus on communications, she was earning straight A’s and made the President’s List.
It’s “so different now that I’m older and mature. I am passionate,” she said.
Ordaz hadn’t really planned to graduate at the same time as her mother, but she realized that with some cramming and extra classes, she could.
She and Smith, who was born in the Philippines, have already attracted attention. The pair were recently honored by the college’s association for Asian American and Pacific Islander students. That’s where Ordaz said she surprised her mother by announcing that they would graduate at the same time.
Ordaz said she loved the college experience so much that she has applied for San Diego State University’s online learning program.
And will Smith be headed onward to a bachelor’s degree?
“Heck, no,” she said. “I’m not the academic type.”
This story originally appeared in Stocktonia.
