Set to Receive a Commendation from a Member of the National Assembly as an Outstanding Graduate
Also Accepted into the Department of Social Welfare at a Junior College
A grandmother who had to quit her studies due to making a living has become a topic of interest after continuing her education late and receiving her high school diploma at the age of 76.
On the 18th, Yonhap News reported the story of Grandma Hwang Oe-sook, who will receive a commendation from a member of the National Assembly as an outstanding graduate at the 44th graduation ceremony held on the morning of the 20th at Songam High School in Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi Province. According to the report, Grandma Hwang, born in 1950 in Seosari, Beomseo-myeon, Ulju-gun, Ulsan City, helped her mother with rice paddy and field farming to support her younger brother and sister after her father passed away when she was in elementary school.
Grandmother Hwang Oe-sook receiving her high school diploma after turning seventy. Photo by Yonhap News
Unable to watch her mother take on the difficult farming work alone, Grandma Hwang stopped her studies after graduating from elementary school and helped with farming until her mid-20s, when her siblings graduated from high school. At the age of 25, she settled down by learning to work at a restaurant opened by a close older sister in Seoul. After working in the restaurant for 10 years, she met her current husband through a friend's introduction in her mid-30s, got married, and had two children. In 1992, she moved to Baekseok-dong, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si, and also took her mother, who was living in the provinces, with her.
Even after having children, Grandma Hwang worked relentlessly because she did not want to pass on poverty and the pain of lack of education to her children. In the mornings, she delivered milk and newspapers, and after finishing deliveries, she did not hesitate to work at apartment construction sites. She did almost every kind of work, including apartment painting, move-in cleaning, flooring, and wallpapering. In 2008, she took a three-month nursing assistant training course near her home, obtained a certificate, and immediately started working as a nursing assistant.
Having neglected her education while taking care of her family, she sought to quench her thirst for learning after turning seventy. Having graduated her two children through college, she enrolled in the night class of Hanmaeum Adult Middle School in Geumchon-dong, Paju City, a middle school equivalency certification institution, in early 2020 through an introduction from an acquaintance. For three years, she attended school every day without missing a single day, commuting from Baekseok-dong, Goyang-si to Geumchon, Paju. While working as a nursing assistant, she took the bus to the middle school in front of Geumchon Station after work.
After graduating from middle school, he knocked on the door of Songam High School with the support of his husband. Having entered the path of learning late, he was full of passion. Even while commuting by taking a bus from Baekseok-dong and transferring to a school bus in front of Ilsan Station on the Gyeongui-Jungang Line, he did not miss a single day. Yonhap News
After graduating from middle school, she knocked on the door of her current Songam High School with her husband’s support. Entering the path of learning late, she was full of passion. She commuted without a single absence or tardiness, taking a bus from Baekseok-dong and transferring between the Gyeongui-Jungang Line Ilsan Station and the school bus. She had a good relationship with her younger classmates and was called the "young older sister." Sometimes, when classes were boring, she would share old stories.
Grandma Hwang said, "I am grateful to my family who helped me attend school healthily for five years, and my classmates in our class, ranging from teenagers to people in their 40s to 60s, and even 70s to 80s, treated me so well like grandchildren or children, so I was able to finish my studies safely." She added, "I like math the most because the results are clear. While attending school, I also learned English, which I didn’t know before, and when I see English signs on the street, I can understand their meanings. At those times, it feels like a new world has opened up, and I am very excited and happy."
Recommended by her homeroom teacher to pursue higher education, Grandma Hwang recently was accepted into the social welfare department of a junior college. She said, "Maybe because I am getting older, memorization has become more difficult," but added, "I want to study hard even in college. After graduation, I plan to volunteer for elderly people who are older than me."
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