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Meet Italy’s oldest student: Surviving the Second World War and a pandemic to graduate at 96

Giuseppe Paterno grew up loving books but never got the chance to study beyond basic schooling

Guglielmo Mangiapane
Friday 14 August 2020 12:37 BST
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Giuseppe Paterno, 96, wears a traditional laurel wreath awarded to Italian students when they graduate
Giuseppe Paterno, 96, wears a traditional laurel wreath awarded to Italian students when they graduate

At 96, Giuseppe Paterno has faced many tests in life – childhood poverty, war and, more recently, the coronavirus pandemic. Now he has sailed through an exam that makes him Italy‘s oldest university graduate.

This week, the former railway worker stepped forward to receive his diploma and the traditional laurel wreath awarded to Italian students when they graduate, applauded by his family, teachers and fellow students more than 70 years his junior.

“I am a normal person, like many others,” he said, when asked what it felt like to be graduating so late. “In terms of age, I have surpassed all the others but I didn’t do it for this.”

Giuseppe Paterno studies at home for an exam
Paterno at his typewriter on the day before graduation

Already in his nineties when he enrolled for a degree in history and philosophy, Paterno grew up loving books, but he never had the chance to study.

“I said, ‘That’s it, now or never,’ and so, in 2017, I decided to enrol,” he told Reuters in his apartment in the Sicilian city of Palermo, which he rarely leaves nowadays because of his frailty.

Taking his final exam online
Paterno goes over his study notes at his desk

“I understood that it was a little late to get a three-year degree but I said to myself, ‘Let’s see if I can do it’.”

Earlier this month, he graduated first in his class with top honours, receiving congratulations from the University of Palermo’s chancellor, Fabrizio Micari.

An old photograph of Giuseppe dressed as a sailor at his elementary school in 1933
Having breakfast two days before graduation

Growing up in a poor family in Sicily in the years before the Great Depression, Paterno received only basic schooling as a child. He joined the navy and served during the Second World War before going on to work in the railways as he married and brought up two children.

In a society focused on rebuilding after the war, work and family were the priorities, but Paterno wanted to learn and graduated from high school at the age of 31, always harbouring a desire to go further.

Paterno is helped from his bed by his son Ninni, 72
Shaving for graduation

“Knowledge is like a suitcase that I carry with me. It is a treasure,” he said.

As a student, he tapped out his essays on the manual typewriter his mother gave him when he retired from the railways in 1984. He eschewed Google in favour of printed books and was not tempted by the late-night student parties of his 20-year-old classmates, who applauded him warmly at the graduation ceremony.

“You are an example for younger students,” his sociology professor, Francesca Rizzuto, told him after he passed his final oral examination in June.

Paterno is awarded his graduation certificate
The media take pictures after his graduation

Paterno confessed to a little unease with the video calls that replaced classroom teaching during the coronavirus shutdown, but said he was not put off by the disease itself after the war and everything else he had been through in life.

“All of that strengthened us, all of my peer group, all of those who are still alive,” he said. “It didn’t really scare us that much.”

Paterno celebrates with his family after graduating
‘Knowledge is like a suitcase that I carry with me. It is a treasure.’

As for what he planned to do next, he said he was not about to stop now he had graduated.

“My project for the future is to devote myself to writing; I want to revisit all the texts I didn’t have a chance to explore further. This is my goal.”

Writing by James Mackenzie, Reuters

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