Overview

• Joan Alexander was denied student teaching in the late 1950s after becoming pregnant, despite finishing all required coursework for her education degree.
• University of Maine officials recognized her 1980-81 work as a full-time preschool aide in Southwest Harbor as fulfilling the missing student-teaching requirement.
• Her youngest daughter, Tracy Alexander, reached out to UMaine’s College of Education and Human Development to reopen her case and identify a path to her degree.
• Associate Dean Justin Dimmel navigated university procedures to formally accept Joan’s prior learning and clear her for graduation.
• At the May 11 commencement, Joan received her Bachelor of Science in Education at age 88 and said the degree healed a 'hole in her heart'.