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'Never Too Old For Knowledge': 83-Year-Old Texas Great-Grandmother Takes Harvard Courses Online

CAMBRIDGE (CBS) -- An 83-year-old great-grandmother from Texas is proving it's never too late to learn something new.

Barbara Ingram got bored with doing puzzles during the pandemic, so she decided to enroll in online economics and history classes at Harvard University.

"I still want to be able to go out and be challenged," the homemaker told CBS Dallas. "I got bored… and I decided that I needed to do something mentally to stay busy."

She said she chose the renowned university because "it was the best school I could go to, and hardest school I felt I could go to." She is entering her fourth semester of online classes and eventually wants to visit the campus in Cambridge.

barbara ingram
Barbara Ingram (WBZ-TV)

Someone even put up a billboard celebrating her studies - and the message is reaching others.

"There was a lady out there, taking a picture and I said, 'why are you taking a picture of this'?" Ingram recalled. "And she said, 'because I want my mother to see this'. She wanted her mother to get on the ball and do something!"

Ingram is not done yet. Later this year she wants to live and learn in Italy.

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