This past June, Westridge’s (believed to be) oldest alumna Ms. Virginia Hislop ’36 made national headlines as she walked across Stanford University’s graduation stage in Palo Alto. After a long wait of nearly 80 years, Ms. Hislop finally “collected” her master’s in education, a degree she had completed the coursework for in the 1940s.
A graduate from Westridge in 1936, she went on to attend Stanford, where she received her bachelor’s degree in education. Aspiring to pursue a career in education, Hislop completed the coursework for her master’s degree. However, before she could formally receive her diploma, her plans were interrupted when her boyfriend at the time was called into military service.
At age 105, Ms. Hislop said physically receiving the degree “was more important to some of the people around me than it was to me.” She continued, “it’s always nice to be acknowledged, but it’s not the end of the world.” When she did eventually cross the stage though, she described how she felt as “a combination of ‘is this real?’ and ‘my goodness, it took a long time.’”
About dedicating her life to education in Yakima, Washington, she said, “I’ve used my education to the best of my ability for a good number of years.” After leaving Stanford in 1941, she worked at several educational institutions, including serving as a chair of the Yakima School Board of Directors and founding member of the board of directors at Yakima Community College.
Though she graduated from Westridge more than 85 years ago, she attributes her high school education to her future success: “Going to Westridge, I was very well-prepared when I went to college.” She also said that her Westridge teachers played a pivotal role in shaping her love for learning. She recalled, “I really admired [them], and they were scholars as well as teachers. I was impressed by that.”
Ms. Hislop also spoke about Westridge being a “fairly progressive school” by the standards of the 1930s. Speaking about the influence of the Great Depression on the Westridge student body, she said, “Because my classmates were girls of the upper-middle class, and we all have had advantages through the Depression, I think most of us had a pretty good idea that we were privileged.”
Reflecting on her time as a student and her long career as an educator, Ms. Hislop offered words of wisdom to current Westridge students, saying, “Find something that you really like and you’re willing to put time and effort into learning more about.”
