63-Year-Old SFSC Graduate Gives Commencement Speech

Heather Drommerhausen delivered the student commencement speech at South Florida State College on May 12, earning her Associate in Arts degree 45 years after she first wanted to attend college.

Drommerhausen, 63, of Sebring, set college aside after her parents divorced during her teenage years. She had won The Golden Tassel Award at Westwood High School in Fort Pierce in 1981, which came with a scholarship that evaporated. Her high school sweetheart asked her to marry him before military basic training, and she said yes.

Military assignments moved the family to Germany, Austria, and Newport News, Virginia. Drommerhausen ran a home daycare and later became a foster parent for 22 years alongside raising three children of her own. Her husband died in 2016. She moved to Sebring in 2022 with her mother and grandson Alexander, now an adult with Asperger's syndrome whom she raised from infancy.

After her mother died of breast cancer in January 2024, Drommerhausen applied to SFSC. She started classes that fall.

Her daughter RoseMarie earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Teacher Education from SFSC in May 2024 and now teaches at Crane Brook Academics in Lake Placid. Three of Drommerhausen's four children hold college degrees. She plans to pursue education beyond her associate degree.