If you looked at Nicoletta Sorice’s bucket list, you would find “Receive my Degree” written at the very top. And now, the 81 year old will be able to scratch that off the list as she walks at 2 p.m. on Aug. 9 to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree in language and linguistics during the special commencement ceremony.

Shortly after Sorice was born in Italy in 1936 her father left on a boat bound for America as an emigrant in hopes of a better life for his family. What he thought would only take months for his family to join him in America, took 14 years as a result of WWII.