BOCA RATON, Fla. _ When you're 81 years old and about to get a college degree that took you 18 years, you're not going to be discouraged by a threat.
"I've been in World War II, married, children," Nicoletta Sorice scoffed.
As she received her bachelor of arts in language and linguistics on Thursday, in the atrium of Florida Atlantic University's administration building, she was one of just 14 students.
She should have been one of 462 on Tuesday. But just before their big moment, they were booted from the auditorium. Someone had scribbled a threat on a "sticky note" and left it on the mirror of a ladies' room. Authorities are still looking for the culprit.
Police decided they couldn't take chances, so the ceremony was called off. Most will get another shot next week. But FAU scrambled to make sure 30 out-of-state and international students _ and Sorice _ who had logistical concerns still got their ceremony, albeit a more modest one.
Of the 14 who were there Thursday, there were four doctorates, one master's degree and nine bachelor's degrees.
The music and setting were more intimate Thursday, but the smiles on the graduates and their loved ones were just as bright as they always are. And as they stood and cheered their graduates, perhaps it wasn't as loud as it would have been Tuesday, but it was just as heartfelt.
FAU President John Kelly expressed "my disappointment that we could not host you" in the ceremony the school had planned. "I know this is not how you envisioned your graduation day."
In all, 1,850 had been eligible to get degrees, making this the largest summer graduating class since the school opened in 1961. They included Sorice, who got extended applause and beamed as she collected her certificate.
"Nicoletta has inspired her fellow Owls with her passion for learning and her enthusiasm for life," Kelly said.
"I've been to many graduations of my children," she said later. "But this one's for me."
Born in Italy in 1936, she lived in Louisiana and New York City before she and her three children moved in 1982 to Deerfield Beach, just south of Boca Raton in Broward County.
She retired from the Social Security Administration at 72. She always believed her lack of a college degree had held her back from advancement. So in 1998, about the time she was widowed, she went back to school. Earning credits a little at a time, she got an associate's degree at Broward College in 2016 and then finished at FAU.
She has three grandchildren. One of her children still lives locally, but two had come from Seattle.
And now?
"Maybe I can start my third life," she said.
Natasha Taimkij, 26, _ she'd put her name in glitter on her mortarboard _ nibbled fruit and cookies with her family and fellow graduates. She'd been in quite the panic. When she was herded out of the auditorium Tuesday, "I was crying. I was upset," she said. Her family had come in from New Jersey to see her get her sociology degree, and now maybe they wouldn't.
But they did.
"You can tell they really care about their students," she said of FAU officials.
Even this hastily assembled ceremony cut it close; Natasha and her family had a flight from West Palm Beach in two hours.
