Bernadette Chong, 65, starts her first year at UBC

Like the thousands of other students starting their first year at the University of BritishColumbiathis week, Bernadette Chong was excited and anxious for her first day of class even setting multiple alarms to make sure she woke up in time to catch her bus to campus.

But Chong stands out from the 6,560 new first-yearsbecause,at 65, she's the oldest student starting an undergraduate degree program at UBC this year.

Though her husband offered to drive her to campus for her classes, Chongchose to take the 480 bus from Richmond, to get the full student experience.

However, she carrieda compass to make sure she wentthe right way and navigate her way around campus.

"Once, I hopped on the right bus but in the wrong direction," said Chong.

Chong, who was born in China, is the oldest of eight children and started working at age16.

"I always like to learn,"Chongsaid. "It's a dream of mine to try to catch up what I missed when I was a youth."

After coming to Canada she graduated with a management certificate in professional accounting from BCIT, and became an accountant.

Now she plansto study something different:linguistics.

"I've always been interested in languages the history, the development, the differences among different alphabets," said Chong.

Chong said she is also planning to take Italian 101, which she said will help her singing, since the choir she is a part of sings in multiple languages.

She said she's looking forward to both learning from her instructors' experience and intellect, and interacting with her fellow students.

"At the beginning they may be wary of me. It's like talking to their grandma, right? I hope that they can find the young me," she said."My looks can be deceiving!"

To hear the full interview listen tothe audio labelled: UBC's most mature first year student