A man who was just a few credits from graduating from college nearly 30 years ago shared the commencement stage with his son last week.
When Juan D. Paneto was selected for a spot in a management training program at a bank in 1992, he couldn’t refuse. But there was a problem: He hadn’t finished school. Though Mr. Paneto had attended Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., for four years, he was still five classes short of graduation.
But he had to put his education on hold.
“My career was taking off, and I figured I would never be able to finish until I retired,” Mr. Paneto, now 51, said in an interview Friday.
Life and its circumstances would dictate that Mr. Paneto would have to wait nearly 30 years to finally earn his bachelor’s degree. But the delay came with a reward: He graduated on June 13, the same day as his firstborn son, who also received a bachelor’s degree from Union College.
Several times over the last three decades, Mr. Paneto had asked officials at Union College if he could finish his degree without commuting to Schenectady. But there were some classes, they told him, that he had to take on campus. He lives in Wawayanda, N.Y., which is two hours from the school, so he didn’t have time to commute to class.
Life continued for Mr. Paneto. He married his college sweetheart, Marisol Agreda, in 1997, and they had four children. He worked his way up the ranks of the New York banking world, but he always yearned to finish college.
Then the pandemic hit, and he had an idea. Two of his children, including Joshua, a student at Union College, were taking classes from home.
“They’re taking classes online, and I was like, ‘Wait, this could be my opportunity,’” he said.
So nearly 30 years after he took his last class at Union, Mr. Paneto logged onto Zoom last fall alongside a bunch of teenagers and 20-somethings. Last fall, he took a class on literary traditions in East Asia.
“In the beginning, you basically introduce yourself,” he said, “and they’re like, ‘You know, last year, I was in high school,’ and I was like, ‘Well, I’m a 50-year-old guy trying to finish my degree.’”
Balancing school and work wasn’t always easy. Mr. Paneto was still working full time as a vice president at TD Bank in Nanuet, N.Y. During his lunch hour, he would log onto Zoom from an office in his friend’s nearby auto shop. He had to mute himself so his classmates wouldn’t pick up customer chatter or hear the car lifts whirring.
“I always apologized,” he said, “and I was like, ‘All right, professor, so you know I’m in this body shop repair shop, so I will keep the mute button on.’”
Despite the obstacles, Mr. Paneto knew he had to finish his degree. His mother had always wanted him and his siblings to go to school, especially after his father was killed in a robbery when he was a baby.
Mr. Paneto grew up in the South Bronx after his parents moved there from Puerto Rico. He chose Union College because he got a hefty financial aid package and it wasn’t too far from the city. He was also accepted into a program that supports first-generation college students.
“We always knew education gets you out of poverty,” he said. “Even though my career was taking off, I always planned to finish and promised my mom I would finish.”
He kept his promise, and he finished his thesis, “People’s Republic of China: The Next World Power to Exploit Latin America,” just days before Union’s commencement ceremony. In addition to the two classes he took at Union College, he also finished three courses at Orange County Community College that counted toward his degree.
He was finally going to get his bachelor’s degree — in Asian studies and Spanish and Hispanic studies.
As Mr. Paneto wrapped up his work at Union, his son Joshua, an economics major, was doing so, too. They sat next to each other, socially distanced, at commencement. Then it was Joshua’s turn to cross the stage, and, finally, after nearly 30 years of waiting, Mr. Paneto’s.
“I just gave him a hug right there on stage in front of everyone because I just couldn’t wait,” said Joshua Paneto, 22. “I couldn’t have been prouder.”
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