After careers wind down, seniors return to college
They may not look like traditional students, but they have an “insatiable curiosity to learn.” Several days a week, students age 50 and older gather in classrooms at the John and Mary Pappajohn Education Center for Senior College, hoping to expand their knowledge of a foreign language, improve their computer skills or learn about other religions.
Barbara Kirk, who retired a couple of years ago as owner of an incentive travel company, B. Kirk Enterprises, got involved with Senior College last January. At the time, leaders of the Des Moines Higher Education Collaborative were still exploring the idea of launching the program at the Pappajohn Center. Kirk thought Senior College would be great for retirees, particularly those like her who live downtown.
“I believe that seniors are really eager to keep learning, and maybe they’ve been so busy with family or careers that they haven’t had the time to do things for themselves and take courses,” she said. “Now that they finally have the time, they have this insatiable curiosity to learn.”
Senior College launched its first three courses last summer, all tied to the Des Moines Metro Opera’s production of “Gloriana.” Kirk had about a month to market the classes, which drew about 30 students, twice as many as anticipated. Last fall, more than 200 students enrolled in 14 courses, and enrollment is at its highest level this spring. Classes are taught by college-level instructors, but students don’t take tests or write term papers.
This semester, Kirk is a teacher’s assistant for “French for Travelers,” a class for people planning trips to French-speaking countries. Next fall, she plans to teach a travel class. Based on her own experiences, she will teach people how to travel in other countries without tour guides. She expects students to be people who have the financial resources to travel on their own for extended periods of time, but not the know-how.
Bob Crosby, who retired a few years ago after a 40-year career in group life and health insurance with Principal Financial Group Inc., serves on the Senior College advisory board with Kirk and takes classes. A few of the classes he’s taken have been on topics related to computer skills, some of which was a review for him, and programs like Microsoft Excel, which he didn’t use much in his work
“Even though I worked with computers at Principal, when you get out and you don’t use them as often, you start to lose your touch,” Crosby said. “And I didn’t know much about Excel, and now I’m able to use it to keep track of financial and medical records. I’m surprised how much I can use what I’ve learned.”
This spring, Crosby is serving as a teacher’s assistant for beginning computer classes, taking an advanced computer class and another on gardening. He thinks it would be interesting to take a religion class next semester, or a class taught at the Science Center of Iowa,
“I love gardening and working outside in the summer,” Crosby said. “The gardening class covers a wide range of things, like bonsai and other things I thought would be interesting.”
Through classes, Crosby has met up with people he hadn’t seen for years, including former classmates from Valley High School.
“I think that it’s important to keep the mind active after you retire, and this is a great way to do it,” Crosby said. “If you quit trying to learn, you basically give up on life.”