But never one to sit idly and let life pass her by, Roach again opted to return to the classroom. For the past four years, she has been taking courses at the University's ElderLearning Institute, a set of courses taught by retired University and community experts geared toward retired individuals. I find that I'm a perennial student. As life went on, I saw the value and joy of developing other aspects of who I was. However, the ElderLearning Institute is designed to provide classes at the fraction of the cost of tuition for those interested in learning for recreation, without the pressures normally associated with upper-level course work.
Most students are retired individuals looking for a way to keep active and social.
For others, like Roach and her husband, Charles, the institute provides a second chance to learn things they missed out on when they were younger. Ed Ferlauto, a retired chemist of 42 years, was a sailing enthusiast who developed an interest in astronomy after learning celestial navigation. For the past three years, he has led the astronomy course, armed with slides and images from the Internet. The course is as much an education for him as it is for his students. In the its five-year history, the institute has lived up to expectations of volunteerism and giving back to the community.