Lifelong Learning Includes the Golden Years

While living in Quechee, Vt., about two decades ago, retired high school English teacher Ginia Allison spearheaded a group of studious seniors to form what is now known as the Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth (ILEAD), a thriving, peer-taught adult education program.

Allison is still active in ILEAD, but has left Vermont. In 1999, she moved to the Kendal at Hanover, a continuing care  and university-based retirement community where ILEAD holds at least one class per day.

With theater, music and the other study groups that ILEAD has spawned, Allison, now 84, says she can't imagine a more stimulating environment in which to live. She also plays tennis regularly and enjoys the amenities of a college town. Allison exemplifies a new trend in senior living. These seniors have more passion for lifelong learning and the arts than playing shuffleboard and bingo in the sun-drenched retiree homes of the South.

Today, about 60 senior communities nationally are situated near college campuses, making university-based developments one of the fasting growing trends in retirement housing. It's a market that's ripe for expansion. In 2030, one of every five U.S. citizens will be over the age of 65, and will represent a highly educated population.

The university-based developments vary in their business models. Some are like Lasell Village in Newton, Mass., which is part of a college campus and is supported and managed by Lasell College.

Others, like the 64-acre Kendal at Hanover, developed about a mile from Dartmouth College in 1991, enjoy a symbiotic, rather than a monetary, arrangement. While the connections to Dartmouth College and its medical school aren't formalized, they've strengthened over the years. About a quarter of the 400 residents in this nonprofit retirement community have an allegiance to Dartmouth College, either as alumni or faculty.

Lisa King, program coordinator for ILEAD, says 140 Kendal residents belong to the mostly volunteer-run, adult education program. ILEAD currently runs courses on Shakespearean literature and the future of faith. ILEAD also benefits from the talent at Kendal. Last semester, King says, a retired attorney and international development consultant facilitated a discussion on the two Koreas and their histories.

Diana Cox, director of resident health care services, says Kendal contracts with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center to run an onsite health center that serves 96 percent of the residents. Some residents participate in medical projects with the Dartmouth Centers for Health and Aging. For example, Kendal volunteers have agreed to wear sensors that monitor verbal communication, heart rates, exertion and conversations, allowing researchers to analyze their levels of exercise and social activity.

Kendal at Hanover employs 240 people in a variety of roles, from janitorial and food services to skilled nursing and health management. But its presence in the nook of the Upper Valley extends beyond its location on Lyme Road. In addition to doling out $5.6 million in salaries, Kendal and its residents contribute to the increasingly intergenerational ambience of Hanover.