Feeding residents’ desire for lifelong learning, a continuing care retirement / life plan community in New Jersey launched a lecture program through a partnership with a local university that is not only “thrilling” residents, but also is soliciting interest from the greater community and prospective residents.
After learning about Fairleigh Dickinson University’’s Florham Institute of Lifelong Learning, Fellowship Village in Basking Ridge, NJ, contacted the university to offer a partnership that would enable the school to expand its reach to active adults in the area. The CCRC offers independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing and sub-acute rehabilitation, as well as at-home services.
The result is a series of stand-alone courses on various topics on the Fellowship Village campus. The diverse range of courses being offered throughout the fall include Reform Movements and American History, Democratic Erosion, Supreme Court’s 2023 Term: Cases to Watch, The Supreme Court and Politics, Monuments and Patriotism, and Film Analysis.
Faculty members Gary Darden, PhD, John Schiemann, PhD, Dan Cassino, PhD, and Robert Houle, PhD, will visit Fellowship Village to deliver the lectures, which will be offered as a complimentary service to residents. Members of the greater community are invited to sign up for a $25 fee.
If the response to the sold-out lecture series is any indication, the partnership will be a success. The community planned a fall/winter semester and a winter/spring semester of offerings. Plans also call for creating lifelong learning programs at FellowshipLIFE’s three other New Jersey CCRCs.
“At FellowshipLIFE, we aim to provide innovative opportunities that foster transformative and empowering aging experiences for older adults,” FellowshipLIFE President and CEO Brian Lawrence said. “This collaboration with Fairleigh Dickinson University will ignite a spirit of curiosity for those who live an active and engaged lifestyle at Fellowship Village and for all those who live in the surrounding community.”
He added that it is important to offer the courses on site to provide residents an opportunity for intellectual growth while offering those in the greater community an opportunity to “explore our community while participating in the enriching programming.”
Lawrence said that Fairleigh Dickinson is committed to preparing world citizens through global education. The university provides a “multi-disciplinary, intercultural and ethical understanding of ideas necessary to participate, lead and prosper in the global marketplace of ideas, commerce and culture.”
“I am excited about our partnership with FellowshipLIFE and to see community members of all ages become empowered through their intellectual growth,” said Bruce Peabody, a professor of political science and the director of the Florham Institute.
