We had a wonderful celebration of lifelong learning at our recent AgeSpan Annual Luncheon and Inspiring Lifelong Learning Awards event – honoring five remarkable older adults from the Merrimack Valley and North Shore. I always enjoy having the opportunity to gather with volunteers, partners, staff, and supporters to recognize the work we’ve done together and to look forward to what’s next.
During the luncheon, Northern Essex Community College President Dr. Lane Glenn gave a memorable keynote address that really summed up our shared vision. Below are some excerpts from his speech that I would love to share with you.
In May of 2012, during my first graduation ceremony as the President of Northern Essex Community College, I handed a diploma to 64-year-old Pat Lundin, who took her first class at NECC in 1967.
The year I was born.
Pat didn’t take classes continuously between 1967 and 2012. She raised children, worked as an operator for New England Telephone, managed her family through health crises and financial challenges, and just kept going until she crossed that stage decades after taking her first math class, with her parents, Claire and Joe Bunker, then both 82 years old, in the front row, cheering for their daughter’s academic accomplishment.
There are no deadlines, term limits, or expiration dates for learning, for creating, for inventing, and accomplishing.
NECC is a lot like AgeSpan: At Northern Essex, and at community colleges everywhere, we welcome learners of all ages. Our classrooms are filled with people who bring different life stories and perspectives—and that mix of experiences enriches everyone’s learning, younger and older students alike.
As author Chip Conley explains in his book Learning to Love Midlife, and as I have been experiencing, your forties, fifties, sixties, and beyond, instead of a time of decline and loss, can be a period of growth, wisdom, freedom and deeper fulfilment in our physical, emotional, intellectual, vocational, and spiritual lives.
A time when, especially today, we have more years ahead of us than we might have guessed, and we can spend those years unencumbered by some of the anxieties and drives of youth, make friends with our emotions, benefit from the wisdom we have gained, make choices about where we invest our time, and not just grow old, but grow whole.
So, thank you, AgeSpan, for playing a critical role in connecting people of all ages and abilities with the information and the services they need to help our older neighbors lead fulfilling lives in their communities, and for bringing us all together to celebrate, as Chip Conley recommends, “why life gets better with age.”
I hope you found his reflections as inspiring as I did. If you would like to read his full speech or learn more about our Inspiring Lifelong Learning Honorees, visit our website at: https://agespan.org/annual-meeting-inspiring-lifelong-learning-awards/
My sincere thanks to Dr. Glenn and to all who celebrated with us. We could not do the work we do without you.
Are you caring for an older adult or need help finding healthy aging resources? Our experienced staff is available to help. Visit us online at www.agespan.org. You can also call 800-892-0890 or email info@agespan.org.
Joan Hatem-Roy is the chief executive officer of AgeSpan, which serves the following cities and towns: Amesbury, Andover, Billerica, Boxford, Chelmsford, Danvers, Dracut, Dunstable, Georgetown, Groveland, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Marblehead, Merrimac, Methuen, Middleton, Newbury, Newburyport, North Andover, Peabody, Rowley, Salisbury, Salem, Tewksbury, Tyngsboro, Westford, and West Newbury.
First published in the Eagle-Tribune.
