We keep tossing around the “60-year degree” idea as a concept, but Kathryn Bennett and Sarah Rhodes are working in real time to create essentially the same concept. In an Agora moderated by Kristin Hanson this month, the directors of Life at Elon and Life at Lynchburg described programs where people in their seventies take furious notes on the history of emergency medical services, physics lectures outdraw everything else, and retirees move to town specifically to be near a campus. The content matters, but it isn’t really the point. The point is that these people have a lasting, active relationship with an institution long after any transcript closed.
(In this clip, Kathryn shares the importance of alumni volunteers at Life at Elon.)
There’s a lot of relationship development happening. These programs are doing something about isolation and intergenerational distance that no four-year model touches, at least as they’re designed today, and it’s part of advancement at these schools and others, where the instinct is to measure everything in gifts. Both directors were careful here: the giving is real, but it follows the relationship, it never leads it. We talk during this session about the degree of integration that could or should be part of lifelong learning programs.
Text primarily written by AI
November Agora
Topic: Everybody’s Working for the (William & Mary) Weekend!
Date: Thursday, November 5 from 12 - 1 pm ET
Speaker: Kelly Holdcraft, Executive Director of Alumni Success at William & Mary
Kelly will detail William & Mary Weekend DC 2026 which featured nearly 50 events with more than half sold out, over 1,100 attendees, and 15 university schools and units represented over a four-day weekend. From a kickoff celebration with NFL alumni to an immersive MLB college game day to a presidential conversation on artificial intelligence to tours of our 90-foot coastal marine research vessel to a sold-out auction and more, the William & Mary Weekend offered once-in-a-lifetime intellectual, professional, cultural and social experiences to all who participated!
