Katie Reynolds: That social aspect of being in a learning situation where you have other people with you, a place to belong that helps bring meaning to life and prevents isolation, it really reduces depression.
Cora Nicholson: Welcome and thank you for listening to The NextGen Podcast, a conversational series with members from InterGen Wealth Partners at UBS. With an understanding of the family dynamics that can accompany multi-generational wealth, we are experienced in working with you and your family to develop a strategic plan to guide your decisions. Our approach helps provide education across generations to help define and support your long-term vision for your wealth.
Brandy Risheill: Welcome to the NextGen podcast. I'm your host, Brandy Risheill, financial advisor and account vice president at InterGen Wealth Partners with UBS Financial Services. Our office is located in Dayton, Ohio, and you can reach us at InterGen@UBS.com. Today, we're diving into lifelong learning, how to keep growing and thriving at every stage of life. Joining me is Katie Reynolds, executive director of special programs and continuing education at the University of Dayton. Katie holds a PhD and leads initiatives that empower adults to continue learning throughout their lives. Katie, welcome. We are so happy to have you here with us today.
Katie Reynolds: And thank you so much. I'm glad to be here today.
Brandy Risheill: Well, let's start with your background. Tell us about your role and what led you to the role you're in today.
Katie Reynolds: Sure. So I serve as executive director of special programs and continuing ed at University of Dayton. That also includes the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, which some people may have heard about. We call it UDOLLI. And really, my path has been always centered on helping people learn in ways that generally transform their lives. And it's interesting. I've actually spanned the full lifespan of people. So I started off in K-12 education and teaching and then administration and moved to higher ed and now to older adults and the retirement generation. So I've really had a really fun experience as I think I've matured, my kids have matured at different stages of life, of serving people in whatever stage you are to really learn what is it I need to know, how do I use this to guide my life, to become who I'm supposed to be, and to fulfill my purpose.
So it's been really fun to transform to working with more retirees and helping them really find, "What is my next stage of life?" So that's kind of where I am right now. Helping folks find meaning, social aspect, continued growth, and also working with younger retired folks to find maybe their second career or second stage of learning.
Brandy Risheill: Yeah. That's something we struggle with a lot with our clients when they're first stepping into retirement, is you associate so much of your life with your career. And then once you retire, who am I? What do I want to do with my time? So we're so thankful to have you guys.
Katie Reynolds: Sure.
Brandy Risheill: So yeah, along those lines, why is lifelong learning so critical today, especially in this fast changing environment we're in?
Katie Reynolds: Yeah. So I do think that lifelong learning is really important. There's so many studies that really show that being engaged, having a social aspect, meaning continuing to grow your mind, have exercise mentally is important to just life satisfaction, but also not just mental wellbeing, but physical wellbeing. That social aspect of being in a learning situation where you have other people with you, a place to belong that helps bring meaning to life and prevents isolation. It really reduces depression. It gives a new aspect of really continuing on in a way that is outside of maybe your inner circle of family, which may or may not be local, which is another big deal because a lot of families are finding themselves spread out all over. We're not a nuclear intergenerational family anymore. So some folks might have settled in the area.
A lot of retirees here in Dayton are former military. Their kids could be way far away and they're not having that day-to-day interaction with kids or grandkids or even parents. So it's nice to have a community that you can belong to and contribute to. I can't overemphasize the importance of giving back too, like the volunteer aspect. One of the things with our UDOLLI program and other programs that we work with in the area, just organizations, mission groups, other service groups is that volunteer aspect, like finding your place to really give back to the community is so important too, to find meaning and not feel kind of inward self-focused is really important to health. So I mean, there's a lot of aspects to that, but all of those really come together and you got to think through that and where do you fit and what works best for you.
Brandy Risheill: That's wonderful. Yes. The volunteer part, the relationships built around volunteering are very meaningful, very meaningful. How does staying engaged influence retirement planning and financial security? Do you see an impact in those areas?
Katie Reynolds: Yeah. It's interesting with, like we've done together some of the retirement strategies for financial planning. A lot of people think about the financial aspect younger in life. So as they kind of get out of those 20s, start planning a little bit, but I think they fail to include in that sometimes what does that mean later in life? We're planning for that immediate, "Oh, I'm going to retire at 60, 65," whatever that is. And they've made that plan to have enough financial security then, but haven't thought to, "Oh, what happens when I'm 75, 80, and now I have a new expense, a new living situation that I have to go into that maybe wasn't quite planned for, so that's important to plan for."
So I think having folks come together in a learning situation where that topic might come up or they have friends that are finding themselves in a situation where they're having to make those difficult decisions to age in place or age at home with care or to find a new living community. And what does that mean financially is important because then they see that taking place and then have to start considering that themselves. And it's so important to think not just about how do I take care of my home and have living expenses, but how do I maybe plan for care later in life?
Brandy Risheill: Yeah. So it's education beyond the classroom. So those conversations continue outside of the classroom. What's the biggest misconception about learning after the age of 50?
Katie Reynolds: The biggest misconception I always say is that people can't learn and that your time is done and what you chose as a career and as your education earlier on, that's all that you have and it's too late to do anything else. And it absolutely is not. I have some students, so I used to direct our educational doctorate program and organizational leadership. And our average age was actually around 40, 45 in that program. So a lot of people going into that to further their career and a lot of people coming back as a second career opportunity. I think our oldest graduate from that was 72 years old.
Brandy Risheill: Wow.
Katie Reynolds: And then we currently have a graduate student at University Day and who's 68.
Brandy Risheill: I love it.
Katie Reynolds: Yeah. So it's not too late to go back. So I think some people sometimes regret that they didn't get to study this or have a career in that, and it's not too late. You can always go back and learn more, or you use the skills you have and find, where can I serve in another company maybe part-time and help benefit them in ways that they hadn't thought about. I work a little bit with the Dayton Foundation and communication with them. They have a program Encore Fellows and also Donna Kassner, who works with Aging Well Dayton and I are also doing a podcast on the moderate elder, we called it.
Brandy Risheill: Moderate elder.
Katie Reynolds: Moderate elder.
Brandy Risheill: That's a new term.
Katie Reynolds: Yeah. And it's a lot of background on that. But the encore, I love that term encore because you do. You have other opportunities to continue to learn and serve. So there are a lot of endeavors going on around the Dayton area to figure out how can we help folks who have retired, but still have not exhausted their energy or desire or skill to work and give back, to place them with companies, organizations that might have a need in their school area and then they both benefit. So I think that's really growing a lot around Dayton. I'm glad that Dayton Foundation is focusing on that and providing a means for that to happen, but they do have a lot to contribute back.
Brandy Risheill: So much experience. And knowledge that the younger generation maybe doesn't possess and they still have more to give.
Katie Reynolds: That's right. And the intergenerational learning together, I think is very important. We don't emphasize that enough. And sometimes the younger generation might not be cognitively aware that, oh, this person really did a lot and has a lot to teach me and we want to make more opportunities for that. So we are partnering with the Dayton Collaboratory to do a program that will start in the fall that will bring together some undergraduate students and some of our retired folks in our lifelong learning program to do some work together to say, "What are some problems in Dayton and the surrounding areas that need to be solved? And what are our ideas to do that? And can we come up with a project or something to help with that?" So I think that's a really fabulous way to bring generations together without it being awkward that they're working together, learning from each other, so they both appreciate the skills that other ones have.
Brandy Risheill: The experience meets the youthful perspective and energy combined. Yeah, that'd be very powerful. I love that. Well, let's see. Inside the life learning program, kind of give us an idea or an overview of the lifelong learning program at the University of Dayton. What makes it so unique?
Katie Reynolds: Sure. So we are unique in some ways and not as unique in other ways. So we are one of 124 programs across the US actually of this OSHA Lifelong Learning Institute, made possible through the OSHA Foundation that did give grants to universities to start these programs. So we are a pretty decent size group. We have about 1,200 active members throughout the course of a year. We have four terms a year, which is more than what University of Dayton undergraduate work has in a year. And in each of those terms, we have anywhere from 80 to 95 seminars that are taking place.
Brandy Risheill: Wow.
Katie Reynolds: Some of those just one week and a lot of them six weeks. So anywhere between one and six weeks, all of it volunteer led. So we have former faculty, retirees from industry, other businesses, and then just volunteers who have a passion for something they've learned about, bringing that knowledge to create a seminar that they share with our community.
So our members can join. We have annual membership so people can join for $40. That's a yearlong membership, and that entitles them to come to some of our special programs, which are some more of our social fun activities we had more in the evening mostly. And then it allows them to purchase term fee for $100, which is-
Brandy Risheill: That's a deal.
Katie Reynolds: ... all-inclusive. It's as many seminars as they want to take. So we have some people just taking one seminar and we have some people who have signed up for 24 or more seminars.
Brandy Risheill: Wow.
Katie Reynolds: Some people are there all day, every day, and it really does become a friendship group, community. They eat lunch together, they get together outside of that time, but it's a great time of learning just new passions that they can find and grow new habits and new types of hobbies and things like that as well. So it's a busy group.
Brandy Risheill: Yes, it is.
Katie Reynolds: And full of volunteers. So we do have a lot of volunteers to help make it possible.
Brandy Risheill: That's fantastic. I love that. So if you said, who exactly would the program before? I mean, is there a specific market that you're looking at?
Katie Reynolds: So it's open to anyone 50 and better, we call it. So if you're 50 or better, you can join. And so it's for anyone who really wants to. You don't have to be retired to take part in. And a lot of our... We have evening classes on Tuesdays at 6:00 P.M. So if someone's still working but wants to engage with community, they can look at those classes. We also have courses that aren't in person that are online. So some of our folks who might be home bound or just not getting out in the winter or even far away, alumni and other just friends of the university who know about us who want to take some of the Zoom classes from far away.
So it's really for anyone who has a curiosity to learn. There's every topic you can imagine. So from arts and theater and music to science, history, everything you can imagine, we probably have a topic at some point on it. Religion, faith, anything you can want, be there. And a lot of people tend to think it's just for UD folks or UD graduates or alumni. And that's not the case at all. I mean, we do have a good population of that that we so appreciate, but it really is for anyone and everyone who just wants to learn.
Brandy Risheill: Well, now I can't wait to be 50. What types of courses or experiences... You've kind of listed some of those. What is one of the most unique courses that you can recall?
Katie Reynolds: That's a great question.
Brandy Risheill: I've seen the History of Rock and Roll.
Katie Reynolds: Yeah. So we have a couple of our moderators who just love to play their music for folks. Massive collection of records. So that moderator tends to pick a different genre or time period and focus on that and plays and talks about it. We have one of our really popular courses coming up this winter is the Introduction to Artificial Intelligence.
Brandy Risheill: Oh, see, that one would be great.
Katie Reynolds: Yeah. We just opened up a second section of that to help get more people into it. So they'll really help introduce our population to what is AI, what are different ways you can use it, what are the ethics that you have to take in consideration, and also give them some hands-on experiences.
Brandy Risheill: Wonderful.
Katie Reynolds: And then we have stuff like tennis and different martial arts movements classes to help keep people moving and up and running. So it really is everything that you can imagine and want. You can find something that would appeal to you. Mahjong was a really popular one last term too.
Brandy Risheill: Majong. Yes. That's fantastic. So there's something for everyone.
Katie Reynolds: There really is.
Brandy Risheill: Love that. So how does someone go about getting involved?
Katie Reynolds: Yeah. To get involved, they could come to our office or they just get online. We do have a special membership page that has all the information you could ever want on there. It's easy to remember. It's just go GO.UDayton.edu/UDOLLI, so U-D-O-L-L-I. So if folks go to that, that does house some of our other programs as well that we support in our community, but the UDOLLI program's there and they can see instructions on how to become a member and to register.
Brandy Risheill: Fantastic. Now, do you have a way of measuring the impact that these classes have had on participants' lives?
Katie Reynolds: Yes. We do do exit surveys for all the seminars and get some feedback on them. That's really more for the moderators and helping them know how to improve those classes, but I did... So I'm new to this role. We had our longtime executive director of 30 years retire recently. She did a fantastic job. I'm not sure how much she got from feedback on that, but we've started a new member luncheon at the end of the term so we can talk to them to see how they got there, what their experience was and what they got out of it. And we'll keep doing that and we'll keep getting feedback from our folks.
We're about to do a massive survey for improvement and get some of that feedback and what they're learning and what they'd like to see. But it was very moving. The luncheon we had with our new members recently, like one of our members that joined us for the first time was widowed a little over a year ago and had just really hesitated to reengage with life. And we were all moved to tears in talking about her experience and how meaningful it was, how welcome she felt, how involved and how she came out in just a few short weeks of having brand new friends in a community that she can rely on and talk to for just doing fun things and learning together.
Brandy Risheill: That has to feel good to know that you've provided that space that she can make new connections and find purpose beyond losing her spouse.
Katie Reynolds: Yes.
Brandy Risheill: For those who can't join a formal program, you said there's kind of different ways they can embrace lifelong learning?
Katie Reynolds: Yeah. I would really encourage anyone who's looking for more learning experiences to pursue what's out there. We really are living in an age where there is just a plethora of online learning opportunities. So if they're not really in a place where they want to or could get into a physical space where they want to engage with a large community, there's lots of opportunities to learn online. Some of those are, for example, we do have a senior fellows at UD where people could take an audit, a course that could be online too. But then there's also a lot of different courses online. Like today, I talked to someone who's really wanting to learn language and we don't necessarily always have space in our language courses for folks to come take that, but there's a lot of online language opportunities and even ones where there's interactivity. So you can join a free online community where there's discussions in that language to practice and learn. So it really is trying to just...
Brandy Risheill: See what's out there.
Katie Reynolds: If you have a computer, get online and Google what you want to learn and find out what's available. The books, the libraries are still here. There's still a lot to learn in the library, still a lot of trainings. Podcasts are great ways to learn about interesting topics. There's a podcast or just about every topic you want.
Brandy Risheill: I've seen that.
Katie Reynolds: So just encourage people not to give up. I've seen some folks not, especially if they lose their hearing, maybe some vision, feel less inclined to really work through those problems and figure out, "What does this mean for me and how do I still engage and learn?" But there are ways. So not to be embarrassed and just ask for that help and get assistance to find what works.
Brandy Risheill: To keep learning. So any advice for balancing learning with other life priorities?
Katie Reynolds: Yes. Well, you do have to only pick what you have time for, of course. I've seen some folks. So some people get very eager, like we were talking before about, it's okay to go back and do another degree if you really want, but you do have to really balance, are you doing it just for fun? Are you really doing it to enter in a new second career perhaps later in life and what you will use it for and balance that with what is the expense of that? Because it really isn't... I have seen some people make the mistake of thinking they need the doctorate to advance their next level in their job, and that's not necessarily true. It might be that maybe some other certificate programs or just some other certifications would have been more beneficial to them than an actual whole doctorate program.
So you really have to look at the return on investment and that's not just money, but time. Is it really worth my time? So I think thinking through what you're doing, what your goals are and what the cost is both time and money wise is important to think through before engaging. So that's why I think some of the more less expensive free things that you can do, like UDOLLI program that's so low-key, like no homework, no tests and low costs, it is one of probably the most affordable OLLI programs in the US. It's still the lowest cost, at least the bottom 10 of all of those for costs. Do something like that and just reengage first and then without an obligation, you can determine how much time I have.
Brandy Risheill: Tiptoe into it.
Katie Reynolds: Mm-hmm. And then start to increase and develop and learn about other opportunities and determine what the best benefit is.
Brandy Risheill: That's good. That's good advice. Now, how do we think we can encourage families to achieve lifelong learning across generations?
Katie Reynolds: That's a great question. I definitely think that working with your kids, if you're a parent and you have children, teaching them a love of learning. So sometimes I think students having worked in K-12 don't find what their true passion is early on. And so this homework is kind of a burden and I just have to do this and I really want to do other things, play my games or whatever.
Brandy Risheill: Yes.
Katie Reynolds: So helping children really find what their passion is, reading to them very early on, encouraging them to read, rewarding them for that, and creating that pattern for them, but also learning together. So families who can intergenerationally go pick up grandma and grandpa, go to a museum that's unique and learn about that topic or whatever. Having some pre-learning, "What do you know about this? What do you want to know about this?" And then finding those answers, but working all together is a great way to my family to do that and hopefully establish that lifelong learning or even giving kids an assignment of interviewing their grandparents or a neighbor-
Brandy Risheill: I like that.
Katie Reynolds: ... or someone like that to find out, "What did you do for your job? How did you become that? What did you learn on the job? What did you not learn in college that didn't help," or whatever.
Brandy Risheill: Yes.
Katie Reynolds: So just being really creative with learning experiences to make them fun and educational without it being too much of a burden, I think is a great way.
Brandy Risheill: I've had to tell my kids, I got through my bachelor's degree without ChatGPT and that's a badge of honor right there.
Katie Reynolds: Yes, it is.
Brandy Risheill: So the future of lifelong learning, where do you see lifelong learning heading in the next decade?
Katie Reynolds: Yeah. So it's interesting. Higher ed's really facing a bit of a crisis right now with, they call the enrollment cliff. So a lot fewer numbers of that college age coming up really hitting this year. And there's also the compounding factor that some people are finding that that college is not the return on investment like we're talking about. They may not need that degree to do what they want or they just need associate's or some other type of training or on the job training.
But for seniors, that is not so much the case. We have a growing and growing population of that 50 and over. So there's going to be a lot more folks looking for educational opportunities to learn and grow together. So I think we're going to see an expanse of that and growth in that. And I think we're going to also see communities kind of change the way they're handling how older adults in their community can interact and be served. We just got to meet and talk yesterday with the president of the AARP of Ohio and Ohio was in a wonderful place, just got the designation of an age-friendly state.
Brandy Risheill: I like it.
Katie Reynolds: We have about, don't quote me on these numbers. I might be off by one or two. I think we have 36 already approved communities in Ohio that have been designated age friendly, and that includes a lot of different criteria to meet that. But like 18 of those, I think over half of them are in the Miami Valley area.
Brandy Risheill: Wow, that's amazing.
Katie Reynolds: So we're very blessed to have some communities really focusing on how do we serve this population, incorporate them and help them. So I think we're going to see an increased number of programs for just services, but also for education opportunities and engagement in the community. So I hope that continues. A big change that's coming up in a lot of universities is the increase in having retirement communities consisted living on campus...
Brandy Risheill: On campus.
Katie Reynolds: ... or within very close proximity. So there's some really phenomenal programs at universities where they've started these retirement homes, they live on or within, like, close to campus grounds and they're being incorporated into university life. So they can serve as teacher assistants and help do tutoring for students, take their own classes there, eat in some of the dining halls and take a part in the culture activities, art, fine arts and stuff.
Brandy Risheill: Wow.
Katie Reynolds: So I think we're going to see that continue. I hope UD does that.
Brandy Risheill: That's fantastic.
Katie Reynolds: I appreciate everything.
Brandy Risheill: For the students and for the adults.
Katie Reynolds: Absolutely. So I really hope that happens and continues so that we can have that intergenerational just growth and the benefit.
Brandy Risheill: Yeah, because people are living longer and retirement is lasting longer. It doesn't have to look like just sitting in the rocking chair. You can still be active, still be growing and still be contributing. So that's fantastic. So what's your vision for the University of Dayton's role in shaping this future for older and moderate adults? Is that what you-
Katie Reynolds: The moderate elder.
Brandy Risheill: The moderate elder.
Katie Reynolds: Yeah. I think so. I definitely would like us to see help support a lot of the projects going on around the Dayton and Miami Valley area to help incorporate some folks who aren't finished yet to give back and serve. I would absolutely love to see that the university-
Brandy Risheill: Yes, on campus.
Katie Reynolds: ... consider... Yeah. Or we have this on Main now, so great place to build a retirement community. And it's a great place for them to have assisted living or nursing where we can have students in PT, PA, nursing rotate through and have that experience themselves, but also give back to the community. I would love to see our OLLI program double in size. We have plenty of room. We just need to get the word out to folks to come. Really would like for more people who have incredible expertise or passions come and provide more classes, seminars for our folks and be involved that way. So I'm very open to ideas. So if people have ideas, I'd love to hear them. I just want to keep-
Brandy Risheill: You want to provide that.
Katie Reynolds: Yeah.
Brandy Risheill: So UDOLLI can keep growing too.
Katie Reynolds: Absolutely.
Brandy Risheill: I love that. Well, Katie, thank you so much for joining us today. Lifelong learning is truly a gift we give ourselves and it's never too late to start.
Katie Reynolds: Yeah, never too late to start and never give up.
Brandy Risheill: Never give up. For our listeners, if you want to learn more about the University of Dayton's lifelong learning program, check out UDayton.edu. Remember, planning for your future isn't just about numbers, it's about living a life that inspires you. Stay curious, stay connected, and we'll see you next time.
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