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Thirsty for learning, seniors fill college programs
Thirsty for learning, seniors fill college programs
Those who ‘never did read Plato’ form a new and expanding class of retirees driven by knowledge
By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff | November 17, 2004
At Harvard University, a 63-year-old retiree — trained in philosophy, but retired from real estate investing — teaches a classroom of her peers about postmodernism.
In Maine, legislators appropriate $150,000 to bolster courses for retirees at 15 ”lifelong learning institutes” from Portland to Presque Isle.
And on the campus of Lasell College in Newton, a four-year-old retirement ”village” requires residents to complete 450 hours of study each year, attracting international attention and a waiting list of more than 100 senior citizens.
These scenes from modern retirement feature a new class of knowledge-driven retirees, who are heading back to school in droves to revive old passions or to tackle new topics. And with the 65-plus population expected to double by 2050, specialists predict steady growth in senior college enrollments.
Nearly 30 years after Harvard and Duke University established two of the first institutes for older learners, the number of programs nationwide is close to 500 and climbing, say specialists. In the last three years, the California-based Bernard Osher Foundation has awarded grants to dozens of new senior colleges nationwide, including one at Brandeis University in Waltham. And Osher, a Maine native, plans to double the number of Osher institutes over time.
”People are living longer, they’re healthier, and they’re looking for ways to participate in life,” says Kali Lightfoot, director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Southern Maine and national coordinator for all 50 Osher programs.
In Maine, where 6,000 students 55 and older are enrolled statewide, seniors pay a $25 annual membership fee and $25 to $50 per class, including books. At Harvard, retirees — who also teach courses — must apply to the 27-year-old Institute for Learning in Retirement, which maintains a maximum 500 members ages 55 to 95. They pay $325 per semester for courses including ”Love and War in Classical Japanese Literature” and ”Boston Architecture Since 1930,” director Leonie Gordon says.
A more informal approach is possible at Harvard Extension School, where 266 students over 60 are enrolled, says Michael Shinagel, dean of continuing education. World history and religion courses are among the most popular for seniors.
”When they started careers and families, they had to set things aside, and now in their 60s or 70s or 80s they’re saying, ‘I never did read Plato,’ or ‘I always wanted to learn Italian,’ ” he says.
Older students say they relish the freedom to focus on learning. As a young man, Marty Foley worked full time while he earned a business degree at Boston University. Now 66, the retired Dorchester florist is studying digital photography at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. ”You can’t serve two masters,” he says of his undergraduate days. ”It’s much easier now.”
The vibrant atmosphere on campus is also an attraction. After class, Foley says, he lingers over lunch to soak up conversation. ”I get excited over there,” he says.
UMass-Boston also benefits from the presence of the five-year-old lifelong learning program, director Wichian Rojanawon says: Many older students volunteer on campus, helping foreign students practice their English.
At the University of Southern Maine, senior students raised $100,000 to paint and furnish classrooms they use one day a week. ”We try to be good campus citizens,” says Lightfoot, the program director.
When Newton’s Lasell Village became the first retirement community in the country to require classroom study — the rule helped resolve a land-use battle by giving the project an educational purpose — no one knew how seniors would respond, says Paula Panchuck, the development’s academic dean. Four years later, the 200 residents average 540 hours of annual study, beyond the 450 required, under a flexible definition that includes fitness classes and time spent reading and writing.
Live-in learning doesn’t come cheap: Lasell residents, who must be 65 or older (half are couples and half are single) pay an entry fee of $300,000 to $750,000, 90 percent of which is returned when they die or leave. Monthly fees of $2,300 to $4,500 cover class costs, meals, maintenance, and housekeeping for their one- or two-bedroom apartments.
Bernice Kazis, 80, moved to the village from a three-story Swampscott home eight months ago, after her husband, a retired rabbi, died. With degrees in psychology and education and years of experience resettling Russian immigrants, Kazis says she is busy with new ideas. She’s reading Socrates for an art philosophy course called ”The Examining Life,” and she buzzes with excitement about her forensics class, where students examine slides of dead bodies and tackle tough questions such as King Tut’s cause of death.
”Somebody said, what are you going to do with [the education]? I’m not going to do anything with it, except stimulate my thinking,” she says. ”It’s a lot more relaxed, because it’s for me.”
Jenna Russell can be reached at jrussell@globe.com.
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/11/17/thirsty_for_learning_seniors_fill_college_programs/
Top Seven Mistakes Business Owners Make Filing Insurance Claims
Top Seven Mistakes Business Owners Make Filing Insurance Claims http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/220214
10 New Words Every Business Owner Should Know
10 New Words Every Business Owner Should Know http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/220228
Five Overlooked Legal Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make
Five Overlooked Legal Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make
BY Lisa Girard |
Starting a business can be fraught with potential legal issues that are often overlooked by first-time entrepreneurs. Many details that don’t seem pressing at the start can mean the difference between success and failure later on. But many common pitfalls can be avoided with the right planning and execution. Here are five mistakes small-business owners make — and how to avoid them.
Mistake No. 1: Making handshake deals with clients and vendors.
Always put your business dealings in writing. Don’t naively assume that everything will go according to plan. “This is often not the case, and when things go wrong, the entrepreneur and the client or vendor may have different ideas about what is supposed to happen,” says Rachel Rodgers, principal attorney with Rachel Rodgers Law Office in Phoenix, Ariz.
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How to avoid it: Keep a written for every relationship your business enters into to protect yourself from loss of time, money, and potential lawsuits.
Related: Helpful Legal Forms and Templates
Mistake No. 2: Choosing the wrong business structure.
Whether you choose sole proprietorship, S-Corp, or limited liability company (LLC), making a hasty choice can put your business at risk, and lead to painful tax bills at the end of the year. With a sole proprietorship you are not required to register your business with the state and it’s often chosen by startups operating on a shoestring, but beware there’s no wall between your business and personal assets. S-Corps and LLCs may cost more to set up and maintain but your business is kept legally separate from personal assets — so it’s less risky if your company goes under or is the target of a lawsuit.
How to avoid it: Rodgers recommends incorporation in most cases. Since it’s a more complex structure, it shows customers, banks and investors that you’re serious about being in business over the long haul. If you opt for the simpler route of sole proprietor, she suggests looking at business insurance to protect your personal assets in case your company is sued and loses. Of course, you’ll want to consult with a lawyer or accountant to determine the best structure for your particular size and needs.
Mistake No. 3: Bringing on partners without a detailed agreement. Many entrepreneurs put this paperwork on the back burner in favor of “focusing on the business,” but several problems can arise in the meantime. “One of the biggest boons to my startup practice has been the movie The Social Network, which revolves around the litigation surrounding the ownership of the ideas, code, et cetera, at the onset of Facebook,” says Gregory Kratofil, an attorney and shareholder with the law firm Polsinelli Shughart in Kansas City, Missouri. No matter how much you like and trust your business partners, you need a legally binding agreement — not just detailing operations and responsibilities, but also what happens if you have opposite views of where to take the company.
How to avoid it: Have the hard conversations now, when everybody’s still in love, says lawyer William M. Moore, founder of the Moore Firm in San Diego, a law firm that serves entrepreneurs. That’s when to put in writing important issues like who owns what shares, who has what power, as in the case of deciding a potential buyout.
Mistake No. 4: Establishing a 50-50 partnership. In theory, this sounds great, but ultimately when issues arise — like whether to bring on new investors — somebody has to be able to make an executive decision. If you deadlock on a major decision and nobody budges, the company is frozen in limbo unless one of you buys out the other. “It’s very difficult for human beings to decide how to divide things up after there is something to divide up,” Moore adds.
How to avoid it: Consider at least a 51-49 split instead, where one partner is at the helm with the power to make critical decisions in the event of a stalemate. “Remember, a business is not a democracy,” Moore says.
Mistake No. 5: Filing a trademark without doing enough homework. If you think a quick Internet search or cursory look at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database is all you need before filing for a trademark, think again. You don’t want to invest in a brand only to learn someone else came up with it first, says lawyer Frank A. Natoli, founder of New York-based law firm Natoli-Lapin LLC. For example, Natoli had a client who lost most of his $100,000 investment in branded inventory after another company with the same name shut him down.
How to avoid it: Do your research not only with the Patent and Trademark Office, but on the state level (each state has its own registry), in business directories like YellowPages.com, domain-name companies, and even the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220224
What Facebook’s Latest Changes Mean for Businesses
What Facebook’s Latest Changes Mean for Businesses http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/220219
Should Entrepreneurs Go to College?
BY Carol Tice|
There’s been much flap in the blogosphere about early Facebook investor and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel’s new 20 Under 20 scholarship program. Thiel recently awarded two dozen young entrepreneurs the opportunity to receive $100,000 and mentoring from a team of Silicon Valley pros. All they have to do to claim their prize is leave college and work on their business full-time.
Thiel — himself a college graduate — has said part of his motivation in creating this program is to call attention to skyrocketing college costs and to encourage more innovation, rather than graduating more students who’ll be risk-averse as they struggle to pay off student loans. As a mother of a teen who is headed off to college in the fall, I think Thiel’s venture raises some interesting questions about how best to educate the next generation of entrepreneurs. Is the classroom really a better learning lab than a storefront?
An important thing to remember here is there’s a reason you read about college-dropout billionaires in the paper, from Microsoft’s Bill gates to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and others. These stories are newsworthy because mega-successful dropouts are one in a million. Most college dropout stories end fairly predictably, with the student going on to earn substantially less than if he or she had earned a bachelor’s degree.
Critics have blasted Thiel for encouraging students to drop out of school, but his actual premise is to take a break — “stopping out of school” — rather than dropping out. I think he may have a great idea there.
The thing about college is, it’s not going anywhere. You can always take a leave and resume your studies later. If you come back within a decade or so, your credits usually still count. So there’s not a lot at risk in taking a year or two off to pursue a business idea. There’s a bigger risk students will emerge from the ivory tower after four years with little practical work experience and find it hard to get a job, much less launch a business.
Currently, about one-third of students don’t finish college in four years anyway, due to spiraling tuition fees. Many have to take a year or two off to work and save up the money to go back.
Given that, if you’ve got a business idea brewing in your dorm room and see it bringing in some revenue, why not pursue it? I’d say it’s a darn sight better than taking a year off to work at a big-box store as a flunky, which many college students end up doing. Even if your business fails, you’d return to school with some valuable hard-knocks lessons that would likely make you a more motivated and mature student.
If Thiel’s initiative has a broader positive influence beyond the two dozen students who won slots in his program, it’s that it sends this “go for it” message to would-be entrepreneurs. After all, when you’re 19 or 20, what have you really got to lose? It won’t get easier to chuck it all and make the leap into business ownership when you’re 30 or 40 and have a family to feed.
Most young entrepreneurs won’t get an offer as good as Thiel’s. But it could still be worth taking an entrepreneurial risk early on in life rather than later. Maybe your college will give you an honorary diploma if you hit it big and you can skip the class time.http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/219721
Lesson with Oprah Winfrey
It’s never too late to start following your passion. If you don’t like the life you’re living now, change it. Big changes -even small changes -are not always easy but it’s worth it when you know you’re fulfilling a greater purpose.
Nobody but you is responsible for your life
“You are responsible for the energy you create for yourself and for the energy you bring to others.”
When I wake up in the morning I set a daily intention and do a quiet meditation to create a positive energy around my day. This routine has changed my life and I am 100% committed to bringing positive energy into other people’s lives through this blog and my other platforms. What kind of energy are you creating?
You are worthy
“Your being alive makes worthiness your birthright. You alone are enough.”
We are all guilty of self-sabotage sometimes. Us women can be especially hard on ourselves and think we are not skinny enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not _______ (you fill in the blank). I love that Oprah said she learned that every single person on the planet is worthy of love, happiness, and purpose. Note to self: Add “You are worthy” to daily mantras.
Be still and listen
“Your life is speaking to you. What is it saying to you?”
This was my last Oprah “aha” moment. We can get so caught up in our busy lives and all the noise around us that we don’t stop to listen enough throughout the day. And sometimes when my life is speaking to me I just ignore it and carry on even though I know that voice will just get louder. So tomorrow morning I’m going to do something to honor a “whisper” I’ve been ignoring.
Oprah Winfrey is the epitome of “taking on the world” and for that we say thank you Oprah for inspiring us to look within, climb higher and dream bigger. Have you learned any lessons from Oprah or have a memorable “aha” moment? We’d love to hear from you!
Four Rules For High-Growth Women Entrepreneurs
Four Rules For High-Growth Women Entrepreneurs
Posted by Nicole Kekeh
The New Age of high-growth women entrepreneurs is about to transform economies across the globe and create millions of jobs.
© Adrian Weinbrecht/GettyImagesIf that sounds like a grand statement, it is not, from listening to Sharon Vosmek. As CEO of Astia, the premier venture accelerator for women-led high growth companies, Vosmek is passionate that women entrepreneurs will create the next high-growth firms, and pull the global economy out of the doldrums. Literally.
Vosmek points to the data. It is underpinning Vosmek’s crusade to take women-led high-growth entrepreneurship global and to next scale. It is compelling. Data shows that if women CEOs had the same access to capital as male CEOs, six million jobs would be added to the economy in five years; two million in year one alone.
For Vosmek, the case is clear-cut.
Women make up over half the planet.
Women make up 50 per cent of all new MBA graduates.
Women make up just under 50 per cent of all PhDs.
Women make up 48 per cent of all entrepreneurs globally.http://blogs.forbes.com/worldviews/
Five Ways to Build Business Credit
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Empowering Women 