MERCED, Calif. — Merced College instructor Ofelia Cruz is 73 years old. But whenever her students in her “Injury and Fall Prevention” class figure out her age, they’re shocked.
“When they find out that I'm older than them, they're going, ‘What?’ And I said ‘The secret is movement and consistency. You have to do it all the time,’” she said.
That’s why Cruz is teaching the class at an assisted living home called Park Merced. Two days a week, Cruz lays out a speaker with 80’s dance music, some chairs, and a variety of small black and purple weights.
At a recent class, 85-year-old student Mady Montague was lifting three-pound dumbbells. She said the single-pounders were too easy.
“This has been great for me,” Montague said. “I'm getting so I forget my cane, which is super!”
“We need to move around,” said student Susan Lee, 77. “It's so easy to just sit at home, turn on the TV and think, ‘Well, yeah, I should be doing something, but I don't feel like it.’ So this way, it gets you out.”
Fall prevention is just one Merced College class that attracts people 65 and older - dubbed by many government agencies as “older adults.” Enrollment data shows these adults make up a little over one percent of the student population at Merced College — and less than that at other Valley universities. Still, those students — some who have enrolled through the age of 99 — say they reap the benefits of higher education if they sign up.
Students engage with the body and brain
Students and experts told KVPR that older adults attend college classes for a multitude of reasons. One of them comes from a love of learning.
“They want a place that they can go and ask questions and learn things,” said Rikki Alvarez, a program manager at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Fresno State. “They don't want to earn a degree. They've already done that. They just want some mental stimulation.”
OLLI is a non-profit that operates at universities all over the country and is open to anyone 50 years old or older. The one at Fresno State served more than 500 students last year.
According to a presentation paper written by the Academic Senate of the California Community Colleges, education can help older adults with stress management and isolation.
Further research, including studies published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Medicine and reviewed by the American Psychology Association find learning later in life can also help improve confidence, adaptability and memory.
At OLLI, some classes talk politics and current events, while others teach new games to play, all kinds of history, or even how to write a memoir. Alvarez said some people even get their writing published. People enroll in these classes, Alvarez said, in the name of self-improvement.
“I think it gives them an opportunity to, not so much do professional development, but personal development,” she said.
OLLI members find new purpose as students, Alvarez said.
“They feel empowered,” she said. “They feel like they're in-the-know. They feel like they can speak on these topics, situations and things that are going on, and I feel like they come out motivated.”
Social connection a big motivator
Most of all, students say they attend classes for social connection, because finding friends is not the same as it used to be.
“We don't talk to our neighbors. We just open the garage and we pull in,” said Lisa Bell, the executive director of the OLLI at Fresno State. “Many of the old ways that we made connections even for working people, younger people are just not as strong.”
In 2019, her institute enrolled over 900 students, but the pandemic slashed that growth. Since then, Bell said they’ve been striving for that number again.
“Right now, we're trying to figure out, ‘how can we reach those people,” Bell said. “Are they on social media? What marketing techniques can we use to appeal to these people? We're sending out mailings. We're mailing out thousands of catalogs each semester. We're posting on Facebook.”
Alvarez and Bell said people are craving more in-person classes again instead of hybrid or online versions. They’re hoping enrollment numbers move with that excitement.
Ofelia Cruz, meanwhile, said her injury prevention class has been steadily enrolling students for at least a decade. The class is also free. Taking out the cost and offering it at an easy location was a way for the college to give back to the Merced community, Cruz said.
“I think a lot of older people, probably either they've lost their husband or their wife and they're all by themselves at home,” she said. “This way, when they go to the exercise class, they can kind of relate to their friends.”
Social connection and living longer are things Mady Montague thought of when she signed up for Cruz’s fall prevention course. After a recent class, sweat gleamed on her forehead as she took a seat next to her friends, Susan Lee and Shelley Jasper, 74.
Lee said a recent surgery limited her mobility, but this class changed that.
“My blood's circulating and my muscles are feeling good,” Lee said. “I can get back to my car and I can drive. When I had this procedure, I couldn't drive for six months.”
Beyond physical improvements, Montague said it simply makes her feel good.
“I find myself just grinning practically the whole class,” Montague said. “If you're shy, you can't be shy very long.”
They say age shouldn’t be a factor in learning something new. College classes mean longevity for them, and maybe new social circles, too.
“[You’re] not too old to learn anything at any age,” Jasper said.
“That’s true,” Montague agreed, chuckling. “If you stop learning, you're going to stop living!”
