Bringing experienced Coloradans back to campus to explore what’s next

Mo st people think of college as a place to go at the beginning of your career. e University of Colorado Denver is reimagining higher education as a place for people at the end of their primary working years as well.

A new CU Denver program called Change Makers brings experienced professionals who are approaching, or already in, retirement back to college for a semester to explore possibilities, retool and renew their purpose. Midlife is lled with transitions, not all of them easy. e good news is that at this stage of life, people’s experience, skills and wisdom have never been greater — or more needed in the world.

New options for a new life stage

Longer lifespans due to health advances in the last century have led sociologists to de ne a whole new life stage — an average of an extra 30 years after the family-raising, profession-building years. Yet careers are often still expected to end when people are in their 60s, with ripple e ects on those in their 50s.

Choices at this stage have traditionally been full-time work or full-time leisure. But many people are now looking at retirement di erently than previous generations did; they want something in between.

Some need to continue earning a salary. Others are interested in staying engaged, and in giving back to their communities. is represents a huge untapped resource for our community.

Here is where higher education is beginning to step in. e CU Denver Change Makers program, in particular, helps older adults explore possibilities for using their wisdom in a new, ful lling context.

Inaugural program concludes

Changing careers can be tumultuous, especially for those at midlife and beyond. It helps not to go it alone. at’s what the rst Change Makers participants found. For one semester beginning in January, they learned and collaborated with others to explore their next chapters. ey told us the program helped spark ideas and new ways of thinking about their next chapter. And they’re already planning to continue meeting monthly to keep the conversation going. e program is now accepting applications for the fall semester that begins in August. of years past when every industry group seemed to su ocate at the same time. For example, residential housing is soft but multifamily housing is on re, so overall construction employment continues to rise.

With professional backgrounds ranging from engineering and law to journalism and teaching, these 17 Change Makers fellows had honed a range of skills and talents. ey came to the program ready for a change — to use that hardearned expertise in new ways, for new jobs or meaningful volunteering. And they left with new perspectives, friends and ideas for envisioning and plotting their next step.

On campus, again e group met twice a week, in-person and virtually. Drawing on readings, group discussions and guest-speaker presentations, they looked at what’s worked and hasn’t in their lives, what’s made the encore years meaningful for others, and the pathways, obstacles and opportunities they face in designing a meaningful next chapter. One fellow told us that part of the power of the program is the collective connections that participants o er each other.

Fellows engaged with guest speakers on topics ranging from personal storytelling to combatting ageism to the power of intergenerational connection. ose who also audited academic classes — from modernist art to human-centered design — were inspired by interesting professors and the diversity of thought that comes from learning with a mixed-age group.

Providing participants with the time, space and support to think about what they want next is something universities have traditionally done for people at the start of their careers. Why not later in life as well?

• Productivity is troughing following an unusually high labor force quit rate. Once workers stay on the job for a while, they will become more productive quickly. Dramatic improvements in technology, like AI, will also drive productivity gains. ese positive indicators could be keeping us from falling into recession, however the debate is still open for a hard versus soft landing.

Investors should use this time to update their nancial plans and build a portfolio strategy for the opportunity to take advantage of more green shoots.

1. Ned Davis Research as of May 31, 2023.

2. William Greiner, CFP, Mariner Wealth Advisors chief economist. Je Krumpelman, CFA, Mariner Wealth Advisors chief investment strategist.

Patricia Kummer is managing director for Mariner Wealth Advisors.

FROM PAGE 12 he was processing. As we walked back to the cart, I reminded him that I was only the messenger of that message, but I wished I was the one who thought of the concept. He laughed and then said that it was the best insight and reality check he had heard in a long time. He shared that it made him stop thinking about how high he could climb, and instead start thinking about how high he could help others climb.

Last week my column was a tribute to a friend and colleague Jill. In the past 15 years of writing this column I had never received the number of emails, texts, and comments on any previous column. And all of the messages had common themes, “I wish I would have known her,” “She must have been something really special,” “I hope people remember me that way,” or “What a legacy she left behind.”

And now I share Brian’s story above because regardless of our role in life, we all don’t have to be a CEO, we can move from being to doing to having to giving and to leaving a legacy. And it starts with a very simple concept that David H. Sandler, the founder of Sandler Training, introduced us to, the idea of focusing on our attitude, our behaviors, and our techniques, in other words building the whole person, to set us on the path to one day moving from success to signi cance and signi cance to legacy. Is it always about what’s next and how high you can climb? Or is it about how you can help others climb higher faster, and helping them on their own journey of being, doing, giving, and leaving their legacy?

I would love to hear your story at gotonorton@gmail.com, and when we can remember to strive for success so we can move to signi cance and then leave the legacy we would be proud of, it really will be a better than good life.

Michael Norton is an author, a personal and professional coach, consultant, trainer, encourager and motivator of individuals and businesses, working with organizations and associations across multiple industries.

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Search-and-rescue dogs embody the mail carrier motto: “Neither snow, nor rain nor gloom of night” will keep these trusty canines from their appointed rounds — searching for people or items with single-minded purpose.

For the dogs and their trainers who are part of the Colorado branch of SARDUS — Search and Rescue Dogs of the United States — training is a weekly, if not daily, endeavor to prepare dogs to certify in an area of search and rescue or to keep the dog’s skills sharp after certi cation.

“ e training continues for life,” said Cathy Bryarly, a retired Boulder sheri ’s deputy who trains search-and-rescue dogs. “ is has to be part of your life. It goes way beyond a hobby, or it’s not going to work. It’s a calling.”

SARDUS members agree that it’s a labor a love based in their strong resolve to help others. Not only do the dogs and their handlers train multiple times a week, enlisting family and friends to hide, so the dogs have someone to search for, but handlers also attend seminars on a variety of topics and work together by laying trails for others to follow.

Trainers are always learning, so they can improve their canines’ ability to help in emergency situations.

Search-and-rescue dogs and their handlers are not paid; in fact, handlers spend a lot on the dogs, the equipment, the training and more. e goal is to be certi ed to go on missions, the term for helping law enforcement nd people, bodies or objects needed in an investigation.

Call the people trainers or handlers, but more importantly, they’re dog lovers who want to work as a team with their pets to help others.

The humility of training e trainers say it simply: Training their canines is humbling.

“Our dogs don’t make the mistakes,” Anjie Julseth-Crosby of Morrison said. “We do. ere’s so much to remember. e training is about me trying to understand what (the dogs) are saying. e human fails, not the dog.”

In fact, Julseth-Crosby, who started training her bloodhounds two years ago, has compiled a 19-page document called “ ings I wish I knew two years ago.”

Training involves having a dog follow a scent for several miles, helping the dog return to the SEE DOGS, P15