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

Most 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,

LINDA SHAPLEY Publisher lshapley@coloradocommunitymedia.com

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 fulltime 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

LINDSAY NICOLETTI Operations/ Circulation 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.

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