From professor to student: one man’s college-enriched senior living experience.
This fall, Dick K. will walk out of his apartment and stroll across the Goucher College campus to audit a course on environmental ethics. Unfortunately, the Edenwald resident is going to miss a few class sessions, with good reason.
“Towards the end of August I’m going to a conference in Greece,” Dick, who has a doctoral degree in political science from Yale, explains. “Then in September, a conference in Vancouver, and then I’m doing a lecture at a summer school in Germany.”
Environmental ethics will be Dick’s second Goucher College class. Earlier in 2025, he audited a course in the theater department titled, The World’s a Stage. “It was basically about plays by women,” he says. “I thought it was quite good.”
That class consisted of Dick, another Edenwald resident, and about a dozen Goucher College students. When asked how that intergenerational experience went, Dick tells a story. “A couple of weeks into the class, I asked one of the Goucher College students how she felt about having us old folks in her class. She told me that she liked having a different perspective.”
Senior living in Towson, MD is transforming.
As Edenwald deepens its longtime relationship with neighboring Goucher College to evolve into Maryland’s first college-enriched senior living community, the opportunities for intergenerational and lifelong learning experiences like Dick’s are only going to increase. For example, during the summer of 2025, for the first time Edenwald residents will be able to participate in a Goucher College study abroad program in Scotland. (Dick would have liked to have joined them, but he’ll be at Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario for the Shaw Festival at that time.)
Dick, who taught political science at Johns Hopkins beginning in 1976 and is now a Professor Emeritus there, moved into Edenwald two years ago, and is very happy he did. “It’s nice having this sort of built-in friendly community, with a whole range of activities, so that I don’t sit in the apartment by myself,” he says.
“I still watch television and read books, but there’s also a hot Scrabble game on Thursday afternoons, movies a couple of nights a week, and recitals. I subscribe to Everyman Theater (in downtown Baltimore), and we have a bus that takes a bunch of us down there, so we don’t have to drive and figure out where to park.”
As much as Dick enjoys life at Edenwald, he’s excited for the future as the community becomes even more engaged with the faculty, facilities, and especially the students of Goucher College. “Edenwald is a great community,” he says. “I have a fair number of friends here, but we’re all from the same generation. So, having regular interactions with the students’ generation is something I find quite attractive.”
New senior living residences and new opportunities.
The physical manifestation of Edenwald’s evolution into a college-enriched senior living community will be three residential towers built on the Goucher College campus. This planned expansion will provide those 62 and older the opportunity to join the Edenwald community and become a part of this stimulating culture of lifelong education and personal growth.
To learn more about the Edenwald expansion and all the shared programming opportunities with Goucher College available to Edenwald residents, and to hold your place in line for one of the planned 127 spacious luxury apartments, contact a residency counselor at 410-339-6263.
Edenwald’s expansion project is subject to final approval by the Maryland Department of Aging.
