Institute for Learning in Retirement
SLIPPERY ROCK — People with interesting jobs, hobbies and those looking to practice giving a presentation or defending a dissertation can likely find an audience with the Institute for Learning in Retirement.
Just like Slippery Rock University, which the Institute for Learning in Retirement stemmed from, there are two semesters per year. During the program, people of all ages take classes and attend sessions to continue educating themselves outside traditional schooling.
According to Cathryn Crego, chairwoman of the institute’s curriculum committee for the fall, the institute builds courses around requests from the community and pitches it receives from people interested in teaching.
“Anybody with a hobby, anybody with an interest, graduate students who need a place to practice, people who have a thesis and need a friendly audience,” Crego said, “they can fill out their proposal and we're a great audience.
“There's lots of opportunities.”
The Institute for Learning In Retirement is beginning its spring semester in March, boasting 64 class titles, 11 new instructors and 20 trips as part of its course offerings.
This year is also the 25-year anniversary of the founding of the Institute for Learning in Retirement, a milestone the organization commemorated at its open house on Wednesday, Feb. 11, by showing a news segment created in 2001. The news piece discussed the institute’s formation as a project of professors at SRU who set out to continue educating people on a less formal basis after retiring. While the university and the institute are still tied together, the courses are taught by a larger pool of instructors in 2026.
“In the beginning, it was all university people and then they sort of needed other people after a certain point,” said Rich Thornhill, a member of the ILR’s social committee. “Now it's probably, I would think, maybe 75% non-university people, 25% university people.”
The institute accepts instructors and presenters from all walks of life. The process to teach or present is fairly straightforward.
Hopeful instructors simply need to fill out an application to see if the institute will accept their pitch.
Greg Sferra, the outgoing chairman of the curriculum committee, said the institute is never strapped for instructors thanks to its connections to SRU and the Slippery Rock Area School District. He said he has spoken to local educators, especially those close to retirement themselves, to see if they would like to teach a course at the institute.
“We're really fortunate because we have the local school system, a number of faculty members there but also the university,” Sferra said. “This can be part of the next chapter of their life.”
Some of the courses being offered in the spring semester include returning favorites, such as a ukulele class, several art classes, creative writing, and Bible study,
Additionally, some courses are not courses at all, but are more like social clubs or lunch groups, where people who sign up meet at a different local restaurant each week, and board game groups, where people get together to play a different game each week. There is also a film club and a book club.
Many of the courses are offered in-person. The institute also has a number of classes that take place solely in an online format.
The ILR also offers trips in its course list, which are one-off excursions to museums, parks, factories and more. Thornhill said the excursions are popular. He described a trip to a local farm that was popular with people signing up for courses with the ILR.
“We had one class that we went up to these people's house, they have 76 acres outside Moraine and it's a wildlife preservation,” Thornhill said. “Then we did a hike and he told us all about the property.”
Crego said the institute also strives to offer courses that offer practical knowledge to its intended audience of retirees. She said recent retirees may not know about certain senior benefits or they may need advice on how to stay healthy as they age. The institute has offerings that help with these issues.
“We have a lot of courses for dental care for people our age, hearing care and the brain for people our age,” Crego said.
Cathy Flood, president of the Institute for Learning in Retirement’s board of directors, said if someone manages to not find any courses this semester that appeal to them, they could talk to the institute’s leaders for suggestions for next semester. She said the institute is built upon listening to people’s suggestions and requests.
In 25 years, the institute has changed a lot and it’s still not done, Flood said.
“We’re evolving to the needs of the membership,” Flood said. “I think it’s improving things for everyone.”
For more information on the Institute for Learning in Retirement, visit its website at ilretirement.org.
