Best of CASE District V Award
 

Institution: Miami University

Title of entry: Miami University Grandparents College 2022

About this entry: As part of its overall engagement strategy, Miami University Alumni Association seeks to identify engagement opportunities for our older alumni, and we have been successful in providing educational, rewarding and unforgettable experiences to this cohort.

As we looked to identify opportunities for targeted alumni engagement, the idea of an intergenerational learning experience for both our oldest alumni and their grandchildren (ages 8-12) came to fruition. Grandparents College was born to offer alumni the opportunity to spend extended time on campus with their grandchildren, offering them the opportunity to come back and enjoy or “relive” their college experience while providing grandchildren their “first look” at Miami University as a possible college choice.

Participants were given the option to choose a “major” (Arts and Culture, STEM, or the Miami Plan), and each major group was led by staff “team leaders” for the duration of their time on campus. Grandparents and their grandchildren stayed in an on-campus residence hall, ate meals in an on-campus dining hall, and had classroom experiences led by faculty and staff in a variety of academic and recreational settings.

The program was born in 2018 and continued to grow in participants in 2019. Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic forced us to put the in-person component of Grandparents College on hiatus for two years (2020 and 2021), but we are thrilled to report that the return to in-person Grandparents College in 2022 showed a 75% increase in # of attendees, with the program selling out in a record five days.