Best of CASE District V Award
 

Institution: Miami University

Title of entry: Miami University Grandparents College

About this entry: As part of its overall engagement strategy, Miami University Alumni Association seeks to identify engagement opportunities for our older alumni. Our goal is to offer enriching experiences to enhance lifelong education, while strengthening alumni connections with Miami University.

As we looked to identify a new opportunity for targeted alumni engagement, the idea of an intergenerational learning experience for both alumni and their grandchildren (ages 8-12) came to fruition. The idea of 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 their grandchildren their “first look” at Miami University as a possible college choice.

Participants/families 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. Families stayed in an on-campus residence hall, ate meals in an on-campus dining hall, and had classroom experiences led by Miami faculty and staff in a variety of academic and recreational settings, and enjoyed entertainment offerings.

The program was born in 2018 and has continued to grow in participants. We now maintain a waitlist and have capped the number of participants to 175 (from 35 in our first year). In 2025, the program grew 408% in number from our original program and sold out in a matter of hours.