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At ������ɫ, 9-year-olds are shaking hands with anatomical skeletons, teens are holding cannonballs from the French and Indian War and older adults are learning about the evolution of jazz.

Though they may be less prominent than ������ɫ’s thousands of full-time students, area residents from age 8 to 80 also enjoy unique educational experiences on campus. Whether field trip or continuing education, one message remains clear through every opportunity: It’s never too early — or too late — to learn.

Fourth-grade field trips (from 8 …)

Tours bring the community to campus. While this often looks like groups of high school students and their parents exploring living areas and common spaces, some less-likely students (and their chaperones) visit as well: fourth-graders, often getting their first glimpses of advanced laboratories and other college-level resources.

“Nine- and 10-year-olds are old enough that it’s safe to have them in the lab — they’re not a danger to the lab equipment, and the lab equipment is not a danger to them,” says Rachel Coker, executive director of research advancement at ������ɫ. “They’re also young enough that they have some childlike curiosity and wonder, and they’re not afraid to ask questions.”

Since 2017, these field trips have provided local children with a chance to see the innovative work being done in their hometown. Coker first worked on this project as part of National Lab Day, when universities were encouraged to hold lab open houses. Soon, she started helping with tours at the Innovative Technologies Complex (ITC), mostly for adult visitors, such as elected officials and scientists from other institutions.

When one of her daughters was in fourth grade, though, inspiration struck. After her daughter came home disappointed that a yearly school trip had been discontinued, Coker remarked: “You should come see me at work.”

Since then, Coker has helped welcome hundreds of younger students to campus. The children who were in fourth grade that first year are now high school seniors, and this year, every elementary school in the Vestal Central School District visited.

“I want kids from this region to grow up and see themselves in science. For some, this is the beginning of their thinking about going to college. I’m a big believer in public higher education, in research and scholarship for everyone,” Coker says. “For me, curiosity is one of those bedrock, core things that can make a huge difference in your life.”

Tours take place around the main campus or at the ITC. Some spaces and faculty have been involved from the start — such as mechanical engineer Ronald Miles and the anechoic chamber. Miles’ team uses the state-of- the-art facility in the Engineering and Science Building to study acoustics and develop bio-inspired microphones.

Others have joined more recently, including the ������ɫ Art Museum and the new Anatomy and Physiology Lab. On a recent field trip, children took apart and pieced back together models used to teach nursing students about anatomy.

Christin Williams, a teacher at Tioga Hills Elementary who participated in those early fourth grade tours, says this is the first opportunity many participants have to see what’s available at the University.

“������ɫ is in our backyard,” she says. “And there are a lot of people who live here who have never even stepped foot on campus, so just getting the students and their chaperones onto the campus is such a big community builder.”

Coker likes to think that these tours give participants an “injection of wonder.” Not only do they introduce children to new topics, but they impact everyone involved, including guides and chaperones.

“For grad students who assist with the lab visits, it can be a way of reminding yourself of when you were a little kid, and you were dreaming of being in a space like this,” she adds. “It’s a reminder of how amazing these tools are, how amazing it is to know what you know about how something works at the most fundamental levels and be able to share that.”

Researchers who participate often include this type of public outreach in their grant applications. It’s also a great opportunity to practice science communication.

“Everybody is fantastic about bringing things down to the level of a 10-year-old,” Williams says. “Not only are they great at what they’re doing at the University, but they’re also great at making sure that our students walk out of there excited and understanding the material.”

After the trip, Williams emails parents with questions and prompts to continue the conversation. Students also write a thank-you note to the University, allowing them to reflect about their favorite parts of the experience.

“The excitement from the kids is what makes it all worth it,” Williams says. “I love that they’re excited before they get there, and that it lives up to it, which I think is always hard. And then we get back here, and they’re still excited. That emotion just keeps going. They want to learn more, know more, do more.”

Lyceum (… to 80 …)

On the other end of the spectrum are some individuals who may know quite well what’s available on campus. In fact, about a quarter are alumni. The Lyceum program, which began in 1988, was part of a movement to provide access to continued learning for people in retirement, says Rhonda Branca, MA ’03, PhD ’10, the program’s director.

“Study after study shows that the more education you have, the lower your risk for cognitive illness or general decline,” Branca adds. “Education doesn’t have to mean you’re getting a degree — it’s wonderful that we’re able to offer college-level programming for $8 a class. It’s open to people for whom that might not have been possible during their working lives.”

At first, the program offered only a handful of classes, but it has grown to about 120 classes held over a three-semester period, with about 400 members. Lyceum doesn’t have an age restriction, but many of the classes are geared toward older adults. During the academic year, classes run weekdays from 10 a.m.–noon, 1–3 p.m. and 6–8 p.m. Lyceum also hosts events on weekends or in special locales, such as trips, dinners, tours and performances. This year, the program will offer its first field trip since the pandemic; attendees will travel to Buffalo, N.Y.

Branca says participants’ willingness to adapt is just one reason for the program’s success. Not only does Lyceum have something for everyone, but the programming is outstanding.

“The University is such an asset to the region, and it is exciting for me to be able to utilize the faculty that we have, to teach on their areas of specialty to the community, for little cost,” she says. “Where else can you ask a Nobel Prize laureate questions, personally?”

Many of the courses are taught by experts in the field — faculty, alumni and graduate students at ������ɫ. High-profile guests have included M. Stanley Whittingham, ������ɫ’s Nobel Prize–winning chemist, and astronaut Doug Wheelock.

Lyceum differs from other models of senior programming. Many are affiliated with a university due to cost; the most common version is Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes, which are endowed programs. Lyceum, meanwhile, runs on membership and class fees. In this way, it can maintain itself while remaining one of the most affordable options available.

“If you are a community member and you are paying your $50-a-year membership fee, you’re getting a bargain. Most places are far more expensive, and their classes are more individual,” Branca says. “Our program is also entirely volunteer-run. Except for me and my two student staff workers, who rotate every year, everyone in this program is volunteering their time.”

Eileen Ozvold ’84 is a retired orthopedic nurse — and a Decker School of Nursing alumna — who participates in Lyceum as a student and as a volunteer. She came to ������ɫ to pursue her bachelor’s degree and started thinking about programming outside of traditional classes while her son was in the campus preschool. Her career took precedence, and it wasn’t until she retired in 2015 that she began to think again about lifelong learning.

“I had seen a lot of information about classes even before I retired,” Ozvold says. “When I did retire, I made a list of things that I wanted to do, and joining Lyceum was on that list. I believe that you can’t ever stop learning.”

Ozvold says Lyceum offers a welcome sense of community, with opportunities ranging from arts and crafts to music or drama, among many others.

“It’s nice to keep going, and to keep learning new things,” she says. “Otherwise, you get stagnant. These classes, to me, open up the whole world.”

PAF (… and everywhere in between)

Other opportunities on campus for learning outside traditional degree programs include the Public Archaeology Facility (PAF), which welcomes visitors both during fourth-grade field trips and Lyceum classes. The staff there also runs summer programming and year-round community outreach.

PAF, an organized research center, aims to identify, evaluate and preserve significant sites, train students to be professional archaeologists, and share its findings with the public.

Director Laurie Miroff, MA ’94, MAT ’95, PhD ’02, was inspired to follow archaeology when she was in middle school. It sounded appealingly like “doing history outdoors,” she recalls. Now, she designs programming to help today’s young people feel the same way.

“I love what I do,” Miroff says. “It’s a great way to teach STEM. Students can become disengaged, especially in middle school. That’s the key point at which they’re going to either continue or decide STEM is not for them. We can engage them, and they almost don’t know they’re doing STEM while they’re doing archaeology! A lot of the students like that. They aren’t sitting in school just learning for learning’s sake. They see applications, and they make connections back to their classroom.”

Established in 1972 to maintain national heritage sites, PAF often helps contractors comply with legislation, ensuring that cultural materials are not destroyed. The group’s recent work has included studies of 19th-century rural farmsteads, a French and Indian War battlefield and Haudenosaunee villages.

In 1996, the PAF and its previous director, Nina Versaggi, established the Community Archaeology Program (CAP), a summer program for kids, teens and adults.

“We started thinking: What does it take to allow non-professionals to do archaeology? This way, they’re doing it alongside professional archaeologists, with a lot more monitoring,” Miroff says. “They do everything that we do if they want to do it. It’s done carefully; it’s done the way it has to be done to preserve the archaeological record.”

Although the program doesn’t qualify participants as professionals, its goal is to involve people as much as possible with what the PAF does and why it’s important. It’s also a way for many to pursue a lifelong dream.

“This is certainly not a career path that everyone could have followed,” Miroff says. “For one reason or another, a lot of people didn’t go down that path. But they come to us, and they say: ‘I really love this. This is what I’ve always wanted to do.’”

PAF offers three summer experiences. Adults and teens work primarily in the field, with one day on campus learning about archaeology beforehand. The kids’ program takes place mainly on campus. Many participants love CAP so much that they return year after year; the program includes members of local school districts, retirees and students who are thinking about attending ������ɫ.

“Hopefully, they’ll get to college, and they’ll say: ‘Wait a minute, I’ve done some of that,’” Miroff says. “I think that anthropology is very valuable for any discipline that you go into. When we teach CAP, it’s introducing them to the field. We think what we’re learning about the past is interesting, and we want to share it.”

In whatever way it’s done, making knowledge available to all is a tenet for all members of campus. From inspiring the next generation to incorporating the community, there are no age limits to learning.

“I am an evangelist for research. I want people to be excited about the scholarly work that happens at ������ɫ,” Coker says. “I want people off-campus to see ������ɫ’s big, growing portfolio of research, to think of the University as a place where new knowledge is being created. There are so many ways we can do that.”