History
An Idea and a Plan
It all began in 2000 when Sharon O’Brien, then Assistant Dean for Off-Campus Sites for the College of Lifelong Learning (CLL) at Wayne State University, learned of an emerging trend in adult education:
Learning in Retirement Institutes (LRI). The idea, O’Brien said at the time, was older adults “may retire from their jobs, but they don’t want to retire from learning.”
The concept, as true today as it was three years later, launched what is now known as SOAR Lifelong Learning Institute.
O’Brien formed an advisory committee which included about a dozen interested volunteers from various Wayne State University departments and others from area agencies serving older adults. The committee designed “The Lifelong Learners” program in accordance with requirements and milestones established by Elderhostel Institute Network (now Roads Scholar) for Learning in Retirement Institutes (LRI) organizations.
In preparation for its first semester, the Steering Committee bantered about new names for the fledgling organization. “The Association of Lifelong Learners” was tried, as was “Organization of Lifelong Learners.” In the end the Society of Active Retirees, SOAR, was adopted as the official organizational name.
An Open House kicked off the inaugural semester, which began on October 14, 2003, and featured a roster of 23 classes. Among the most popular were “Labor Unions in the 21st Century,” taught by Douglas Fraser, former president of the United Auto Workers; Norma Goldman’s “Classical Mythology;” and Martin Herman’s “Experiencing Opera.”
The idea took root and membership to SOAR soared! In 2006, SOAR hired an office manager, and in 2008, Ralph Stromberg, at the time a SOAR member and a former Henry Ford Health hospital administrator, was hired as SOAR’s first executive director. At Wayne State University’s request, SOAR became an independent 501c3 organization in August 2011 with Sharon O’Brien serving as its first Board Chair. Then, in 2018, after a decade at the helm, Stromberg retired and Dionna Lloyd, who had been working as an administrator with the organization, was promoted to executive director.
Under Lloyd’s tenure, SOAR continued to grow. In addition to adding new programs and increasing numbers of Shared Interest Groups, SOAR moved into temporary quarters at Adat Shalom Synagogue. A few years later, in 2019, Lloyd and board president Susan Greenfield prepared to move the organization into permanent quarters at the Hawk Community Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan.
SOAR’s classroom at the Hawk Community Center seats 80 and features large screen televisions, microphones and speakers, and hearing loop technology.
What no one saw coming was the Covid-19 pandemic. Lloyd and her team, Ronda O’Neal and Lisa Hill, together with the board of directors, navigated the chaos of a shut-down and moved classes to an all-Zoom format. When, in December 2021, Lloyd stepped down from her position, the board of directors approved the interim services of Wendy Bice and Diane Henderson, as interim co-executive directors.
In spring 2022, SOAR returned to in-person classes and by summer the organization had not only updated SOAR’s administrative processes and registration systems, but retained Debra Yamstein, as its executive director.
On the eve of its 20th anniversary, SOAR has come full circle. When the board of directors approved the official name change from the Society of Active Retirees to SOAR Lifelong Learning Institute, little did they realize their vision for SOAR’s future harkened back to the vision of the original Steering Committee: a lifelong learning institute committed to its members and volunteers and dedicated to providing a year-round calendar of academic-style, non-credit classes and programs covering a wide range of topics; and promoting opportunities for SOAR members to connect to each other through conversation, explorations, and other social activities.