COVID-19 hasn't stopped students at Rice's Glasscock School of Continuing Studies from continuing their lifelong-learning journeys, including a centenarian who has taken courses almost every semester for a decade.
In March 2020, the Glasscock School responded to the pandemic by pivoting its Community Learning and Engagement courses to online delivery in just two weeks after more than 40 years of offering fully in-person classes to the Houston community. The transition was enabled by the willingness of hundreds of students to embrace the new format.
Among the courses was Midweek Medley , an interdisciplinary lecture series featuring celebrated Rice faculty and other Houston experts on various topics. The series serves residents from eight Houston-area retirement communities and is also open to the public.
One of the series’ most loyal students, 101-year-old Eugene Loveland, has been attending since the fall of 2012, when he served as a resident adviser for the program. During the pandemic, he and several other residents of The Hallmark retirement community where the series was originally piloted continued to participate in the online version of the course with the help of Hallmark staff.
One of Loveland’s favorite fall Midweek Medley lectures was A Tale of Two Cities: Art, Culture and History of London and Paris by Leo Costello, associate professor of art history at Rice; Loveland lived in both cities as a child. The series has also included topics such as Houston history, evolution, the history of travel and the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet.
Believed to be Rice’s most senior student at 101 years old, Loveland sustained his passion for learning through the virtual classes, but he missed the in-person connections with faculty.
“Debra Dickinson — that’s my girl,” he said about the Shepherd School of Music artist teacher of opera studies, who taught the fall 2021 Midweek Medley lecture Fantastical Broadway. “Best thing to happen to (Rice).”
When not attending class, Loveland, a former Shell executive who has lived in several countries and had brushes with celebrities such as Charles Lindbergh and Leonard Bernstein over the years — including sharing a boarding school classroom with the late Prince Philip — plays an active role in selecting and organizing extracurricular activities at The Hallmark. When the community’s physical education teacher wasn’t able to teach balance classes amid the pandemic, Loveland took up the mantle. He’s also led Sadie Hawkins dances and putting tournaments for years, the latter of which he's won 10 times.
“I’m a true jock,” he joked. “I’m always busy.”
Loveland eagerly awaits the on-campus return of Midweek Medley this spring in the Anderson-Clarke Center's Hudspeth Auditorium. “We miss the auditorium,” he said. “It’s so beautiful.”
“I give so much credit to our students — including those in their 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond — for embracing new ways of learning and connecting during the pandemic," said Cathy Maris, assistant dean of community learning and engagement and adjunct professor at the Glasscock School. "It has never been clearer that our ability to survive and thrive depends on learning for life.”
Find out more about Continuing Studies’ Community Learning and Engagement in person and virtual programs at https://glasscock.rice.edu/community .