In May 2022, a team of 14 residents and team members at Garden Spot Village started a journey together. The path forward was a little unclear and at times they wandered and wondered where their next steps might take them. They were participants in a pilot project—the Wisdom Course.
A SLOW HUNCH
Garden Spot Communities CEO Steve Lindsey explains the slow hunch that initiated the Wisdom Course. “A lot of important ideas have long incubation periods. Over time, fragments of an idea come together to create something meaningful. The Wisdom Course is a great example,” Steve says.
He continues, “For several years, when I would have conversations with people, they would say, ‘Nobody ever listens to me. Nobody wants to know what I have to say.’ And I would ask them, ‘If somebody asked you, what would you have to say? What would you tell them?’ The response was often, ‘Well, I don’t know. Nobody wants to hear it anyway.’ We wanted to explore that idea: if we have that moment when somebody really wants to know what we have to say about life in general, what would we have to say?”
Over the years, Garden Spot Village leadership moved forward with a Wisdom Course and then hit pause because one or more aspects of the project just didn’t fall into place.
A SERENDIPITOUS CONVERSATION
In late 2021, Steve and Scott Miller, chief marketing officer, met with Dr. Conrad Kanagy, a sociology professor at Elizabethtown College, about an unrelated project.
Steve says, “As we were talking, we realized that we were kind of kindred spirits in this journey together. Dr. Kanagy, with his background, his experience and his education as a sociologist, brought expertise in writing curriculum and an audience with whom we could share our wisdom. Garden Spot Village brought people interested in learning how to harvest the wisdom of their lives.”
After a series of conversations in which the idea for the class became a little more defined, Scott and Steve began to reach out to residents and team members they thought might be interested in joining the
pilot class.
Evie Hershey, a Garden Spot Village resident since August 2019, was one of the residents invited to participate. Evie says, “I completed my college degree when I was in my forties and I love learning. The Wisdom Course sounded like an exciting adventure. And it was. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I really enjoyed writing about experiences in my life.”
Through a series of monthly sessions from May 2022 through February 2023, participants reflected on and wrote about their life experiences from a variety of perspectives. Dr. Kanagy challenged them to think about the world they were “dropped into.” What was the cultural context? What was the religious context? What was happening in the world at that time? How did the context and world events shape their childhood, adolescent and adult experiences? What were defining moments that shaped their
worldview and choices? What would they do differently?
Participants answered all of these questions by writing their life story. The writing was peer reviewed for content; Dr. Kanagy also gave feedback. Some participants embraced the writing—Jeanne Jensma, a Garden Spot Village resident since June 2020, wrote and published a book during the course. Others initially resisted writing, but found, once they started, they could not stop.
The reflection and writing prepared the participants to meet Dr. Kanagy’s first semester college students in October. Dr. Kanagy says, “My students learned the facts of the residents’ lives—their work life, their family life, their religious life. It was not the social facts, though, that impacted them. They were impacted
by how the residents described what they learned from those experiences. It was within that context that relationships were built.”
“I think one of the advantages of this process was that residents were able to become comfortable talking about their story and what they had learned before they met the students,” Dr. Kanagy continues. “One of the greatest impacts for the students from the relationships, the stories they heard and wisdom shared, was a lowering of anxiety. This is a very anxious generation. Anxiety, depression and other mental health challenges are extremely high across the country. But what they heard was the assurance that things will be okay, that they will find the resources they need from others, from within themselves, from God, to get
through the next steps.”
Dr. Kanagy says, “As I listened to that last interaction between the residents and the students, I was so impressed with how many of the residents talked about the value of faith and spirituality, particularly
Christian faith, in their lives, and were able to talk to my students in a way that was really free because it was just part of their story.”
NEXT STEPS
The third group of Wisdom Course participants started their journey in May 2024, with cohorts meeting at Garden Spot Village and Frederick Living. The groups met monthly through the summer, processing their life experiences and gleaning wisdom in anticipation of meeting a new set of first-semester college
students at Elizabethtown College and Ursinus College in late-August.
Scott and Chaplain Karyn Nancarvis co-lead the classes, made up of residents and team members who desire to build relationships and share their wisdom with the next generation.
To learn more about how you can bring the Wisdom Course to your community, contact us.