Road Scholar combines exploration of world, mind

While many retirees spend a few months in Florida or Arizona to escape the winter weather, Marcia Zientek of Wisconsin decided to embark on the learning adventure she had always dreamed about. She packed up her suitcases and joined Road Scholar for a nearly 2½-month journey throughout Central and South America.

Zientek's adventure was part of Road Scholar World Academy, an intensive educational program that leads participants through 10 countries over the course of 10 weeks. Road Scholar is the program name of Elderhostel, the nonprofit leader in lifelong learning.

While on board the mv Discovery, Zientek and her fellow lifelong learners sailed to the island of Barbados, proceeding to French Guiana, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela. Participants left the ship for on-land field trips led by local experts.

Though Zientek's energy and enthusiasm for exploring Central and South America encouraged her to embark on the entirety of this World Academy program, other Road Scholar participants chose to attend semesters or shorter legs of the program that visited regions they found to be of particular interest.

Road Scholar offers semesters for all of its World Academy programming, including the next learning adventure, "Road Scholar World Academy 2012: Exploring Asia-Pacific." In this intensive program, lifelong learners can look forward to immersing themselves in the ancient and modern wonders of China, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and Myanmar.

Road Scholar programs bring together instructors and participants from diverse backgrounds to foster dynamic interaction, engaging discourse and warm camaraderie.

Elderhostel was founded by two unlikely collaborators: Marty Knowlton, a world-traveling, free-spirited social activist and former educator, and David Bianco, a highly organized university administrator.

In the early '70s, Knowlton embarked on a four-year walking tour of Europe, carrying only a backpack of bare essentials and staying in youth hostels. He was impressed by the youth hostel concept, with its safe, inexpensive lodgings and opportunities to meet fellow travelers.

Knowlton was also taken with institutions in Scandinavia, called folk schools. There, he saw older adults handing down age-old traditions -- folk art, music, lore and dance -- to younger generations.

Seeing Europeans in their 60s, 70s and 80s playing an active and positive role in their communities made Knowlton wonder why their American counterparts didn't have a similar opportunity to remain active after retirement. And, why not give them continued opportunities to learn as well?

Back in the U.S., Knowlton shared stories of his travels with Bianco, then director of residential life at the University of New Hampshire. Bianco, after hearing about Knowlton's experiences, said, in a burst of enthusiasm, "This campus ought not to be having a youth hostel, it ought to be having an elder hostel."

The name was born, and a learning program was conceived that combined stimulating, not-for-credit classes on a wide variety of subjects with comfortable, inexpensive lodgings.

In the summer of 1975, five colleges and universities in New Hampshire offered the first Elderhostel programs to 220 "pioneer" participants. In 1980, based almost entirely on word-of-mouth promotion, more than 20,000 participated in programs in all 50 states and most Canadian provinces. Riding this growing wave of enthusiasm, Elderhostel offered its first international programs in 1981 in Mexico, Great Britain, and Scandinavia. These first international programs were a breakthrough for Elderhostel. Combining education with travel to foster experiential learning, they afforded participants the opportunity to discover the people, culture, environment and history of the countries visited through in-depth lectures, course-related field trips and cultural excursions .

Today, Elderhostel has evolved as an organization, and so have its programs and participants. In June 2010, Elderhostel launched the new program name "Road Scholar" for its enormous and varied roster of lifelong learning adventures. The name reflects the organization's focus on creating explorations of the mind and of the world, and moves beyond outdated connotations of "elder" and "hostel."

The "hostel" lodging of more than 30 years ago has given way to today's comfortable hotels, inns and other more luxurious yet affordable accommodations. At the heart of today's organization are the participants, who are lifelong learners engaged in programs .

Visit www.roadscholar.org for more information. Road Scholar is part of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' programs for older adults under the Division of Education Outreach's Office of Continuing Education. For information, call 895-3394.