WELLESLEY TOWNSMAN

North Hill program connects today’s students to residents’ pasts

Staff reports
North Hill resident Roger Perry chats with students at North Hill’s Living Wisdom program.

Forty years ago, how could a company conduct business without computers and other high-end technology?

What was it like to be a girl growing up 50 years ago? 

What was considered a good salary for an executive in the 1980s?

Recently students from Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering and Babson College sat down with residents from North Hill in Needham to learn about each other — and times past.

North Hill’s new Living Wisdom Program is allowing seniors to share their experiences and wisdom with the next generation. This intergenerational program was developed with the realization that North Hill residents, with their diverse backgrounds and unique life experiences, are living history.  Living Wisdom encourages the sharing of stories and life lessons among students and seniors who grew up in vastly different times.

The 12 participating students visited North Hill with two of their professors.  The students were divided into smaller teams and each team was paired with a resident.  Discussion questions were handed out as guides; however many of the conversations followed their own natural course.

North Hill resident George Rockwell, former president of State Street Bank, is delighted with the program.  “My students wanted to know how business worked ‘way back then.’ How have things changed over the years; what’s stayed the same? I believe the North Hill residents who participated got as much out of the exercise as the students.  It was good to be asked about our lives and to share our experiences.  I believe we all learned from the students as well.”

Residents were invited to share stories, not only about business, but about any challenges they may have faced in life.  They talked about their accomplishments and they described the world in which they grew up.  Residents were also invited to consider the legacies they wish to leave.  Answers were pulled from the participants’ professional, spiritual and personal lives.  Students left the discussions not only with information of how a past generation grew up and lived, but also — for some — useful life advice.

Former textile industry executive Roger Perry commented that he “loves the program. Students have textbook knowledge about the past, but talking to people who had lived that history gave them a truer picture of bygone times.   Even an undertaking like networking, which is so prevalent in today’s business world — was different 30 or 40 years ago.”

For some students, sitting down with their own parents or grandparents to talk about their life experience is not as comfortable as chatting with a North Hill resident who invites them to the conversation.

North Hill hopes that this program will bridge the gap between the older and younger generations.  Living Wisdom is an attempt to share and learn about different ways of growing up and living, but also an effort to show that the core wisdoms that society lives by actually span generations.

Living Wisdom is one of many programs that North Hill has developed with Babson College and the North Hill community looks forward to expanding its relationship with local college students even further.

North Hill is located at 865 Central Ave, Needham, MA 02492, 781-444-9910, www.northill.org.