Published May 01. 2026 11:29AM<\/p>\n
What happens when you bring senior citizens and college students together?<\/p>\n
You get paper. At least, that\u2019s what happened in an art studio at Cedar Crest College recently.<\/p>\n
Gen Z college students coached baby boomers through every step of a process that yielded completely original cards, posters and journals.<\/p>\n
The class was one of 23 offerings of the Institute for Learning in Retirement offered in March and April on the Cedar Crest College campus.<\/p>\n
Other course offerings ranged from astronomy to vaccines, including classes on Shakespeare, film, AI and Qijong.<\/p>\n
The papermaking class was a new offering.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved it,\u201d Sheila Grove who is taking six classes this spring said. \u201cTo be able to be creative and work with young people is great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Janet Seggern could not have agreed more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had more fun than I could have imagined,\u201d she said. \u201cInteracting with students is really nice and I learned to make paper.\u201d<\/p>\n
The college students also enjoyed the experience.<\/p>\n
It brought back memories for sophomore Kayla Morales.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was little, I used to go to an assisted living home with my grandma, so I loved it,\u201d the nursing student said.<\/p>\n
Jordan Zeigler was surprised at how rewarding teaching others could be.<\/p>\n
Though she never considered teaching youngsters, she found working with adults enjoyable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very fun and engaging,\u201d she said, at the end of the three-week class.<\/p>\n
Ziegler, an art major, has been constructing books since she was a youngster.<\/p>\n
Both Morales and Ziegler were well acquainted with the process of papermaking and the resources available in the studio.<\/p>\n
Papermaking can be traced to the imperial court of China nearly 2,000 years ago when mulberry and other fibers were mixed with old rags and hemp waste.<\/p>\n
In 793, the Islamic culture introduced papermaking to Europe.<\/p>\n
The class was offered by Professor Jill Odegaard, who chairs the art department at Cedar Crest College.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really believe in community engagement,\u201d Odegaard said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to bring community engagement into the studios and papermaking was the perfect studio.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIntergenerational [collaborations] are so powerful,\u201d she continued. \u201cEveryone develops a newfound respect for the other group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Odegaard has worked with a number of organizations including the Autism Society of the Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n
Their final projects were on display in the lobby at Alumnae Hall in celebration of Autism Awareness Month and Earth Day.<\/p>\n
New Tripoli resident Janet Seggern makes the trip to Cedar Crest College for the papermaking class which had a three-week run.<\/p>\n
In addition to papermaking, Professor Jill Odegaard teaches sculpture, book arts, 2D design and community engagement at Cedar Crest College.<\/p>\n
Art major Jordan Zeigler and nursing student Kayla Morales team up to assist Institute for Learning in Retirement students in papermaking.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTOS BY ANNA GILGOFFSheila Grove transfers a screen holding the pulp to a drying station.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published May 01. 2026 11:29AM What happens when you bring senior citizens and college students together? You get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-181451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}