There are no grades, no attendance sheets and no final exams at New Frontiers for Lifelong Learning.
What its members do have is a fall catalog with more than 80 classes, along with hiking and bicycling groups, book discussions, outings, lunches, volunteer opportunities and plenty of chances to meet someone new.
For longtime member Allan Zisner, the group's president, that combination is the point.
“Just come and have a good time,” Zisner said. “No attendance is taken. There’s no test afterwards. Just have a good time. Share with your knowledge, what you know.”
New Frontiers, a peer-led organization with longtime ties to Mesa Community College, held an orientation for new members Sept. 25 at the college’s Red Mountain campus. The gathering offered a glimpse of an organization that mixes continuing education with recreation, volunteering and social connections for adults in the East Valley.
New members described arriving at New Frontiers by different paths, but repeatedly mentioned a desire to keep learning, meet people or remain active.
Connie Brown said she found the organization while searching for seminars and discovered a New Frontiers program on the Navajo Code Talkers.
“It was amazing,” she said. “But I’m just looking for learning situations.”
Those opportunities range widely.
The fall schedule includes about 83 classes, according to organizers, with subjects including history, textiles, personal finance, estate planning, travel and current affairs. Some are one-time programs while others run for several sessions. Classes are offered both in person and online.
There also are book groups, games, two levels of hiking, bicycling and a social calendar that can include tours, restaurant gatherings and other outings.
New Frontiers curriculum coordinator Suzanne Brown — no relation to Connie Brown — put the membership count at 173. Brown said that was about 20 ahead of the organization’s membership at the same point last year.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, membership had reached about 400, Zisner said. The organization lost about half its membership during the pandemic but quickly moved its programming online before gradually returning to in-person activities.
Jacki McDugle, a retired college instructor, joined New Frontiers shortly before that disruption.
After her husband died, McDugle and a friend followed through on an idea they had discussed about getting involved with the organization. They attended an open house in January 2020 and joined. Within months, the pandemic shut down in-person activities.
“I could not believe this group," she said. "They switched to Zoom overnight almost."
She stayed, eventually becoming heavily involved herself.
New members and leaders of New Frontiers for Lifelong Learning came together for an orientation on the Mesa Community College Red Mountain campus.
Independent Newsmedia/Tom Blodgett
For McDugle, New Frontiers offers some of the things she enjoyed about education during her career without the less appealing parts of teaching.
“We’re having fun,” she said. “I don’t have to grade any papers, no matter how many classes I facilitate. I don’t have a test to give. I don’t have any papers to take home.”
New member Ray Banks came to the Phoenix area in 1986 after previously living near London and in Chicago. His wife of about 38 years recently died.
Banks told the group he was happy to be there as members went around the room introducing themselves and explaining what had brought them to New Frontiers.
Other newcomers were looking ahead to a different stage of life.
Cynthia Ellsworth, a Mesa native, retired a couple of years ago after spending 45 years working at the same resort in the hospitality industry. She enjoys bicycling and traveling and learned about New Frontiers through friends.
“I’m enjoying my time off,” Ellsworth said.
Jennifer Denton brought another set of interests.
Denton grew up in New York’s Finger Lakes region and became a nurse before turning to travel nursing, which eventually brought her to Arizona. She told the group she is interested in history, nature and books and also has an interest in helping young people aging out of foster care.
Although retired from nursing, Denton said retirement has not exactly ended her professional role.
“I don’t consider myself retired because I seem to be a consultant for a lot of people,” she said.
Connie Brown is not retired at all.
Brown, originally from Florida, came to Arizona through her career with America West Airlines and now works in real estate. She and her husband adopted two daughters from China when they were in their 40s, and she still has children in college and graduate school.
Her schedule nevertheless gives her flexibility to explore New Frontiers.
“I really wanted to get involved with a group for lifelong learning,” Brown said.
She said she loves history and travel and is interested in trying the organization’s less strenuous hiking group, tours and other activities.
The mixture of education and social interaction is deliberate.
Zisner said classes can lead to conversations between people with similar interests and sometimes to friendships that continue after a session ends.
“You meet somebody, you start yacking together and you say, ‘Let’s go for lunch,’” he said. “And that’s part of it, meeting other people, getting out of your comfort zone a little bit.”
The social committee typically plans three activities a month, including a restaurant lunch, an informal “study hall” gathering and a tour or outing, social committee chair Joanne Handlong said at the orientation.
Allan Zisne speaks about the New Frontiers for Lifelong Learning program while, from left, Ray Banks, Gloria Bruce, Jacki McDugle, Carol Stantion and Merri Marx listen in.
Independent Newsmedia/Tom Blodgett
Members also can volunteer in the community. New Frontiers participants help with food distribution, volunteer at performing arts venues and support the Mesa Community College student food pantry. The organization’s holiday luncheon includes food donations, while proceeds from a raffle benefit United Food Bank.
New Frontiers also is undergoing a change of its own.
After more than 30 years associated with Mesa Community College, the organization recently incorporated separately as a nonprofit while maintaining its relationship with the college. Suzanne Brown said the change gives New Frontiers greater ability to develop partnerships and offer programs in additional locations.
“We still are good partners, but it allows us to grow and reach a higher potential,” she said.
The organization holds in-person programs at both Mesa Community College’s Red Mountain and Southern and Dobson campuses, seeking to make classes accessible to members from different parts of Mesa, Gilbert and elsewhere in the East Valley.
Membership costs $75 for 12 months, with additional semester enrollment fees. Brown said most programming carries no additional charge, although members may have to pay admission costs for certain outings or their own restaurant bills.
She described New Frontiers as serving people who continue living independently throughout the community rather than limiting their social and educational opportunities to those offered within a retirement development.
“We’re building community for those of us that are still living in the community,” Brown said.
And members themselves help determine what that community offers.
People can suggest classes, volunteer to lead them or join committees that handle curriculum, membership, communications and social activities. Zisner encouraged newcomers to first explore the organization and then decide how much — or how little — they want to become involved.
The essential requirement is curiosity.
As McDugle put it, New Frontiers can accommodate people whose interests range from recreation to navigating the challenges that come with growing older.
“If your focus is on having fun, we’ve got classes for that,” she said. “If you’re worried about aging, we’ve got classes for that. We just have a wide variety.”
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Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
New Frontiers for Lifelong Learning,
lifelong learning,
Mesa Community College,
Mesa seniors,
East Valley seniors,
adult education,
senior activities,
continuing education,
Red Mountain campus,
New Frontiers Mesa
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