Voices of York: YC-LLI Participants Barb Trout ‘84 and Lori Grove ‘11 Celebrate Lifelong Friendship and Volunteer Impact
This past year, York College launched its new Lifelong Learning Initiative, giving adults access to enriching opportunities to learn, connect, and volunteer intergenerationally. Among its many participants are two friends, Barb Trout ‘84 and Lori Grove ‘11, who sat down to talk about how their volunteering and involvement in the program have impacted them.
When York College of Pennsylvania launched its new Lifelong Learning Initiative (LLI) in May 2026, it aimed to provide lifelong learning opportunities, intergenerational engagement, service, and connection for its adult participants. As a result, many new LLI members have discovered partnerships with the College community that have expanded their learning experience and connected them with others.
Two of these members have found just that through their involvement with the program. Barb Trout ‘84 and Lori Grove ‘11, participants in LLI and volunteers on the LLI Curriculum Committee, have seen firsthand the impact the program is having on them and their peers.
And now, they have the chance to share the many ways LLI has impacted them and why they feel others should take advantage of this amazing opportunity.
A Family Friendship
Grove and Trout knew each other long before they connected through LLI. As they recall, their friendship began not from them running into each other, but with a chance meeting with their young daughters.
“The first way we met was when our daughters were in first grade together,” Trout said. “They were instant friends and still are, and that’s how we got to know each other and have been friends ever since.”
Since then, they have had over 30 years of friendship. Even when they lost touch for a short while, Grove and Trout reconnected through their mutual interest in York College’s LLI.
Both women are also connected by having lived in York, PA, for most of their lives and being proud York College alumni. Trout attended York College around the time the institution’s Nursing program received full accreditation and graduated in 1984. After 25 years, while working full-time and raising a family, Grove received her B.S. in Behavioral Science from York College in 2011.
And now, they have returned to the York College campus to take part in the new learning opportunities offered through the Lifelong Learning Initiative.
“I love it at York College,” Grove said. “I think it’s a great school and it has a lot to offer.”
Crafting a Lifelong Learning Path
LLI is open to all adults, and has found that many of the new participants it has attracted are retired individuals seeking further learning experiences and intergenerational connections. Ultimately, the program aims to foster this link across generations while also promoting service and learning that will excite and engage its members in their own learning and through others.
“It’s a way to connect with a bunch of people, have an opportunity to learn new things or learn about something you already know, and attend classes, so you have very high-level socialization everywhere we are,” Trout said. “You have classes and clubs and committees and all sorts of things. It’s really a whole lot of ways for a person to connect and have that education as well.”
“It’s just been great being able to take classes and not having the responsibility of going to work every day,” Grove said. “So many different ranges of classes with different interests, and I’ve just learned so much. And the tours and the community engagement have just been great. A lot of people who live alone are involved, and I think it’s a real lifeline for people to get out. It gives them a purpose to get out of the house and be around people, and it’s such a good thing, especially as we age.”
The program offers participants a wide range of classes and opportunities to expand their knowledge at a pace that suits them. These sessions have members who come as often as every day or week, or a few times a month or year.
“You can be as involved or not as you want,” Trout said. “As busy or not as you want. As committed or not as you want.”
For Trout, she is excited for the diverse classes and experiences she will take part in for the upcoming Fall Semester. These experiences include hearing the York Symphony's Maestro talk about the symphony and participating in healthy cooking and eating classes with a dietitian.
Ultimately, it is a program that allows participants to craft their own schedule and engage at a pace that works for them, with plentiful possibilities aligned with their interests.
“It’s so diverse, and so many types of things that I think it would be a challenge for somebody to see that entire catalog and not choose a class or not find something interesting,” said Trout.
Creating Connections Through Classes
Grove emphasized that the LLI's greatest appeal was its ability to connect with people through the program. For her, since her partner works during the day, leaving her with much time on her hands, the idea of meeting (and even reconnecting) with others through an engaging learning experience appealed to her greatly.
So far, she has taken classes on gardening and how to attract pollinators. She even took one on hearing aids because she wears them and wanted to learn more about them. Not only is she meeting new people, but she’s been having fun as a result.
“I’ve been able to connect with people,” Grove said. “Some people I haven’t seen [in a long time]. I recently connected with a friend from high school, whom I had just lost touch with. I just wanted to get out – I love learning new things, and it’s so diverse, all the different classes they have.”
Trout’s reasoning stemmed from her approaching retirement. Social by nature, she had wanted to know she had things to do before retiring. So when she found a newspaper article about lifelong learning years ago, she wrote it down as something to consider.
Since retiring, Trout has been involved in the York College Lifelong Learning Initiative and has invested in it.
“As I started connecting with Lifelong Learning, I learned more about it,” Trout said. “There’s a volunteer opportunity in Lifelong Learning for everyone. So you can be as involved as you want — we have anything from clerical to social to speaking programs — you name it. Lori and I happen to both be on the Curriculum Committee, so that’s a whole fun topic in itself.”
For both of them, being members of the Curriculum Committee has also allowed them to seek out and add new elements to the program, whether that be new instructors or course topics, or to take requests from current members. And as a result, they get to create further connections and discover new knowledge they would never have known otherwise.
“It’s just been fun learning and meeting with people,” Grove said.
“One of the things that was extremely impressive to me was the amazing resumes of these instructors,” said Trout. “We have college professors who are current professors or retired professors who offer their time and teach all sorts of classes. We have people who are experts in their field — you name the field, they are there.”
Value Across Generations
When asked about the value York College and LLI bring to their lives, Grove expressed that much of the work is done by volunteers, specifically people who are engaged and committed to making sessions happen and to reaching out to those with potential interest, supporting the College’s LLI staff.
“It’s just great to have this opportunity and to be reaching out to people because you never know where people are, the things they’re dealing with, and it’s just nice to be able to have something positive to be engaged with,” Grove said.
Trout felt the same way about how fulfilling it is, thanks to the efforts of the staff running the events. It’s not just three paid employees, but a multitude of volunteers.
“This is giantly fueled by volunteers — people within the program who choose to step up and do a big job, a small job, a one-time job, a long-term job, and you can choose to do whatever you want — you don’t have to do anything,” Trout said. “But that’s another way to make it more valuable to me.”
She loves meeting the new people they recruit and improving upon what they don’t already know; it is rare for a person to walk out of a class and say they learned nothing.
It resonates deeply with why they both love being members of LLI: the ability to connect and socialize with others through activities that broaden their horizons and even introduce new interests into classes, clubs, and tours.
“I love learning things, and LLI makes it easy for us to have opportunities to learn new things,” Grove said.
It is even an experience to promote intergenerational learning. It can connect LLI participants to current students/classes taught by professors serving as instructors.
For example, Trout took a course on creativity with a York College professor and his students. They were in small groups for part of the class and got to know each other well as a result.
After the experience, the students remember the LLI participants whenever they encounter them on campus. From then on, they became part of a new series of connections with people they didn’t expect to meet on campus.
As for Grove, she also participated in a course led by a York College professor who was leading another project for his students. Together, they completed an exercise that involved creating a picture by everyone taking turns passing around a piece of paper and everyone adding their own details. At the end of the exercise, everyone received a copy of the final picture.
“It just was great being around the younger people because they are our future, and I think we have so much to learn from them,” Grove said. “And hopefully, they learn from us.
Evolving into a Greater Family
When it comes to exploring how they would like to see LLI grow and evolve, Trout and Grove believe it centers around bringing more participants into the program.
They have worked to spread the word about the new program at York College, from postcards to interviews, but they still find new people just learning about LLI and the amazing opportunities it offers.
“I think the more people we can bring in…the more diverse people [and] diverse topics [we can add to the program],” Trout said. “Someone can suggest a topic that might not be something we’ve ever thought of or a place to go that we haven’t been to. So to me, to keep growing and growing and giving anyone who wants more opportunities to expand their world, their education, their social life, that’s their goal.”
Trout can’t say enough about the people here who have shown their engagement and support, and offered whatever they could. A few had even come to curriculum meetings simply to offer support.
Even during close ventures such as campus tours, LLI members have found dozens of York College community members who have stopped to introduce themselves, ranging from students and faculty to even board members.
Ultimately, it has led to those in the LLI feeling welcomed wherever they are on campus.
“It’s a very warm, welcoming environment,” Trout said. “So to me, York College is part of that because it’s a big enough school but small enough that there is still that personalization part.”
“Our staff has done an amazing job really getting us connected to different areas and different departments,” said Trout.
Every single member has felt that their interactions have been nothing but welcoming and inviting. To them, it feels partly due to the campus and its mission to make it just that, all while fostering a larger community and a smaller “family.”
The LLI Team’s goal was to make the recruitment and engagement process as seamless as possible. That way, every member truly feels like they are part of the school. And Trout and Grove cannot wait to continue sharing that experience with as many incoming members as possible.
