Keep the conversation going

If you had entered my 300-level sociology seminar two days ago, you would have seen a 86-year-old African American student talking about jazz. Good Dues Blues and Shoo Shoo Baby playing in the background, Luora was presenting her final research project on jazz music in front of the class and the professor.

Studying with diverse individuals has proved to be a highly valuable experience for me. And when I say diverse, I refer not only to the students' race, ethnicity, religion or political affiliation. I also refer to their age.

Mount Holyoke College runs a program (Frances Perkins program) for women of non-traditional age. Every woman over the age of 24 can earn an undergraduate degree on a full or part-time course schedule. Each year approximately 140 diverse and intellectually curious women enroll at Mount Holyoke as Frances Perkins scholars (FPs). And I was lucky enough to have Luora, the oldest African American FP student, in my sociology class Black Cultural Production and Consumption.

"Let me tell you mine experience," Luora started answering a classmate's question about the given jazz presentation. Everyone in the classroom beamed and listened attentively. We love her stories. We love it when she makes the abstract theories about, for example, black authentic identity, real for us.

Born in 1923, Luora is not only an active participant in our class discussions but also a carrier of her generation's worldview. In the classroom, she enables a discourse between at least three generations--her Civil Rights generation, our professor's Generation X and the students' Generation Y.

"Jazz is a conversation," she said in conclusion to her presentation. "It continues a tradition of communication." Undoubtedly, having her and other FP students in my academic program also continues a tradition of communication.