Kendal at Oberlin Blog

Jill Tvaroha, Kendal’s Wellness coordinator, provides residents with exercises and other tools to improve balance, maintain proper posture and prevent injuries.

Across town Jennifer Shults, a chiropractor and Oberlin College instructor, covers the same ground with college students in a class entitled “Body Re-Education and Functional Anatomy”

So Jill and Jennifer, who are friends, decided to team up.

Oberlin College students Mikaela de Lemos and Marika Mortimer-Lotke embarked on a 30-hour class project about the benefits of intergenerational learning. They visited Kendal at Oberlin’s Early Learning Center and interviewed both community residents and parents of the children. Here are their observations.

Whether it’s online or hard copy, fiction or non-poetry or prose, contemporary or classic, magazine or journal, Kendal residents are readers. 

One way to better understand our country’s future is to learn more about our past, and the state of Ohio is full of historic guideposts. 

Driving around the Buckeye state during the colorful fall foliage is a perfect time to explore, so let’s get started.

A year ago, Robin Lauren was busy moving out of her Chicago-area home and into Kendal at Oberlin. Now she’s busy buying books, highlighters and other school supplies.

After the death of her long-time husband, Lola is very lonely. When she rents an older cat over the Internet, her days gradually brighten and become meaningful. Lola and the Rent-a-Cat, written by Dutch writer Ceseli Josephus Jitta, is a children’s book that explores issues about grief and aging.

A few years ago, 99-year-old Doreetha Daniels received her associate’s degree in social sciences. Her goal was simple – she wanted to better herself.

At a recent creative non-fiction conference I attended, the organizer asked the 300 writers what kind of book they were writing or interested in writing. When “memoir” was mentioned, almost everyone’s hand went up.

“Once upon a time, fiction ruled the market. Today, however, nonfiction is just as heavily competitive – and memoir is a key corner of that genre,” writes Jack Smith in The Writer.

I like books and I like lists and I’m a baby boomer so I’ve got a bucket list, which is why this book got my attention: 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die by James Mustich.

Heading south on the main road leading into Oberlin, a historical marker greets you:

“Oberlin Town and College Founded 1833.

First to Welcome Male and Female Students of All Races.”

The city was considered a safe place for escaped slaves and home to many ardent abolitionists and women’s rights pioneers. As the gay rights movement got underway in the early 1970s, Oberlin College was in the forefront.