Gloria Hoffner

Science for Seniors is the winner of the 2013 National Mature Media Award of Merit!

This is my story -

When I was a little girl my dream was to be an astronaut. So in 7th grade I wrote to NASA to ask what I needed to study in high school and college to travel into space.

NASA sent me a form letter. It said study Latin and German, the language of scientific papers at the time, to study physics, math etc. Then as I reached the bottom on the page, in blue ink, handwritten, was a note that said, "Of course we do not accept women into the space program." It was 1967 and discrimination against women was legal and accepted.

So, I turned to my second love, science fiction, and decided I would be the next Jules Verne. I read and wrote stories constantly(asked my teachers, family and friends to read them) and planned my career. I met a science fiction writer in high school and applied to college. I realized that I needed a full time job as I worked towards a career in fiction, so I majored in journalism.

In college I fell in love with newspaper reporting and with my now husband. I graduated, began a career at a local paper and put aside my plans to write the next "2001". I earned a BA from Temple University.

I married, had two sons, earned a 25 year pin as a Girl Scout, and had a great life working at The Philadelphia Inquirer. For fun, I enjoyed reading science fiction and real science texts, especially astrophysics and quantum mechanics -I even attended a lecture by Brian Greene.

In the 1990s, my sons growing older and the paper offering 80 percent of the cost of graduate classes, I began studying towards my masters in astrophysics.

A few credits into my degree, I visited a career counselor who asked, "What do you want to do when you graduate?" Having reported on education I told her I thought I might like to teach science at an inner-city school. She replied, "Forget that. No one will ever hire a 50 year old starting teacher."

While I was thinking about this, the paper cancelled the grad credit program and the newspaper eventually went up for sale.

Meanwhile, a musician since seventh grade and music minor in college, I was playing baritone horn in a local community band and meeting activity directors at nursing homes. I started thinking I would like to change careers, took a part time job at a local nursing home one day a week to try it while still at the paper and enrolled in an online activity certification course.

In 2007 I left the paper and started Guitar with Gloria, my own business, solo, playing music at local nursing homes. In October of that year, I suggested a program on space rather than music to an activity director. That one hour space program was a hit! It was the launch of Science for Seniors.

Since then, I completed certification as both an activity director and consultant as well as certified dementia practitioner, won the first place NCCAP Best Practice Award for Science for Seniors, was hired to write a Science for Seniors monthly column for Creative Forecasting Magazine, an activity column for the website About.com and wrote my first book - Science for Seniors.

I joke that it took me 40 years from my plans to be an author and the published book, but really I never had a thought of a book during the 30 years I worked in the newspaper. And this book is real science - no fiction - the kind of science Jules Verne insisted be part of any true science fiction book.

I am a very blessed person. I have my faith, my family, and had the joy of two careers I love waking up to each morning!

I get so much pleasure doing Science with Seniors that recently when I was asked how many hours a week I work I replied, "Work?" because it feels more like having great fun and enjoying the excitement of learning every day!

I have taught Science for Senior sessions to activity and CTRS professionals in 22 states and Canada, in person, online and by webchat. To take an online science course visit: raronline.org

My hope is to share Science for Seniors lessons with as many people as possible, because science has proven we are never too old to learn, we never lose our sense of curiosity and research shows learning something new every day helps a brain at every age.

My one other wish - to meet that counselor who told me I was, "too old to be a teacher". Obviously, the Lord had another plan.

I hope you will write to me. I love hearing from readers who are using the book, I love giving science program ideas and I'm working on a new book on travel program ideas for activity and CTRS professionals!

Guitarwithgloria@yahoo.com