Last year, former Oberlin Intergroup Dialogue Coordinator AJ Johnson and Tina Graf, Kendal at Oberlin resident, OC ’74, collaborated to create a program called IntergenConnect! that matches first-years at Oberlin College with residents of Kendal, the local retirement community. IntergenConnect! bridges the gap between young adults and older generations, aiming to foster friendships over shared interests. The program is currently seeking its next first-year cohort for the 2025-26 school year. 

“[The program is] just meant to be social and connecting without an agenda,” Graf said. “It’s not political; it’s not anything. It’s really just to say: we are human beings, and we could really enjoy each other if we knew about each other, you know?” 

Johnson and Graf met when Johnson was gathering testimonials from people in the community who had done dialogue work in the past. Graf and Johnson struck up a bond, alongside Ann Francis, another Kendal resident and an activist, who Johnson met last year while facilitating discussions about anti-trans legislation passed in Ohio. Other Kendal residents joined the planning group too, including Bill Long and Nancy Garver. 

After getting to know each other in May 2024, Johnson and Graf met up again in July 2024, this time with Ann Francis, to brainstorm how they would create a program where Oberlin first-years could connect with Kendal residents. 

“Once I knew Ann and Tina, that was when I felt like I had enough connections to build out the idea,” Johnson said. “Because I’d been thinking about IntergenConnect! ever since I started at Oberlin, but I didn’t want to do it on my own. And somehow meeting Tina felt like kind of the perfect time to get going.”

Graf, a second-generation Kendal resident, was inspired by her career as an organizational development and change consultant to foster more intergenerational connections. While working for the Quaker United Nations Office, Graf’s encounter with an Oberlin graduate moved her to work with other young people. 

Alongside the Kendal residents, three students were part of the planning committee last year:  The Oberlin Review News Editor Swaranya Sarkar, Laura Sanchez, and Tommy Chen. Decision-making about IntergenConnect! within the planning committee had to be unanimous so that everyone would be excited about the future of the program.

“I think what the core of this program is is just having a safe, comfortable, warm environment to have some conversations — just like you maybe have with your grandparents, with your parents at home,” Chen, a College second-year, said. 

In November 2024, the committee sent out a survey to first-years at Oberlin asking whether they would be interested in participating in an intergenerational dialogue program, and 19 students responded with interest.

“We wanted to do something meaningful between generations,” Graf said. “It’s very gratifying in this current political situation to have this little gem of an effort, which is connecting people, and they’re finding each other and finding all kinds of things that they have in common.” 

The first IntergenConnect! event was held last November in the Multicultural Resource Commons lounge. Ten Oberlin students and 10 Kendal residents were split into groups, where they asked each other icebreaker questions. At the end of the meeting, everyone supported the decision to continue the meetings. The next organized events took place on Feb. 21 and April 27. Students and residents struck up bonds in the meantime and started to spend time together outside of IntergenConnect! — baking cookies, sharing meals, and learning about one another.

“We have different talents, and if we could be corralled around … a shared focus or purpose, it could be awesome,” Graf said. “We could really learn from each other and have a great time with each other.” 

At the Connections Fair this semester, 51 students signed up for the IntergenConnect! mailing list. While the program currently targets first-year students with the goal of providing them an opportunity to build connections at Kendal over their entire college experience, the committee is brainstorming events open to other class years, too. The application for the second IntergenConnect! Cohort opened Sept. 17. Kendal will hold an open house in November, and a reunion dinner will be held this February for the first IntergenConnect! cohort.