Campus of Life
The Campus of Life (COL) is a pioneering community of learners. It offers a unique environment for an intergenerational community to grow, build, and create together.
Our program is driven by the “growth mindset” model which fosters a creative, continuous, and affirmative approach to learning, built on the assumption that an ever-growing mind creates a happy life, at any age.
Students take classes for a variety of reasons: to learn something new, to have fun, to receive credits towards a degree, to earn CEUs, and more. And all Campus of Life learners are working to build a community of good, rooted in shared values and a common commitment to making positive change in the world.
The Campus of Life program is facilitated and inspired by the growth mindset philosophy of our Dean, Dr. Ilana De Laney. Dean De Laney is a nationally respected figure in experiential education and innovative curriculum development. Many of our courses are in partnership with local schools, universities, businesses, and nonprofit organizations.
The experiential offerings continue to evolve based upon the guidance and input of the Campus of Life Program and Curriculum Committee.
Customized and individualized learning offerings are also available.
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Intellectual Life
The Campus of Life program is facilitated and inspired by the growth mindset philosophy that an ever-growing mind creates a happy life. Creative, continuous, and affirmative, this approach to life fosters a stimulating environment that cultivates intellectual engagement, drives newfound motivation, and helps people achieve their unlimited potential in a supportive and stimulating environment.
Health and Wellness
From fitness programs and recreational amenities to hiking and nutrition courses, Campus of Life has centered physical vitality and wellness at the heart of our program. The emphasis on wellness cultivates balance, strength and inspiration in the members of our community.
Arts and Entertainment
Whether you’re a foodie or chef, audience or artist, teacher or student, nourishing the creative soul is at the heart of Campus of Life. Our courses of study, community collaborations, guest lectures, or easy access to the multitude of San Diego’s cultural events, offer a platform to create, experience, innovate, and live life to its fullest.
Community Vision
Campus of Life’s pioneering approach to an ever-growing mind is designed to foster a unique environment where millennials, families and boomers can grow, build, and create together. COL’s vision is a supportive community that is civically engaged, socially responsible, intellectually curious, interested in a thoughtful and purposeful life, and dedicated to bettering the world and each other.
Discover More
Take the road less travelled. Do more of what makes you awesome. Carpe Diem. Don’t give up. Believe in the beauty of your dreams. It’s never too late.
Live a big idea.
The Campus of Life is a place of discovery, in which big ideas drive living, learning, and growing. Totally unique and truly dynamic, located in one of the most naturally beautiful cities in the world, COL is the only community in the country that is education-oriented but not age-restricted. Everyone is welcome at COL – there are no requirements other than committing to “live a big idea.” The possibilities are endless… the adventure awaits.
Story.
The Campus of Life is the collaborative effort of local visionaries and community leaders in San Diego who had the goal of bringing education to life and creating a real-world community where neighbors take care of each other and grow together.
Over the course of 25 years, innovators and community leaders including Peter Chortek, Morrie Steiman, Richard Gabriel, Colin Seid, Barry Galgut, Salomon Gorshtein, Rabbi Yonah Fradkin (founder Chabad San Diego County), Alan Saloner, Craig Saloner (founders of the Station Co-Lab), and Milton Sorokin, among numerous others, pursued a dream to create an intergenerational community of good. They envisioned a way of living and growing, with timeless values and modern interests, that is supportive, committed to personal growth and development, civically engaged, socially responsible and dedicated to bettering the world and each other. As long-time San Diegans, the group set out to tackle three wide-ranging yet interwoven issues impacting quality of life and the social fabric in the region:
Community. Education. Family.
- Cohesion for a spread-out city with limited neighborly interaction and civic engagement
- Mentorship for young people to develop their dreams and reach their potential
- Connection between young families, new to the area, and seniors living alone.
In 1977, the group began by funding a nonprofit dormitory combined with mentoring and educational support for college students and the indigent. Over the next decades, this was followed by support for experiential education, summer camps and continuing education. In 1998, the vision for a residential learning community was developed as a legacy for this great city. Starting in 2008, Craig Saloner, Josef Fradkin and their educational team researched and refined the intersection between living and learning, personal development and community, leading to the purchase of 10 acres from the Chabad Hebrew Academy to create an idyllic, permanent setting for innovation at the Campus of Life. Craig simultaneously opened the Station Co-Lab, an innovative institute where ancient wisdom and modern performance science combine.
Today, the Campus of Life is bringing together a cutting-edge program under its highly regarded Dean, Dr. Ilana De Laney, committed to developing a new approach in pursuing one's personal growth goals while learning with innovative support.
