Students file into the 30-seat classroom in Secrest Wible, name tags clipped on their blouses and polos, carrying journals filled with notes and a few pens.
They settle into their seats chatting with one another and flipping to the empty pages in their notebooks. Their conversations pick up where they had left off in the last class or social gathering.
These students are lifelong learners. They aren't vying for top grades and a perfect GPA; they are retirees who view learning as an opportunity, not an obligation.
They’re TCU Silver Frogs.
Some are in their 50s, others well into their 70s and 80s. These aging Baby Boomers and GenXers are in their third act.
Although they are no longer in the workplace, many are still wanting social and intellectual stimulation that piques their curiosity and promotes interactions.
TCU launched Silver Frogs in 2015 after hearing from older adults searching for opportunities where they could pursue intellectual engagement.
TCU has long offered non-credit evening courses through its extended education program, but demand was building for a more structured and socially engaging experience.
“We had so many older adults tell us they wanted to keep learning but didn’t want to take classes at night,” said Julie Lovett, director of extended education.
“We started researching programs at other universities and held a luncheon with 60 older adults who had already been taking extended education classes at the time," she said. "We knew that if we wanted the program to be successful, we needed to engage with the people who would actually be part of the program.”
Silver Frogs smile and pose for their first day of classes for the Fall 2025 semester. (Photo courtesy of TCU Silver Frogs)
Silver Frogs smile and pose for their first day of classes for the Fall 2025 semester. (Photo courtesy of TCU Silver Frogs)
Silver Frogs smile and pose for their first day of classes for the Fall 2025 semester. (Photo courtesy of TCU Silver Frogs)
Silver Frogs smile and pose for their first day of classes for the Fall 2025 semester. (Photo courtesy of TCU Silver Frogs)
Silver Frogs smile and pose for their first day of classes for the Fall 2025 semester. (Photo courtesy of TCU Silver Frogs)
Silver Frogs smile and pose for their first day of classes for the Fall 2025 semester. (Photo courtesy of TCU Silver Frogs)
Silver Frogs smile and pose for their first day of classes for the Fall 2025 semester. (Photo courtesy of TCU Silver Frogs)
Silver Frogs smile and pose for their first day of classes for the Fall 2025 semester. (Photo courtesy of TCU Silver Frogs)
Over the past decade, Silver Frogs has grown into a thriving community of more than 800 members. Shaped by the interests of the learners themselves, the program has expanded to offer a mix of in-person and Zoom lectures, social gatherings, outreach events and shared interest groups. Courses take place on campus and inside retirement communities such as Trinity Terrace, Stevenson Oaks and The Stayton.
Even after a global pandemic disrupted the program, Silver Frogs adapted without losing its core value of social interactions.
“We had to pivot to Zoom with an older audience, and we weren’t confident at first that they could manage all the technology,” Lovett said.
“We trained our instructors, helped our members navigate Zoom, and even hosted social events online, like a holiday party where people wore their best festive attire. It was a big change, but many of our Silver Frogs told us that we were a lifeline during that time.”
Silver Frogs is open to anyone over the age of 50, not just TCU alumni or Fort Worth residents. The first Silver Frogs semester began with 160 students and 24 courses led by volunteer instructors who shared their expertise, passions and life stories.
What quickly became clear to Lovett and her team was that participants were not only drawn to the class curriculum, but the social interactions themselves.
“I think that when people leave their careers, a lot of times they expect to just relax," Lovett said. "But that’s usually a very short-lived experience, because then you have a whole chapter ahead of you after retirement."
“Programs like Silver Frogs give them an avenue to keep learning, to stay sharp, to ponder and to engage with people,” she said.
A comforting challenge
Randy Smith joined Silver Frogs in the fall of 2015, just months after the program began. His first class was on Adobe Lightroom, an early version of the digital photography software.
“I guess I spoke up enough in class and somebody said, ‘You can’t keep your mouth shut,’” Smith said. “They told me I ought to teach a class, so I did the next semester.”
A retired aerospace engineer and U.S. Air Force navigator turned amateur astronomer, Randy Smith has spent his life looking for problems to solve. At 77, he still speaks about airplanes and physics with the excitement of someone encountering them for the first time.
This curiosity began when Randy was a child. His father served as a bombardier on B-24s during World War II, and stories of warplanes and flight filled Randy’s childhood long before he ever set foot in a cockpit.
Randy joined the Air Force in 1971 and flew the F-4 Phantom, the reconnaissance version outfitted with cameras. After attending graduate school at UT Austin, Randy spent 30 years at Bell Helicopter, beginning in flight testing and later moving into project engineering. When he retired, he expected the freedom to be a relief.
Instead, he felt there was something missing.
The first Silver Frogs course he taught was “How Airplanes Fly: For the Airline Passenger,” a class aimed at demystifying turbulence, lift and aerodynamics for the everyday traveler.
“I love the interactions in the classroom,” he said. “I’ve talked to several faculty members at TCU and have told them how great it is to teach Silver Frogs. These students want to be here and want to learn. There’s no test and no administration. It’s the best teaching job you could have.”
A decade later, Smith is still creating courses. His personal goal is to develop one new class every year. This means learning things from scratch that most people, especially those his age, would never attempt.
“I literally taught myself orbital mechanics in a year,” Smith said. “I got the textbook from the Air Force Academy and worked through it. I watched YouTube videos, read books and worked through equations that computers would normally do instantly.”
“I didn’t need to understand it well enough to teach equations, but I needed to understand it well enough to explain what’s happening in simple terms,” he said.
Smith's classes span from “Astronomy 101” and “Intro to Digital Photography” to “Celestial Navigation” and “Breaking Enigma & Lorenz.”
“There are so many interesting things you wouldn’t think you’d care about,” he said. “At our stage in life, we’re not going to get another job. We don’t need to learn anything. Yet, it is interesting, and that is enough.”
He’s also served as chairman of the curriculum committee. Alongside a small volunteer team, he works through nearly 200 course proposals each semester and fits them into a carefully built schedule.
“What keeps me here is the challenge,” Smith said. “The challenge of organizing a class schedule, the challenge of building a class and the challenge of learning something I thought I’d never understand.”
Unexpected community
Siân Borne’s penchant for lifelong learning led her join Silver Frogs in 2017.
“I remember being excited about the possibility of learning things that I never had,” Borne said. “I was always one of those people who wanted to keep learning at 100 years old.”
“Silver Frogs offered me that environment where I could pick out classes and have something to do," she said. "I never imagined I would become so involved.”
Borne has served as advisory board president, a volunteer instructor and a staff member for the Silver Frogs newsletter, the Silver Streak. She also serves as chair of the Shared Interest Groups committee. Shared Interest Groups (SIGs) are member-driven gatherings that allow Silver Frogs to engage with others over shared hobbies and passions.
“It all comes down to where the community is built. The friendships and socialization — none of that really happens when you show up to class and leave,” Borne said. “It happens in the Shared Interest Groups."
SIGs range from pickleball and photography to a men’s breakfast club and a ladies' lunch.
When Borne founded the Women & Wine SIG, she originally imagined presentations, research and structured tastings. The women had other ideas.
“People said, ‘I’m not making a presentation,’” she said. “They told me that they didn’t care about the educational part.”
“They wanted to get together, enjoy wine and have a nice time," Borne said. "We probably still have 90% of the core members in that group because everybody loves getting together.”
What started as a post-retirement activity quickly became a community. Silver Frogs offered the sense of belonging she longed for as a child in Winchester, England.
“Ever since I was a little girl, I had always wanted to come to the United States for several reasons,” Borne said. “In high school, I had an exchange teacher from Chicago, and we thought she was just wonderful. She was the complete opposite of most British women at the time and that was fascinating.”
After graduating high school in 1973, she was ready to make the move to America.
Borne grew up in Winchester, England. (Photo courtesy of TCU Silver Frogs)
Borne grew up in Winchester, England. (Photo courtesy of TCU Silver Frogs)
A vintage postcard of Casa Manana. (Photo courtesy of Big Waters Trading Company)
A vintage postcard of Casa Manana. (Photo courtesy of Big Waters Trading Company)
A vintage postcard of Casa Manana. (Photo courtesy of Big Waters Trading Company)
A vintage postcard of Casa Manana. (Photo courtesy of Big Waters Trading Company)
New York was too cold, and Florida was the closest to England. That left her decision between Dallas or Fort Worth.
“I just so happened to have two postcards from Fort Worth that a neighbor had given me,” Borne said. “One of them was a 1959 postcard featuring the newly built Casa Manana. When it came to choosing one or the other, I chose Fort Worth because I had known of Casa Manana.”
She arrived in Fort Worth without knowing anyone and with no intention of staying. Fifty-three years later, Borne still calls Cowtown home and lives in the same house that dates back to 1928.
“My husband joined Silver Frogs in the fall of 2016. I remember when I retired in November of that year, I just thought, ‘What am I going to do with myself?’” Borne said. “I joined Silver Frogs and never looked back.”
“It’s funny because people always ask, ‘Oh, you're a TCU alum?’ No, I'm actually not,” she said. “But I’m a Silver Frog. This way I can now say I'm part of TCU.”
Led by curiosity
As a Silver Frog, Shawn Wagner has explored subjects she never imagined she would study.
She has taken courses on the Cullen Davis murder case, interactive history classes with Jack Crowder, classic rock & roll classes with Richard Selcer, bucket-list books and bat research happening on TCU’s campus.
“I once took a class on Albert Einstein and the Revolution in Physics with Bob Frey. I thought that sounded fascinating, so I signed up and struggled mightily,” she said. “I never took physics, not even in high school. But that’s what I love about Silver Frogs. It pushes you to think differently and rise to the challenge.”
Before joining Silver Frogs, Wagner had already been part of the Horned Frog family.
Wagner began at TCU in November 2002 as the director of events before becoming the business operations and facilities manager for the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine until retirement.
“When I retired, I realized that a lot of my circles of friends fell away, especially the work-based ones,” Wagner said. “Some relationships continue if they’re truly two-way, but others don’t. I was looking to rebuild the community around me, and I have found people here that are also seeking those meaningful relationships.”
Wagner now leads the “Paper Crafting” Shared Interest Group, co-leads “Art Quest” and serves on the Advisory Board.
“Part of what we do on the board is welcome every new Silver Frog,” she said. “Each new member is contacted by a board member asking if they have questions and inviting them to the opening event. It’s about forming that sense of community from the beginning.”
Wagner remembered a moment after one board meeting when a member of the men’s breakfast group expressed concern about a Silver Frog whose wife passed away three months earlier.
“He told the group he was worried about him and made sure they kept in touch," Wagner said. "This is not someone that they’ve known for their lifetime. It was someone that they’ve gotten to know in the last six months."
“They valued him enough to notice when something felt off," she said. "These moments are what make up the Silver Frogs community.”
Wagner said she hopes the compassion within Silver Frogs continues to expand across campus and the TCU community.
“We’re at a stage in life where we can bring richness to students’ lives,” she said. “Learning is a two-way street, and it can never be overvalued. Students can learn from us, just as we can learn from them.”
Stories carried on
Ken Sparks found Silver Frogs by accident.
“When we moved to Fort Worth, I got a brochure in the mail and thought Silver Frogs was a semester-long course,” he said. “I said, ‘been there and done that’ before I chunked it.”
A second brochure arrived a few weeks later. This time, Sparks slowed down long enough to realize the classes were ninety minutes to two and a half hours. That he could do.
“I attended the class on the Cullen Davis Murder trial and saw how people loved it,” he said. “Given my background, I thought I could do that.”
Before retirement, Sparks spent three decades in the district attorney’s office in Harris County as a prosecutor before being elected as the Colorado County District Attorney. His caseload included high-profile murder trials and complicated appeals.
Silver Frogs gave him a chance to revisit those stories in front of a classroom.
“I want my classes to be entertaining for the audience,” he said. “Silver Frogs classes are easier and more relaxed than the professional seminars I used to lead. There’s no tension or interrogation. People ask questions because they’re curious, not because they want to challenge you.”
One of his most popular courses is “I Promised a Hitman He Would Get the Death Penalty,” which details a Harris County case involving a hired killer charged with murdering a husband, wife and 14-month-old baby.
This spring, he is teaching “One Cattle Prod, Two Death Verdicts and a Killer Goes Free.”
One class in particular nudged Sparks toward a new project.
“The ‘Memoirs vs. Autobiographies’ class convinced me to write a book of short stories for my grandkids,” he said. “If you start an autobiography saying you were born on a certain date and weighed a certain number of pounds, your relatives will put it on a shelf, and it’ll gather dust for 50 years. Short, sweet and unique stories will grab their attention and get read.”
Silver Frogs has offered Sparks structure, a source of purpose, and a reason to keep learning.
“It’s been simply great,” he said. “You meet people, you learn things, you stay active and you get out of the house. That’s a good day in retirement.”
There’s more to Silver Frogs than the class catalog. The program offers members an opportunity to rediscover purpose, rebuild community and step into a new chapter of life with curiosity.
“Silver Frogs is a blessed organization,” Wagner said. “TCU provides incredible staff, and there are lovely volunteers who are deeply committed to making it better every year.”
The continued support has made Silver Frogs a place where a new phase of life begins.
“These are people who want meaningful relationships,” Wagner said. “They want to keep their brains engaged and make a difference in their community.”
To learn more about the program or join next semester, visit the TCU Extended Education: Silver Frogs website.
“You will find a community, because every Silver Frog finds their community,” Wagner said. “At the end of the day, people were not built to go through life alone.”
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