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Wade has been around 66 years, “so I got a lot of background,” he says. He sure has a lot of experience. With his doctorate in psychology from West Virginia University, he initially thought he would go into academia full-time. However, he also had a minor in computer science and at the time that business was booming. Therefore, Wade opted to diversify and do both! Over the years he has harnessed his love of working with computing systems, specifically healthcare information systems, as a consultant while also teaching classes at various times at the University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and now at his local Brunswick Community College. Usually, he worked as an adjunct professor and he recently joined our GetSetUp team as a Guide in March.

“One of the problems with adjunct professors is there is no work in the summer. My dad will be 91 this year and I think I attribute his health to the fact that he never retired. My intention is to never retire, so I was looking for something to complement my community college teaching when I found GetSetUp. I wanted something I found interesting, rewarding, and challenging. At this age, it’s more about the mission than the money. I liked the mission about helping others feel better: to find a career via LinkedIn or have their virtual happy hour. It seemed very rewarding, and it has been.”

Currently, Wade is helping to teach other seniors like him about Zoom, Gmail, and How to Stay Calm during Stressful times. In addition, he’s adding new classes such as Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp to his roster. Plus he continues to teach classes at the community college, which went online with the pandemic. Thus he was a shoo-in to help train teachers in remote learning tools specific to the classroom.

According to him, his favorite class to teach is Zoom, “because so many different people are taking it for so many different reasons. There were two married couples in one of my classes. One of them wanted to have a virtual book club and one virtual meetings with their family. They were feeling cut off. They had been on Zoom calls before but never set one up. They figured out how to be the host and that was a lot of fun. I think that a lot of the students have used some of the tools, but really want to use them some more, especially during this time. Our classes give them capabilities. Seniors are not going to learn on Youtube; 70-year-olds aren’t comfortable with it. They want someone to teach them and I think that is a niche we are filling for that demographic.”

We want to give a special thanks to Wade for helping to teach a variety of our classes from maintaining strong mental health in difficult times to helping teachers adapt to remote learning. His patience, empathy, and support have helped students feel confident in new skills and abilities despite the difficulties they may be facing right now. We appreciate his hard work!