Confidence comes with age for ‘old’ graduand

Geography graduand Geoff Rose will tell you that he is easy to spot in class. He always sits at the front and likes to talk. A lot.

It might be his inquisitive nature. Or maybe it’s confidence that comes with age. A certain life experience from marriage, then divorce, raising three boys – on his own—and selling a successful printing company.

The business did so well that Rose decided to attend university in his fifties, a time when many people are starting to look towards retirement.

“The other students don’t think I’m a student – I’m old,” he laughs. “I have children who are their age. They always know who I am.”

Rose has just completed his honours degree and while he acknowledges economics might have been a better fit with his business experience, he found the subject matter too dry and was ‘spellbound’ by human geography.

So much so, he will return in the fall as a graduate student to continue his studies, which last year included an undergrad thesis—75 pages in all—on the history of Hamilton’s condo market, its changing dynamics and the wider North American market.

It meant pouring over reams and reams of newspaper reports, analyzing data and working closely with the City of Hamilton.

He has also examined the City’s ongoing project to beautify neighbourhoods by planting more trees. Using satellite imagery, Rose has researched the socioeconomic factors associated with trees: where they exist, why poorer people have less access but greater need for them, how trees can help health, fight pollution and build a better sense of community.

He will tackle somewhat trickier research during his graduate work: absentee landlords, properties and geographic relationships. There isn’t a lot of information concerning this area of research, he says, so it’s breaking new ground.

But armed with what he calls ‘a broad experience’, both in business and in life, it’s new territory he’s ready to explore.