La Roche University will name its Center for Lifelong Learning after its late president, Sister Candace Introcaso, who died last month.
The center, established in 2021, offers a variety of classes, workshops and community programs for adults 50 and older, youth and professionals at various stages of their careers.
A projected 25% of Western Pennsylvanians will be 65 or older by 2030, and “many of these people still want to be very involved and engaged in understanding society, life and God’s creation,” said Acting President and Provost Howard Ishiyama.
“These individuals want to be part of an academic community, and by leveraging what we already have, including our classes, fitness center and campus, we hope to eventually comingle all of these different communities into a single, intergenerational community,” he added.
There are now more than 350 lifelong learners and 200 youth on the university’s McCandless campus, Ishiyama said.
“This was Sister Candace’s dream, and it is now her legacy,” Ishiyama said.
The Center for Lifelong Learning this summer will be rebranded as the Sister Candace Introcaso Center for Lifelong Learning, and will officially launch at the start of the fall session.
Introcaso died last month at age 69.
She was named La Roche’s seventh president in 2004 and was a member of the Sisters of Divine Providence, the congregation that founded the school in 1963.
Under her leadership, the university expanded its academic offerings, updated the school’s Wright Library and opened the renovated Baierl Athletic Complex. Introcaso also oversaw a major renovation of the Zappala College Center and unveiled the school’s newly renovated Palumbo Science Center in January 2020 after a multimillion-dollar project.
She also oversaw the school’s transition from college to university status in 2019.
