Sages & Seekers was created in 2009, when Founder Elly Katz, at that time living in Boston, was inspired to leave her career as a graphic designer to dedicate herself to diminishing ageism. She initiated an afterschool service-learning project at the Noble & Greenough School in Dedham, Massachusetts, and by the following year, four private schools were piloting the program.
In the fall of 2013, the Sages & Seekers program was first presented at the university level, when Brandeis University students were paired with Brandeis Lifelong Learning seniors. By 2014, Sages & Seekers had enrolled more than 1,200 teens and seniors, with many participating two or more times. That same year, Elly moved the Sages & Seekers headquarter to Los Angeles, California.
In its new West Coast location, Sages & Seekers began running programs in the USC Gerontology Department. At the same time, program delivery on the East Coast continued, and The Rivers School in the Boston area elected to make Sages & Seekers a mandatory part of their sophomore English curriculum – a requirement that continues to this day, reaching 180 Sages and students every year.
In late 2014, the S&S Manual was produced, which provides a blueprint for any school, library, senior facility, or university that seeks to offer Sages & Seekers in their community. In 2017, the University of Southern California (USC) conducted a professional impact evaluation of our program through funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. This evaluation provided an evidence-based framework and justification for our model that cemented the program as evidence-based.
Today our non-profit reaches across borders virtually, to include participants at public and private facilities from Canada to Colombia, offering multi-cultural and generational connection, to strengthen the bonds of humanity.