As Lisa Stout walked into the crowded dorm room with fresh linens, she placed a pillow on each stark bed and kissed her two boys goodbye. They were off to college.

But the boys, although related, aren’t regular college students.

There’s a 60-year age gap between them.

One is her father, and the other is her son.

Dale Gregoriew brought his 9-year-old grandson, Mac Stout, to the first Grandparents University offered at the University of North Texas on Thursday in hopes of getting his grandson interested in attending college, he said.

About 80 other grandparents and grandchildren, ages 7 to 12, came to the event held Thursday and today, in which they will earn a Grandparents University degree in two majors from 10 different subject areas taught by UNT staff members.

The courses included everything from art and music to astronomy and criminal justice.

Degrees from the program will be handed out in a ceremony this afternoon on the Denton campus.

Grandparents University was started at the University of Wisconsin as a way to give children and their grandparents the experience of attending a university.

Grandparents University is all about lifelong learning, a complimentary mission to UNT’s purpose, said Wendy Wilkins, university provost and vice president of academic affairs.

“Grandparents University brings together those starting to get a sense of the world and those seasoned in the world,” Wilkins said. “We [at UNT] encourage students to learn throughout their life.”

As national demographics shift and baby boomers begin to retire, more grandparents will want to connect with their grandchildren, and the program assists in that mission, said Michael McPherson, dean of Grandparents University and professor of economics.

“In our society, we take for granted that our children today are very connected,” he said. “Our generation just doesn’t think about it. We don’t want to send an e-mail; we want to send a letter. That’s the nice thing about bringing different sorts of people back together. … They can have a conversation.”

As Mac and his grandfather, both from the McKinney area, sat at the back of a bus, headed toward the day’s activities, they started to talk about Mac’s future plans.

“I want to stay close to home,” Mac said, with a toothy grin.

“I want to send you off to college far away,” his grandfather replied. “Maybe you could go to Yale.”

DRC/Barron Ludlum

Bryce Hewitt, 10, makes an approximation of a comet out of charcoal, sand, Karo syrup and dry ice during Grandparents University on Thursday at the University of North Texas.

View larger More photos Photo store

Mac made a face, and then the two started talking about the new Transformers movie and how the bus they were riding wasn’t anything like university buses in the movies.

By spending time together in a university setting, grandchildren are able to further tighten family bonds, said Linda Whiddon, 65, an attendee from Decatur.

Whiddon, a retired educator, said the Grandparents University program could give some children access to university life who wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to the university experience.

“It’s a great opportunity for first-generation college students,” she said. “This could have an impact 10 to 15 years from now.”

As grandmother Terri Muldoon and her 10-year-old grandson, Burke Rogers of Dallas, compressed chunks of dry ice, charcoal and sand together to create a comet model, Muldoon mused on the possibility of Grandparents University offering scholarships to students who haven’t been exposed to campus life.

Most of the children at the program this year would most likely attend college, she said, but there are many students who have never seen college life and would benefit from the exposure.

“I’d like to see an opportunity to adopt children [for the program] and bring them to the college,” she said.

In the music class, groups of students shuffled from trombone to the flute, learning how to pucker up and make noise.

The instructors showed the new students how to shape their mouth and breathe before each pursed their lips against the instruments and created a cacophony of sound.

When 9-year-old Riley Kate Punnett tried out the trombone, her eyebrows rose in surprise and she started to smile as her grandparents looked on, their cameras at the ready.

Punnett, of Denton, said she talked both grandparents into joining her at the event after she heard about the program through school and hoped to learn more about music and Spanish.

When Riley and her grandmother, Lynda Taylor, checked into their dorm room Thursday morning, it brought back memories, Taylor said.

The dorm room Taylor shared with her granddaughter was two doors down from the room she resided in when she went to college 40 years ago, she said.

And the UNT legacy likely will be passed down to Riley, who said she is already planning to attend the university.

Taylor said she hopes that Grandparents University will continue on so she can share the experience with three more of her young grandchildren.

Taylor, a former educator, said the experience of young students being on campus with their grandparents is something that will stick with them forever.

“They will take this experience on, and it will stay with them,” she said.

CANDACE CARLISLE can be reached at 940-566-6889. Her e-mail address is ccarlisle@dentonrc.com .