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EIN September Newsletter
New EIN Web Postings for September
Under MANAGING YOUR LLI
Under LLI NEWS
Under LLI CONGRATULATIONS
WELCOME NEW AFFILIATES
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, University of Richmond,
Virginia
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Granite State College, Conway, NH
LLI NEWSLETTER
Be sure to read the newsletter from the LLI at SUNY New Paltz
in New York. There are several interesting articles in it, including
one about their upcoming move, and a profile of their founder, Lyn Mayo.
Along with those two articles, check out the news on page 2 about members
being eligible to win a free weekend Intensive Language Class. Very
interesting. On this fall's registration form, they have asked people
two questions about email mailings:
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If they want to receive catalogs, newsletters, and other official
notices by email (not the confirmation letter, which is sent by
post).
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If they also want to receive additional notices that might interest
them (other happenings around the area, for example).
Their newsletter is an excellent example of using the Internet to
keep in contact with those members who have email, and as a way
to keep mailing costs down.
PRESS RELEASE EXAMPLE
Check out the excellent example of a press release that announces
the start of a new Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in New Hampshire.
Press releases can be tricky to produce and even trickier to get read.
This format is one of the most popular.
OLLI AWARDED $1MILLION GRANT
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Granite State College
in New Hampshire has been awarded a $1million grant from the Bernard
Osher Foundation. They have just opened up yet another location in the
State and more are planned. Congratulations!
CARNEGIE MELLON AWARDED SECOND GRANT
Congratulations to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at
Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg. With over 1,500 members, and
another 500plus people on their waiting list, they have been awarded
a second $100,000 grant from the Bernard Osher Foundation
A NEW LLI PROMOTION IDEA
Looking for a new way to promote your program? Two members
of the Lifelong Learning Institute at James Madison University in Virginia
came up with a unique way. Don and Alice Krech made a donation to their
local Public Radio for a “personal day sponsorship,” which
they designated for on-air public announcement spots about LLI. What
a great idea!
20th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
The University of Minnesota, Duluth is celebrating their "Roaring
Twenties" with a year long celebration after 20 years of University
for Seniors. Each month will have a different celebration. The opening
is September 6th at the University with Dr. Arthur Peterson (brother
of their president, Gertrude Jacobson and who helped start the organization).
He will speak on "Learning in Retirement and our Successor Generations".
In October they entertain the Minnesota Lifelong Learning group, with
a train ride up part of the North Shore of Lake Superior. In October
there is a tour to New York theater, and in the Spring a trip to Iceland,
with a study class of Iceland prior to the expedition. It truly will
be an exciting year. This coming fall they have 46 study classes offered,
with over 400 members, and over two-thirds of the classes are peer-led.
Congratulations, University for Seniors!
ARCHITECTURAL COURSES
The Academy for Lifelong Learning at Empire State College in New York
has been offering architectural courses for several years. The leader
is a practicing architect and selects notable structures in the region,
then organizes tours led by an architect, contractor, etc., who was
involved in its construction. The study group always fills and is being
offered again this fall. Each time it's offered, the group visits different
structures.
DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY TRAINING
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at University of Maryland
and its Center on Civic Literacy in association with the Kettering Foundation
is presenting a Deliberative Democracy Moderator Training Workshop on
September 24 and 25. This workshop will prepare members to use deliberation
as an effective method for considering important issues and setting
the stage for citizens to act together to make democracy work. Books
published by the National Issues Forums Institute will provide a basis
for practical training in how to moderate forums on significant public
policy issues. Participants will develop skills that are needed to bring
people with diverse views and experiences together so that they can
seek a shared understanding of a problem and search for common ground
for action.
BUDDY SYSTEM
Overheard at a recent gathering of LLI members – create
a buddy system for members who don’t have a PC. That way one person
is responsible for seeing that information which comes in over the computer
from a program reaches the other person without a computer. A great
way to keep everyone in the loop and make new friends too.
.
FILMS
Members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Yavapai
College in Arizona took a serious look at films this past summer. They
explored Foreign Films, Food as Metaphor in Film, and Films About the
American Political Scene.
SENIOR GAMES
Members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University
of North Florida are taking part in the Jacksonville Senior Games this
month. Annually, this event is held to promote healthy and active lifestyles
for men and women 50 years of age and over. The Senior Games are designed
for the seasoned athlete to take part in various sports on a competitive
level or the not so seasoned athlete to take part in various sports
for their own enjoyment. The Jacksonville Senior Games is sanctioned
by the Florida Sports Foundation and is a qualifier for the Florida
Senior Games State Championships. Last year, the Jacksonville Senior
Games had approximately 500 participants, this year they expect to approach
1,000. Members who don’t take part in the sports activities can
help out by volunteering their time.
HEALTH STUDY
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Coastal Carolina University
has put out a call to their members (men over the age of 70) to participate
in a free research study at the Smith Exercise Science Lab at Coastal
Carolina University. Although the study is focused on folks over the
age of 50 who perform at least some physical activity weekly, the sample
size for the cohort of “Men 70+” needs more subjects. The
purpose of this research is to examine relationships between muscle
strength, balance, anxiety and fear of experiencing an unintended fall.
As part of the project, participants will be asked to come to the CCU
Smith Exercise Science Lab on three separate occasions, each session
lasting no more than one hour. During these visits, they will be instructed
regarding the use of five pieces of strength training equipment, participate
in a clinical balance test, and finally, a measure of maximal muscular
strength on the computerized strength testing system. All information
collected in the study is confidential.
A STUDY OF HUNGARY
Lifelong Learners at the Fairfield Senior Center, which is
affiliated with Sacred Heart University in Connecticut are studying
“Hungary: From the Ural Mountains to Fairfield” this fall.
The class will include the history and geography of Hungary, the nature
and development of the Hungarian language, Hungarian poetry and music,
Hungarian contributions to world civilization and the story of the Hungarian
migration to the Bridgeport and Fairfield areas of Connecticut.
ENTIFICALLY TIMID
Don’t know a proton from a protozoan? Well members of
the Academy for Lifelong Learning at the University of S. Florida, Sarasota/Manatee
got the opportunity to sort things out over the summer by exploring
recent advances in science in a relaxed environment. The Institute for
the Scientifically Timid used readings from Bill Bryson’s A
Short History of Nearly Everything as a starting point for the
lecture and discussion sessions. Topic included Cosmology, Astronomy,
Astrobiology, Quantum Physics, Earth Systems, Genomics and Evolution.
WHO WAS ABRAHAM MASLOW?
Recently, the Mankato Area Lifelong Learners at Minnesota State
University in Mankato, explored Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Human
Needs” with a panel of experts in the field. A Q&A followed
this very informative session.
OLLI INTERGENERATIONAL PROGRAM
The Intergenerational Planning Committee of the Osher Lifelong
Learning Institute at the University of Alabama in Huntsville prepared
a three-day event for kids of all ages this past June. Members were
encouraged to bring their grandchildren or come alone. On day one they
stepped back in time to walk Laura Ingall’s cabin, roll down the
river with Huck Finn on a keel boat and board a wagon headed west. On
day two they went back to 1819 when Alabama became a state. They learned
the part herbs played in people’s lives, wove on the Friendly
Loom, tin punched, participated in a Native American Craft, and had
a picnic. Finally, on day three they revisited the Civil War at the
Depot. They also danced and sang songs by the camp fire where they roasted
hot dogs and marshmallows.
STARGAZING: AN INTRODUCTION
Members of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University
of Pittsburgh recently studied Stargazing: An Introduction to Observational
Astronomy. This course was designed to give the aspiring backyard astronomer
the skills and knowledge needed to enjoy and understand the basics of
observational astronomy. Members learned how to observe the moon, planets,
constellations, and many other wonders of the heavens as well as methods
for locating these objects with the naked eye, binoculars and telescopes.
They also discussed how astronomical observation has shaped current
understanding of the universe.
OLLI REACHES NEW MEMBER HIGH
2008 was a remarkable year for the Osher Lifelong Learning
Institute at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Not only did
they reach the 500 member level required by the Osher Foundation, they
topped that by hosting 600 members before the fiscal year ended. Well
done, OLLI!
RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
Members of the McGill ILR in Montreal studied the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, this past summer. The
“settler countries,” USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
voted against the UN declaration. Canada expressed regret but had “significant
concerns” about the language in the document. Participants reviewed
the declaration with special reference to the demographic, economic,
legal and political issues facing Canadians. They also looked at the
validity of various concerns.
ORAL HISTORY
This past winter, the Northwest State Community College’s
administrative link to the Center for Lifelong Learning in Archbold,
Ohio drew on the recollections of the members to create an oral history
of the days of the Great Depression. Answers to carefully prepared key
questions were recorded by student interviewers as they created a primary
source for the Heritage Room archives. Members whose memories went back
to those days were valuable volunteers on the project.
BAROQUE MUSIC
“Baroque Music: A Prelude to the Modern Age,” will
be the topic of a 6-week fall lecture series at the OMNILORE program
at California State University, Dominquez Hills. This series will explore
the culture and history of the 17th century/baroque period, performance
practices, instruments and a holiday presentation of Handel’s
“Messiah.”
THEATER OWNER SPEAKS
Members of the Lifetime Learning Institute at Northern Virginia
Community College in Annandale, Virginia were treated to a Forum presentation
by the owner of the local Cinema Arts Movie Theater. Movies are a huge
business and a major part of our cultural and entertainment life. Like
the vanishing dinosaur, every year it seems that there are fewer independent
movie houses which show the kind of cinema we love to see. Mark O’Meara,
owner of Cinema Arts and the University Mall Theatres described the
joys and challenges of operating an independent theater. He spoke about
his passion for cinema, his methods for selecting films, his best practices
in managing employees, and the current artistic and business trends
in the movie industry. At the end he tested attendees knowledge with
a light-hearted movie pop quiz.
NEW BOOKS FOR LLI COURSES
Thanks to the OMNILORE program at California State University, Dominquez
Hills for these suggestions:
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, by Lewis
Buzbee. Both a memoir and a history of his life in the book business
and the history of book publishing and bookstores, this writing is for
people who love reading, love books, love browsing in bookstores and
can’t resist adding books to the stacks already at home.
Life is So Good, by George Dawson. This is
the story of 101 year-old Dawson, the grandson of a slave in Marshall,
Texas. Dawson started work at the age of 4 and finally learned to read
at the age of 98.
In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto,
by Michael Pollan. The book examines our unhealthy
preoccupation with everything dietary. He looks at the diet bullies,
the processed food industry, marketers, nutritional scientists and while
he doesn’t preach to the reader, he implies that change is necessary.
NEW WEB SITES FOR LLI COURSES
Background about this World Heritage Site in England. Features
a FAQ, visual and narrative history, photos, and information about visiting
Stonehenge for the summer solstice. Also includes material about the
spring 2008 Stonehenge archaeological dig, "the first excavation
inside the stone circle at Stonehenge in nearly half a century."
Note: Interactive map is not available. From English Heritage, an organization
that protects and promotes England's historic environment.
"Archaeologists are carrying out [in spring 2008] the first dig
for almost half a century inside the stone circle of [Stonehenge] the
world's most famous Neolithic monument. Their aim is to unearth evidence
for a startling new theory -- that Stonehenge was built to heal the
sick." Site features news and video from the 12-day dig, a panoramic
view from within the stone circle, and related material. From the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
That’s all for this month.
Nancy Merz Nordstrom, M.Ed.
Elderhostel Institute Network
Nancy.merz-nordstrom@elderhostel.org
www.elderhostel.org/ein/intro.asp
617-457-5564
"Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought
for with ardor and attended to with diligence." …Abigail
Adams
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