I’ve been taking courses and attending lectures for seniors offered by Cal State East Bay’s OLLI (Osher Life-Long Learning Institute) for several years. It’s been a mind expanding experience and great fun. OLLI offers lectures (free to members), courses (usually four weeks in length and reasonably priced), and a variety of field trips.
History, science, and literature are my own favorite topics, but the range of subjects offered is broad and the skills of the presenters impressive. OLLI offers this rich trove at seven sites. The two closest to Emeryville are the Lake Park Retirement Residence in Oakland and the Mastick Senior Center in Alameda. The Baywood Retirement Residence in Castro Valley, the Danville Town Meeting Hall, the Reutlinger Community for Jewish Living, and Rossmoor in Walnut Creek aren’t all that far away. The events at Cal State East Bay’s Concord Campus are a bit of a stretch for us but still inviting given the varied mix of offerings there. If you would like to know more about OLLI, call 925-602-6776 or e-mail Kathleen Bryant, the Program Coordinator at kathleen.bryant@csueastbay.edu. OLLI is also on line at www.scholarolli.com. Give OLLI a try: no homework, no tests, no papers to write but intellectual challenges and the chance to meet interesting people!
(Bill Reuter lives at Watergate in Emeryville and is Emeritus Professor of History, California State University East Bay.)
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For anyone who is a Berkeley Alumni, these classes are available through the Retirement Center.
Here’s another partnership opportunity for Emeryville’s Center of Community Life once it’s built. Osher classes on site?
We already have Berkeley City College teaching classes during the school day which gives our high school students college credit as well as high school credit. Berkeley City College is also interested in providing a PACE program at Emery Secondary School (ESS). This is where one could earn an AA degree by taking night classes and a few Saturday classes. 25 committed adult students is their minimum to go forward with a PACE AA degree program in Emeryville. If you are interested, please let me know.
For information and input on the progress on the Center of Community Life see this website:
http://www.emeryvillecenter.org/