OLLI's adult education classes resume in January

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at CSU Monterey Bay, also known as OLLI@CSUMB, has been awarded $1 million by the Bernard Osher Foundation. The foundation, which since 2006 has supported OLLI at CSUMB with annual grants, contributed both a permanent endowment of $950,000 and a $50,000 operating grant for the current fiscal year. Investment income from the endowment will help fund OLLI operations, though community involvement and support will remain vital to the program’s continued success. The Osher gift recognizes OLLI’s ability to sustain membership growth, include university faculty members among its course instructors, and remain strong in the future. OLLI now has a community of 500 members, up from 100 members at the end of its first year, in spring 2008.

"This generous support from the Osher Foundation will help us continue to fulfill an important part of our mission as a university," said CSU Monterey Bay President Dianne Harrison. "Adult education is one of the many important ways we contribute to the quality of life in the communities we serve."

OLLI invites local residents 50-and-better to join. The spring session will start on Jan. 17 and continue through May. Several membership options are available.?

Classes include a look at California’s role in the 2012 presidential primary, taught by Fred Keeley; a variety of writing classes; beginning nature photography taught by CSUMB biology professor Steve Moore; getting to know native plants, taught by staff members of the university’s Return of the Natives restoration education project; early Central Coast art, taught by museum studies professor Lila Staples; and several literature classes.

The complete spring lineup of classes is now available online.

To learn more about the program, click here or call 582-5500.