MGS Colleagues Help Older Learners Find Enrichment at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

Adults desiring intellectual, cultural and social enrichment in their lives find it through membership in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), a special project of the Gerontology Institute at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies (MGS) at UMass Boston. 

Membership in OLLI allows those 50 and older to attend three courses or more per semester, plus brown bag presentations and excursions to the theater and museums. OLLI also offers satellite courses via video-conference at Cordage Park in Plymouth and at the Hingham Public Library.

This spring, approximately 65 facilitators will teach more than 70 courses and 40 brown bag seminars to more than 1,000 OLLI members. 

Several MGS faculty, staff, students and alumni will be sharing their knowledge with these lifelong learners on topics range from international politics to religion  Sample lectures include: "The Political Economy of International Migration" (with Phil Granberry, PhD; alumnus of the Public Policy Program); "Your State House: What Goes On Under the Golden Dome?" (an online class with Jerrilyn Quinlan, PhD candidate in gerontology); "Globalization: Who is Winning and Who is Losing?" (a video conference with Michael Keating, operations director at the Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development); "Understanding American Conflict in the Middle East and Central Asia" (with Joseph Sarkisian, a graduate student in our International Relations program); "Prolongevity and Scientific Inquiry into Aging" (an online course with Gerontology Department lecturer Judith Griffin); and "The Positive and Negative Effects of Religiosity in Modern Times" (with Corina Oala, PhD candidate in gerontology).

OLLI Director Wichian Rojanawon, PhD, a native of Thailand, will facilitate a six-week course on "The History and Culture of Thailand" and lead a 16-day trip in November to discover his homeland. Twenty OLLI travelers will explore some of the nation’s most impressive temples and palaces, cruise along a river on a bamboo raft, take a cooking class, and shop in the world’s largest weekend market, among many other exciting adventures.

Other MGS colleagues will deliver lunchtime brown bag seminars.  Robert Weiner, graduate program director of the International Relations master’s degree program, will present "The Euro Crisis: What Does it Mean?"; Anamarjia Frankic, a faculty affiliate of the Center for Governance and Sustainability, will present "An Introduction to Biomimicry"; and McCormack Graduate School Director of Marketing and Communications Barbara Graceffa will lecture on getting your home ready to sell in her brown bag, "The ABCs of Home Staging."

The OLLI program is registering now for the spring term, which begins in March. To join and register for courses, call 617.287.7312, or visit www.umb.edu/olli.

According to Paula Ogier, OLLI program coordinator, “This is learning at its best - there are no exams or grades. And it’s very affordable, too – an annual membership is $175 or an associate membership costs only $50 per person.”