Learning Institute Offers Classes in Richmond
New program to start at JCC in August

courtesy photo

Erik Peper leads a session at the OLLI Open House last fall.
Dr. Peper is Director of the Institute for Holistic Healing Studies at
SFSU, and teaches the OLLI class "Make Health Happen."

By Alan Brewer

A new learning program for students 50 years of age and older is coming to the Richmond District. The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), a branch of the College of Extended Learning at San Francisco State University, offers a variety of classes to aging baby boomers, under the motto of "insightful learning for ageless minds."

This fall, a total of 31 classes will be offered at the Jewish Community Center, the SFSU campus and SFSU's downtown center at 425 Market St., where classes began last fall.

The new Jewish Community Center, located at 3200 California Street at Presidio Avenue, opened in January on the site where the old JCC stood since 1932. Funds of $63 million were raised and two-and-a-half years of construction followed, which more than doubled the size of the facility to accommodate 4,000 visitors a day. Besides a three-story fitness center and many other amenities, there is more room for classes, which are open to all.

Adult Programs Manager Shiva Schultz describes the mission of the JCC as a "community center, a home away from home, engaged on a lot of different levels. OLLI classes are for people who want to be intellectually stimulated and come to a comfortable place." 

 "Life Begins at 50" is one of the Osher Institute's fall classes at the JCC.  Instructor Sylvia Paull will bring guests, such as Craig Newmark, the founder of the popular digital community craigslist.org, and Arlene Blum, the mountaineer who led an all-women expedition to Annapurna in 1978 - the first Americans to summit the Himalayan peak. She still leads treks in Nepal. Paull says, "OLLI is a brilliant way to engage the hearts and minds of boomers and seniors in America."

Other classes at the JCC are "Growing Old Disgracefully," "Photographing Your Best Friend," "Islam and the West: An Alternative to World History" and "Jews, Baseball, and the American Novel."

The Bernard Osher Foundation, founded by a local businessman and philanthropist, funds the OLLI program. It has seeded about 30 other OLLI programs in California, including one at UCSF, UC Berkeley and state university campuses at San Jose, Hayward, Santa Clara and Sonoma. Tuition, on an hourly basis, is a fraction of the usual fees charged for state university classes.

Susan Hoffman, director of SFSU-OLLI, explains, "To answer the question, 'What do I do with the next stage of my life?' we have created a program that couples knowledge and insight with opportunity and action."

Student Martin Marshall says, "There is nothing more energizing than discovering other people with the same interests that you have."

David Weir, a Stanford professor and teacher of "Memoir Writing," says of his spring class, "This is the most inspiring experience I've ever had as a teacher. It was a community of peers and we were all learning from everyone else." For baby boomers that came of age in the tumultuous and searching '60s, "many of the classes are about that same thing, a continuous voyage of self-discovery and then connectedness - the dynamic that fuels this program."

His spring class gave birth to an ongoing memoir-writing group, which has been meeting biweekly since April 20. Member Alice Parker says, "Finding so many like-minded, creative, interesting people certainly got me back into living life more fully. OLLI is a support system in the broadest sense of the term."

OLLI focuses on people who are employed, retired or in transition and to re-inspire members to look at new possibilities. Course areas include artmaking and storytelling, urban curriculum (local economic, social, cultural and political forces), redefining aging, wellness, and international affairs and current events. Teachers include faculty from SFSU and other universities, professionals, artists and writers from the Bay Area.

On the SFSU campus and the downtown center at 425 Market St., other classes will be offered, ranging from "Make Health Happen," to "Becoming an Entrepreneur," to "Personal Storytelling," to "San Francisco Political Issues: The Politics of Development, Housing and Jobs."

Class descriptions are available on the OLLI website at www.cel.sfsu.edu/olli. Classes begin in September and October but individuals can register now. Tuition is $165 before Sept. 10 for up to three classes (and $195 after). Courses are generally six weeks. The SFSU fall catalog includes OLLI classes and an OLLI program guide will be available early in August. The phone number is 705-7711. An Open House on Sept. 9, among other community events, offers an opportunity to meet faculty.