For those of us still counting down the semesters until graduation day, it comes as a bit of a surprise that class could be considered a hobby. But a large and growing number of people — most of whom graduated a long time ago — are excitedly settling back into the classroom just for the fun of it.
These knowledge gluttons are Tampa Bay's retirees. They've got the man off their back and are living in paradise, but what to do with all that free time? About eight months ago, Gene Ormond, a retired resident of St. Pete, took a class at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Eckerd College to explore this very topic.
"The class divided your life into thirds," he explained, "finding a career, building that career and then what you do after. It makes you ask yourself: 'What are you going to do with that last third of your life?'"
Besides playing in a half-century softball league and taking classes at OLLI, Ormond spends time taking Sunshine, a Lassie look-a-like, to visit patients at extended care facilities. "We would have never done that type of thing (if it wasn't for that class)," Ormond said.
The OLLI program is part of a network of 121 similar programs supported by the San Francisco-based Bernard Osher Foundation. Out of those 121 programs, two are in the Bay Area — at Eckerd College in St. Pete and the University of South Florida's Tampa campus — and provide "life enrichment" opportunities for people over 50 through classes and interest groups.
Ormond and his wife Linda have been taking classes and volunteering at OLLI for about four years and have been visiting other OLLI's during their travels this summer. Ormond insists St. Pete's program is one of the best because of the city's vast retirement community.
"One of the reasons we picked this area to retire is because of the OLLI program," said Ed Gray, a retired employee of Pfizer who originally hails from New York. He heard about OLLI when his daughter attended Eckerd. Gray said that participating in classes at Eckerd is like retiring with guidance. Retired folks often find new hobbies to occupy their time, but the Osher Institute offers classes that can lead you to them.
Gray was one of about 40 people gathered in the Flamingo Room at Eckerd's Continuing Education Center for "Brazil: an Insider's View" taught by Matilde Sutter, a native Brazilian who worked as a criminal court judge before retiring to the United States in 2001. The crowd of 50- and 60-somethings listened eagerly to Sutter's lecture on the ins and outs of Brazilian culture and chuckled when she explained that Carnaval, Rio De Janeiro's scandalous annual festival marking the beginning of Lent, isn't the best representation of Brazilian women.
"Each one of our courses is put together for this group of people," said Kay Cole, director of marketing for OLLI at Eckerd. "A lot of input comes from members about things they'd like to do and [classes] they'd like to take." It isn't necessary for instructors to have a doctorate or even a master's degree (although many of them do), but that they have great experiences and a love for teaching, she added.
Out of all the benefits of lifelong learning — enhancing cognitive fitness, exploring new horizons — people involved in these programs find expanding their network of friends the most rewarding. Dolores Nielsen, a widow and grandmother of three from Palm Harbor, said that OLLI is just as much a social outlet as an educational endeavor. Many members join when they're newly retired or have just lost a spouse and are feeling a bit lost, she said.
"It creates a dynamic within the household that's kind of neat, too," said Ormond. "This gives couples something to talk about because you can talk about the class you just took."
Across the bay in a lecture hall at USF, another crowd of about 60 lifelong learners was exploring evolution with a lecture from Steve Salamone, Ph.D. and former chair of the department of classical studies at Boston University. Joseph McAuliffe, coordinator for the USF program and history professor at USF and HCC, said that, although he loves his younger students, retirees set the bar higher. "They're very, very savvy," he said.
USF offers four terms by season, with about 75 classes in topics ranging from the music of Spain to using Microsoft Word. "When people get older, they become sedentary," said McAuliffe. "They become victims of routine. Seniors don't explore anymore, they get dull. My job is to get them to be creative."
Because the people interested in lifelong learning are usually already pretty educated, there is an admitted lack of diversity in these programs. Most of the participants are white, retired academics or professionals. "We would love to have more diversity, but that's a problem for a lot of OLLI's," Cole said. "I'm not exactly sure why." According to McAuliffe, the USF program has a bit more of a cultural mix due to its urban setting.
Both programs, however, are searching for ways to reach out to their respective communities. USF's OLLI has partnerships with Lowry Park Zoo, The Florida Aquarium, Tampa Museum of Art and several churches and retirement communities, while Eckerd's corps of volunteers has established satellite classroom locations in Palm Harbor and Largo. The price of a yearly membership is relatively inexpensive at $59, which gets you a year-round discount on classes that normally range in price from $10 to $75.
To learn more about OLLI in Tampa and St. Pete, check out the programs' websites at eckerd.edu/olli and outreach.usf.edu/conted/seniors.
USF history professor Joseph McAuliffe said that, although he loves his younger students, retirees set the bar higher. "They're very, very savvy," he said.
This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2008.