Osher Lifelong Learning continues to grow, attract retirees to Strand
Retiree Kathleen Fair first visited the Myrtle Beach area in 1978, when an infamous blizzard crippled the Northeast and shut down areas where she lived in Massachusetts. She enjoyed a warm week here, but added that she never thought about coming back again.
That changed in 2011 when Fair came to the realization that Massachusetts was no place to age if there was no family close at hand. She discovered that some family members had retired on the Grand Strand and began pondering her options.
“As I was weighing the pros and cons of moving south of the Mason-Dixon line, I had many factors to consider,” she said. “I was actively involved in a group called BCLIR, which was an adult continuing education program based in Providence [R.I.]. Through BCLIR, I met people who were also involved in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute [OLLI] at the University of Rhode Island. When I realized that there was an OLLI program in the Myrtle Beach area, it was one more pro in the column for moving here.”
Fair has been an official Myrtle Beach resident since September 2012.
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Coastal Carolina University has been in place since an initial $100,000 grant was awarded to its Division of Academic Outreach by the Bernard Osher Foundation in 2007, a grant applied for by then-director Linda Ketron.
Ketron retired from OLLI on April 1, after 11 years in lifelong learning at CCU.
CCU has long offered adult education and lifelong learning programs on campus in Conway and at numerous locations on the Grand Strand, but after the infusion of the first Osher grant, the adult education program was renamed the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Coastal Carolina University — bringing it into a growing fold of more than 120 OLLIs across the country.
CCU’s website sums up the foundation: “The Bernard Osher Foundation, a San Francisco-based philanthropic organization dedicated to supporting higher education and the arts, has provided funding to institutions of higher education to develop and grow noncredit, intellectually stimulating programs for older adults since the fall of 2002.”
Under Ketron and OLLI’s Board of Volunteer Leaders — or BOVL — the program has grown and continues to thrive.
“Each week, as I compiled the coming classes, club meetings and community activities, I have felt that I was talking directly to you — the heartbeat of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at CCU,” wrote Ketron in a bittersweet farewell in her last installment of the OLLI newsletter. “Through the past 11 years, while some have moved on and others have passed on, the tide of lifelong learners has steadily risen with the magnetic attraction of the Grand Strand, the retiring boomers and our growing program.”
An important component at CCU
Sallie Clarkson, associate provost for academic administration at CCU, was Ketron’s immediate supervisor. She said a new director for OLLI has not yet been hired, and the university will be reviewing applications.
“My hope is that we have several qualified applicants to interview soon,” Clarkson said.
But what does Clarkson see as the value of the program?
“A diverse and well-educated population is valuable to both the community at large and the university,” she said. “OLLI programs provide those opportunities to the area’s older adults to continue to be intellectually curious, active and involved in our community. Continuing education and lifelong learning are integral to the university’s mission to be ‘a regional center of economic and intellectual resources, lifelong learning, cultural and recreational opportunities.’”
Clarkson said the program continues to be extremely important to the university.
“We have renamed the division to the Office of Extended Learning and Community Outreach and are searching for a director of Continuing Education. This is to ensure that not only do our OLLI services to the community continue to remain strong, but to also grow our extended learning opportunities in new ways needed by the community.”
Although the OLLI staff answers directly to CCU, it is largely guided by the BOVL, which is chaired by John Kenny. Now retired, Kenny’s background is as an attorney, law school professor and businessman. He specialized in telecommunications and technology, and was general counsel and vice president at Southern Pacific Communications Co., the predecessor to Sprint.
“This is an advisory board to the executive director,” he said, adding that the BOVL provided input to Ketron on a wide range of topics for decisions such as what classes were being offered, who was offering the classes and where.
“The courses are offered in Georgetown, Litchfield, Conway and Myrtle Beach — so there are different constituencies in a sense in all four of those communities,” Kenny said. “The idea was to make sure that the executive director was getting advice from people spread across those communities and out of the different demographics that are involved in each of those communities.”
He said the assumption is that when Ketron’s successor is hired, the BOVL will be asked to do the same.
Kenny has been on the BOVL for two years. “I had been teaching in the program and taking courses for almost four years,” he said, adding that his wife takes classes as well. He currently teaches a class called 21st Century Skills for Senior Citizens.
“Everyone walks into the class with a combination of smart phones, tablets and, in some cases, laptops — a mix of Android, Apple and Kindle — and the class is designed to help them understand as you move from device to device, operating system to operating system, and as they continue to morph — what skills you need to have to navigate those devices to be able to let you use them effectively,” he said.
“I have done the class now four different times, and it has been well-received.”
Last spring, Kenny attended the OLLI national conference in Carlsbad, Calif. He said it was a great learning experience and helped set him up for the transition now taking place. He saw the opportunity to open up the program to a wider age range, including people from roughly 25 to retirement age who might want or have the need for continuing education. He also was taken with the sheer breadth of programs in OLLIs across the country available to folks 50 and older.
“I came away energized about how terrific we are doing here and how much better we can do as we continue to grow,” Kenny said. “We have all of these people moving down here with these phenomenal backgrounds and interests — a full range of things. It has been a great experience.”
How it all began
CCU Distinguished Professor Emerita and BOVL member Sally Hare enjoyed a varied career in the College of Education from 1974 to 2005, and said OLLI at CCU is a direct descendant of a program launched in 1987.
“I am very proud of the fact that Coastal Carolina’s lifelong learning program, which started as the brainchild of Myrtle Beach resident Brenda Goldberg (who then worked at CCU) as The Third Quarter almost 30 years ago, has grown and thrived into the current OLLI,” Hare said.
Hare is currently president of still learning inc., which offers programs in professional development and education, and said lifelong learning is her passion. For her, the value of the OLLI program is twofold.
“For Coastal Carolina University, I see the program as a way of connecting with the community, offering a great service and connecting with thousands of people in our area that the university would not reach in any other way.
“For OLLI students and faculty, I see the program as literally life-giving,” she said. “The research tells us that OLLI not only offers older adults a place to learn and grow intellectually, but also socially and emotionally — and we now have a growing body of research on the way OLLI programs have positive physical effects as well: on blood pressure, on arthritis and rheumatism, on strengthening heart and cardiovascular systems and, perhaps most important, on the will to live and thrive.”
She said she sees the future of OLLI as exciting — one of continued growth and expansion as the university grows and the region’s retirement population expands, and more.
“As the baby boomer population changes our thinking about aging — as the millennials change our thinking about education as something that ends with a degree and about having one career for a lifetime. I see lifelong learning as the key to our national strength — and I love that Coastal is one of the institutions of higher education leading the way. Under Linda Ketron’s creative guidance, we have grown into one of the largest OLLI programs in the country — and the vision of Coastal Carolina University’s leaders for academic outreach and expanded learning opportunities indicates to me even more growth and possibility.”
Discovering OLLI
Retirees Ron and Judy Coakley moved here from Mount Vernon, Ohio, and found out about OLLI through a neighbor.
“We were interested in the many courses that were offered and the various club opportunities,” said Judy Coakley. “The curriculum offers diverse learning experiences, and the instructors are top-notch. We signed up for courses that spring and have been hooked ever since.
“OLLI allows us to explore new areas of interest. I have taken several art classes and discovered a talent I didn’t know I had. Ron and I also take advantage of the many Lowcountry excursions that are offered and joined the Travel Club. Through OLLI, we were able to learn more about the wonderful area that we now live in. We have met so many wonderful people through OLLI.”
Carole Lanzarone of Surfside Beach said the OLLI program opened the doors to travel, new avocations and friendships for her and her husband.
“An OLLI supplement came with the local paper,” she said. “I signed up for some art courses, and my husband signed up for duplicate bridge. He has since become a life master in duplicate bridge and has amassed a large group of friends whom he plays and travels with on a regular basis. I became a watercolorist and am proud to say, award-winning.”
She now belongs to local art guilds, and the pair has traveled to Costa Rica and Italy with the group.
“OLLI gave us the skills we needed, a place to enjoy a peer group, an exciting new retirement purpose and a reason to stay here full time instead of snowbirding,” Lanzarone said. “OLLI provides a strong tie to the community, with the teachers, the staff and the administration of this organization delivering the highest level of service both desired and needed in this wonderful area of the country.”
What does Ketron see as the future of OLLI?
“Any leader puts a personal stamp on a program that is as people-oriented as this one,” she said, “but it is bound to grow. The baby boomers are just beginning to retire, and I expect it to provide ever more learning and networking opportunities for its participants.”
This story was originally published April 12, 2015 at 2:00 AM with the headline "Osher Lifelong Learning continues to grow, attract retirees to Strand."