As a retired nurse with a Ph.D. in physiology and more than 40 years of teaching experience, I had a lot of plans when I retired in 2018. I wanted to travel, learn to play the trombone, make jewelry, and do some volunteer work. My first year went well, and I made some progress in all of these areas. But then my trombone teacher passed away, I had all the jewelry that I could possibly use, and the volunteering opportunities were a big disappointment.
Fortunately, around that time, I started attending OLLI. I found the crowd there to be very interesting, with many of them well-educated and having experienced interesting lives. The teachers willingly shared their knowledge and experience, so I decided to get more involved and started teaching classes in physiology, with a focus on diseases and the body’s response to aging. I have always enjoyed teaching physiology because the human body is so well designed. More recently, I updated my knowledge about genetics and taught a course entitled “Understanding Genetics”.
Over time, I got more involved with OLLI. I joined a committee and soon became chair of the Member Experience committee. The goal of this committee is to provide opportunities to better meet our members’ needs. We have developed a number of activities to welcome new members to OLLI and are now working to find ways to engage our online members in activities that they can join from home.
I have found my experiences with OLLI to be very rewarding. I have made new friends and have continued learning. I welcome you all to OLLI and hope that you will enjoy and benefit from the OLLI experience as much as I have.