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Photo of OLLI at UNLV Member Spotlight Jennifer Neeman Student, Instructor, Committee Chair, Steering Council Chair, Lifetime Member  Member since 2011

I attended OLLI at UNLV classes for about two years before I began instructing mathematics classes. I “discovered” OLLI at UNLV when a spokesman came to my synagogue in Henderson to introduce the seniors at the luncheon to lifelong learning at OLLI at UNLV for retired and semi-retired people living in Las Vegas and Henderson, NV. This sounded perfect to me, to continue learning at a college but not matriculating for another degree, but just to “learn for learning’s sake—no homework, no tests nor quizzes nor essays. Just perfect!

I wanted to take lots of history courses since to be a secondary mathematics instructor only five history courses were needed, at the time, at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. After I had taught The Joy Of Mathematics, Probability And Statistics, Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, Algebra II, And Algebra III (Pre-Calculus), I decided to give back to OLLI at UNLV for all that it had done for me. I was asked to join the Curriculum Committee because of my background in writing mathematics curricula for three different K-12 public school systems in the state of New Jersey. I gladly accepted and spent twelve years on that committee as well as joining The Film Festival Committee, and the other aforementioned committees. I am particularly proud of authoring one of the very first surveys for all of our members to determine their needs.  I was added as a Lifetime Member for my time and effort with OLLI at UNLV.

Recently, I taught a physics course, Einstein’s Relativity And The Quantum Revolution, which took three semesters to complete. I also taught the very popular Woodstock 1969, which I attended when I was an undergraduate at Temple University in Philadelphia.

OLLI at UNLV was a lifesaver during the pandemic with its diversity and number of classes offered on ZOOM. I shall forever be indebted to OLLI at UNLV for the wonderful educational experiences as well as for the many, many lifelong friends that I have met!