Time to register for OLLI courses
The summer term for OLLI begins July 1, 2019. It’s time to register.
Archive for OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning) – Page 3
Alabama graduate, Masters from Auburn, working at the University of Montana with decade of OLLI experience at Auburn University before moving to Montana will live in Sedona
Linda Shook
In a College press release, it announced that it had hired Linda Shook as the Associate Dean for the Sedona Center and Program Director for Osher Lifelong Learning Program.
The College reported that Ms. Shook will live in Sedona.
Shook is a graduate of the University of Alabama and holds as Master’s Degree from Auburn University in Adult and Continuing Education Administration. She spent the last year as the interim Summer Programs Coordinator/Summer Director at the University of Montana.
Prior to taking the position at the University of Montana, she served a decade with the OLLI program at Auburn University and spent a four-year stint as its director before moving to Montana.
She will be the guest of honor at OLLI’s kick-off spring luncheon programs. The first “Lunch and Learn” will be held on Wednesday, January 30, from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m., in room 34 of Yavapai College’s Sedona Center.
She will also be the guest of honor at the second lunch called the “Brown Bag Brain Buzz,” which will be at the Verde Valley Campus Thursday, January 31, from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. in Room G-106.
According to the College press release, Shook will serve as the local OLLI Director and the Associate Dean of the Yavapai College Sedona Center, “the head of the College’s Community Education program in the Verde Valley, the organizer of the College’s programs for local high school students (specifically, their College for Kids Program), and the liaison between Yavapai College and the Sedona and Verde Valley city governments and other entities concerned with higher education and economic development in this area.”
It appears she will have her administrative plate overflowing with all these programs to oversee.
College promised to “strongly encourage” newly hired leadership to live on the east side of the County if program being directed by person hired is located there; will it apply this philosophy to the new OLLI Director?
Dr. Robin Weeks
The Blog has learned that Dr. Robin Weeks is leaving his position as the head of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) on the east side of Yavapai County. Robin began his work with OLLI over five years ago. Working closely with Yavapai Community College, OLLI has steadily expanded it programing from Sedona to Cottonwood, the Village of Oak Creek, and Camp Verde.
Robin is originally from a small town in Devon, England. He came to the United States and earned a Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was a professor Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. He also had positions at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado and Santa Fe, New Mexico before arriving in Sedona. Everyone in the Verde Valley will agree, I think, that we are fortunate to have this rare and wonderful person heading up OLLI.
The Community College has undertaken a search to replace him. It is hoped that some of the highly qualified staff now working with Mr. Weeks and living on the east side of the County will be considered to replace him.
Recall that in March 2016 the College appeared before the Sedona City County where a number of concerns about its operation were raised. Among those concerns was a specific query regarding hiring staff for the Community College who would live in the area, that is in the Verde Valley, rather than on the west side of the County. The response was that the College promised to “strongly encourage” new hires assigned to manage the College would live in the Verde Valley. That concern obviously applies to the new OLLI hire. The question is: Does the College care about this east-county concern?
It is believed that Mr. Weeks will leave his position in about two months.
A video clip of the College’s meeting with the Sedona City Council of March 2016 where the concern over local leadership was raised with the College.
What would you like the Cafe to carry?
The College will be opening a cafe at the Sedona Center this Winter. It will serve drinks and snacks. But to better serve you, the Sedona Osher Life Long Learning Center (OLLI) folks would like to hear what you would like the new cafe to carry. And what would most enhance your OLLI experience at the Center. The information gathered will help design a menu for food and drink offerings.
OLLI has created a short survey and asks for your response. Here is the link created by OLLI for the suvey: Sedona Cafe Survey link .
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OLLI encourages you to try registering online via its website
Registration is now open for Winter for OLLI programs. OLLI encourages those seeking to enroll in OLLI courses to try registering online via OLLI’s website (link).
The first event will be the Taste of OLLI in Clarkdale on the Verde Campus on the 18th – open to everyone. OLLI encourages you to “bring a friend” and sample classes, meet facilitators, have lunch and socialize.
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Site will make choosing courses and registration for courses easier
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) has launched its own Sedona and Verde Valley website. The site is designed to inform and to make choosing OLLI courses and registration easier.
You may click here to go to the new website. Note that OLLI says that the website is still in beta development and will be upgraded throughout the summer.
Six programs on Verde Campus — something for everyone
Osher Life Long Learning will offer six brown bag brain buzz programs during April and May on the Verde Campus in Clarkdale. Admission is free. The programs run from 12:30 to 1:30 and will be held in Room G-106 on the Clarkdale Campus. The complete schedule is set out below. See you there.
A Talk by Fenfen Li, Visiting Mandarin Scholar
OLLI Sedona/Verde Valley is presenting a series of three talks by Fenfen Ni, a teacher from China who is spending a semester at Mingus Union High School. The first presentation, Chinese Festivals and Celebrations, will be held on Monday, February 29 at 2:00 in Room M-137 on the Verde Campus, and on Friday, March 4 at 2:00 pm in Room 34 on the Sedona Campus. These presentations are free and open to the public.
Sedona Facility Receives little in return for its huge tax investment
Using 2012 data, the City of Sedona reports (9/25/2015) that the Sedona Taxing District annually forks out over $7 million dollars to Yavapai College. Of that amount, $6,589,567 is paid through primary taxes and $754,622 goes to pay off General Obligation bonds.
With total primary tax-based revenue in 2012 flowing to the College from Yavapai County property taxpayers of $43,701,144.00, this means the Sedona Taxing District alone contributed at least 15 percent of the revenue toward operating the College.
In the past two years the College has threatened to close and sell the Sedona Campus and shut down the well respected film program. Because of a wave of outrage at the potential closing, the District Governing Board backed off selling the property by settling a dispute with an adjacent landowner that had festered for a decade. However, the administration followed through on its threat to shut down the Sedona Film School. In fact, the College administration stripped the Sedona Center of all but one or two College credit courses taught by adjuncts. After two years, it has done little to return Yavapai College credit courses to the facility.
There are Osher Lifelong Learning courses offered by the independent nonprofit Osher Foundation. The Foundation is not a part of the College, rather it is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that pays Sedona Osher employees from a $2 million fund it set up for them. The College provides in-kind support by allowing Osher to use its facility.
The full story carried in the Redrock News online can be read by clicking here.
OLLI and Arizona Humanities present: The Food of Arizona: Many Cultures, Many Flavors–March 20th 2:00pm room M-137 (Clardale), by Gregory McNamee
Gregory McNamee
Consider the taco, that favorite treat, a staple of Mexican and Mexican American cooking and an old standby on an Arizonan’s plate. The corn in the tortilla comes from Mexico, the cheese from the Sahara, the lettuce from Egypt, the onion from Syria, the tomatoes from South America, the chicken from Indochina and the beef from the steppes of Eurasia.
The foods of Arizona speak to the many cultures, native and newcomer, that make up our state. Join McNamee in exploring these many delicious traditions, and sample some Southwestern foods after his presentation.