The assets will expand the endowment, which partially funds the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), HSU’s extended education program for adult learners 50 and better. The foundation’s $1 million endowment for OLLI in 2009 was one of the largest cash gifts in HSU’s history at the time.
Most of OLLI’s financial support comes from membership dues, course fees, and financial donations from the local community. The Osher funds must be invested for long-term growth and sustainability, and the income, about 5 percent per year, is available to support OLLI.
"The Osher Foundation’s support recognizes all of the hard work of OLLI staff and the overwhelming support from the community," said Carl Hansen, dean of the College of eLearning & Extended Education, who launched OLLI at HSU in 2004.
In 1977, Bernard Osher, a businessman and patron of the arts and education, founded the Bernard Osher Foundation. Today, the San Francisco-based foundation supports about 120 OLLI programs at various colleges and universities around the country. It also supports post-secondary scholarships, integrative medicine programs, and arts and educational organizations.
OLLI endowments are extremely competitive and only awarded to programs that meet strict criteria, including maintaining memberships of 1,000 learners or more every year. That OLLI at HSU, which operates under the College of eLearning & Extended Education, has reached those membership numbers and received two $1 million endowments underscores the quality of the program, said OLLI director Sheila Rocker Heppe.
“Larger universities that have access to larger communities struggle to get 1,000 members,” Rocker Heppe said. “Our strong membership says a lot about HSU’s OLLI. People here love the program because it’s a place to connect with others and to keep the mind active. Every person who walks through the door wants to learn and expand their experiences.”
Students and OLLI teachers, many of whom are either current or retired HSU faculty, rave about OLLI—and it’s easy to see why. The program offers an eclectic mix of non-credit courses. This fall semester, for example, students could take everything from “Folds, Faults & Fossils” to “Intro to iPad Basics.”
Passion for learning is at the very heart of OLLI—and it shows. Rollie Lamberson, 73, a former HSU professor of Mathematics, was hooked the moment he joined OLLI about eight years ago. Since then, he has taken classes on local history, Photoshop, and photography, and has taught an OLLI course series with former HSU Provost, Rick Vrem.
“Once you retire, you can become very isolated. OLLI keeps you in touch with a lot of like-minded people who are interested in, well, life.”
That zeal is surprising and inspiring, said local author and OLLI teacher Ray Raphael. “All I saw was 40 sets of eager eyes,” he recalled of his first OLLI class. “I never loved teaching more.”