News & Press Releases
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY'S
OSHER LIFELONG LEARNING INSTITUTE CELEBRATES 20 YEARS OF STUDY FOR
MATURE LEARNERS WITH
GALA DINNER IN EVANSTON, OCTOBER 30, 2007
FOR RELEASE:
Immediate
MEDIA CONTACT:
Joan Dry, 312.503.1561 or j-dry@northwestern.edu
Chicago and Evanston, IL, September 25, 2007 -- Northwestern
University School of Continuing Studies celebrates the 20th
anniversary of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute with
a gala dinner at Evanston's Hotel Orrington, 1710 Orrington
Avenue, Tuesday, October 30, at 5:30pm.
The honored guest speaker is Newton N. Minow, senior counsel in the Chicago office
of Sidley Austin, LLP, and law partner from 1965-1991. A graduate of Northwestern
University and the School of Law, Mr. Minow is a life trustee of Northwestern
and the University of Notre Dame, as well as Annenberg Professor Emeritus at
Northwestern. He has served as Chairman of the Carnegie Foundation, the Public
Broadcasting Service, and The RAND Corporation. In 1961, President John F.
Kennedy appointed him Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He
is the recipient of twelve honorary degrees and the author of four books. He
is most notably remembered for one of broadcastings most famous speeches, his
1961 address to the National Association of Broadcasters, excoriating television
as "vast wasteland," a description that resonates even further today.
In 1986, Mr. Minow helped to found Northwestern's Institute for Learning in Retirement
(ILR), now called Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, based on a similar program
at Harvard University. Today, OLLI at Northwestern has almost 500 members in
Chicago and Evanston. This center for creative study for mature adults was
renamed in 2005, as a result of a generous grant from the Bernard Osher Foundation
of San Francisco. The Osher Foundation (www.osherfoundation.org) is currently
supporting 115 Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes on university and college
campuses in 48 states (plus the District of Columbia).
The gala event at Evanston's Hotel Orrington is at 5:30p.m., with cocktails and
reminiscences by OLLI members. Visual recollections will also be displayed.
At 6:30, dinner will be served, accompanied by music from the Northwestern
School of Music. Tickets are $40; there will be a cash bar. Speakers will also
include School of Continuing Studies Dean Thomas Gibbons, Associate Dean Linda
Salchenberger, and OLLI director, Judy Mann. Long-standing OLLI members will
be honored as well. For information, call Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
at 312.503.7881.
OSHER GRANT TO ENHANCE
LEARNING FOR OLDER ADULTS
MEDIA CONTACT:
Charles R. Loebbaka at (847) 491-4887 or at c-loebbaka@northwestern.edu
FOR RELEASE:
Immediate
EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University’s School
of Continuing Studies Institute for Learning in Retirement
has been awarded a $100,000 grant by the Bernard Osher Foundation
to enhance and develop new opportunities for lifelong learning.
The grant is renewable for up to two additional years and
qualifies the University to apply for a $1 million endowment
grant in the third year or sooner.
This source of funding will enable the ILR to expand in a
variety of areas. The program will be able to develop strategic
long-range planning, provide full-day trainings to ILR members
in the “shared inquiry method” to enhance the
quality of discussions in study groups, and to offer increased
financial aid to those on fixed incomes. The grant will also
enable the institute to increase its membership through new
marketing efforts.
“We are thrilled that we were chosen for this grant.
It further energizes our mission of creating a highly participatory,
stimulating, lifelong learning community,” said Barbara
Reinish, Director. “We are now part of a special prestigious
network that will provide us with a broad forum for sharing
best practices to enrich lifelong learning throughout the
country.”
Northwestern’s ILR program was one of 13 to be awarded
the grant this year. Currently there are 61 Osher Lifelong
Learning Institutes in 23 states. Some are startups, and others
such as Northwestern, Harvard, Duke, Tufts and UC Irvine have
established programs.
Launched 17 years ago, at the recommendation of University
Trustee, Newton Minow, Northwestern’s Institute for
Learning in Retirement offers a wide range of study groups
where members explore such topics as literature, history,
politics, science, and philosophy, through the School of Continuing
Studies on the Evanston and Chicago campuses.
The Osher Foundation has been supporting institutions of
higher education since 1977 through scholarship funding and
integrative medicine centers at Harvard and the University
of California at San Francisco. Several years ago it began
to promote educational opportunities for people 50 and older
seeking to learn for the joy of learning.
“We are delighted” said Mary Bitterman, President
of the Osher Foundation, “that Northwestern’s
Institute for Learning in Retirement is becoming an Osher
Lifelong Learning Institute. Its achievements to date are
outstanding, and we look forward to the program making important
contributions to the Osher Institute network that now extends
from Maine to Hawaii.”
NUILR Wins
Coveted Award
The Northwestern University Institute for Learning in Retirement
(NUILR) received the prestigious 1998 Outstanding Program
Model Award for Older Adults during the Association for Continuing
Higher Education's 60th Annual Meeting in Fort Worth, Texas
in November.
Northwestern's special program was honored for its superiority
in terms of creativity, talent and dedication to the field
of older adult programming.
Current participants range in age from their mid-50s to early
90s. There are 371 members in Evanston and 168 in Chicago.
They study, discuss, learn, argue, challenge and support
each other during seminar-style study groups. They also shape
their own curriculum and determine their own direction.
The key to the success of NUILR is its devotion to the concept
of peer learning. Members have neither expert instructors
nor lectures. Study groups are built on the premise that each
member of the group is an active participant in his or her
learning and each is responsible for taking a turn to facilitate
discussion. Members conduct additional research into subjects
using the University Library and computers in order to enrich
discussion within their groups. Passivity is discouraged.
Northwestern is among a handful of similar programs that are
based on peer learning and which include Harvard, The New
School for Social Policy, McGill, and American University.
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