Director's Welcome

Dear OLLI at ASU Community,

It has been my absolute honor to serve as the Director of this vibrant and engaging community this past year. It is hard to believe almost one full year has passed since starting this position. Time seems to fly when you love what you do and get up every day excited to work. We have some tremendous things planned for this upcoming fall and spring, but I would be remiss to not recap some of the highlights of the last year.

We have had some unbelievable achievements and great learning moments. So many times people ask me why I bring up the struggles or learning moments, but to grow and achieve more, we need to talk about what to do better. Our team faces these challenges head on. Some things we are continuously working to improve are: adding more benefits to the OLLI membership, expanding our partnership list, improving our communication to members, recruiting new members, improving our website and registration, and gaining more instructors. We are always open to feedback as we strive to make this the best learning experience possible.

We had some amazing achievements including expanding into Peoria and downtown Chandler, welcoming over 450 new OLLI members, having our first OLLI Night of Excellence, hosting our Inaugural Sedona Film Festival trip, partnering with ASU School of Art through intergenerational workshops, and much more. I included the below photo because I believe it is one moment of many that encompasses our OLLI’s core foundations:

VIBRANCY

Focus on Lifelong Learning & Development COMMUNITY

Building & Growing Together PURPOSE

Living a Life of Purpose

I encourage you to help us continue to achieve these core principles and help expand our OLLI community by becoming Arizona’s leading gateway to lifelong learning.

Connection

I want to hear from you directly! Please join me, the rest of the OLLI at ASU staff, and your fellow members at any of the casual, friendly gatherings that we have organized throughout the semester. For new and returning members alike, our staff is eager to meet you and share with you information about the program and upcoming events for the Fall. We want to answer any questions you may have, hear about the favorite OLLI experiences from our returning members, and forge new connections to better serve our OLLI members. In our catalog below, you will see these opportunities marked as OLLI Connect: there are several location and date options in the hopes that everyone has the opportunity to register and join. We will provide light refreshments at each in-person event. For members who cannot join in person, I will be hosting a Zoom gathering for our community, called “001 | Top 10 Things You Need to Know About OLLI” that will meet on September 6 from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. I look forward to connecting with you!

Yours in learning,

Jared Swerzenski Director

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at ASU