The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the Florida State University is a scholarly and exciting program of classes targeted to retired individuals and folks over 50 who want to continue their education in a stress free environment where there are no tests and no homework: Learning for the fun of learning. The OLLI offers scholarly classes during a 6-week Spring Term and a 6-week Fall Term. OLLI classes meet on campus at The Claude Pepper Center and at several offsite locales, including Green Industries Institute. Please visit the OLLI website for more information about how to become a member of OLLI, as well as other courses being offered this semester.

Course Registration begins Wednesday, January 11th at 10:00 a.m.
Classes begin February 6th and continue through March 22nd. All classes meet two hours once a week for six weeks unless otherwise noted. 

Spring 2012 Classes offered at Green Industries Institute

Hands-on Organic Gardening for Early Spring (Thursdays 1:00-3:00)  

Spring Fever means spring vegetables! Get some practical outdoor experience, as well as information in the classroom to make sure you have the tools for the best spring garden you’ve ever grown. You and your classmates will work on building and planting raised bed gardens, from which we will harvest for our End-of-Class Potluck and Recipe-Sharing Extravaganza. We will also start some seeds in our greenhouse for you to take home, and learn about which vegetables need to be trellised (supported with a structure) and build some examples. We will have an entire class devoted to tomatoes, because even though they are the darling of the vegetable garden, they are also the most persnickety. Come join us in beautiful Monticello for an active, experience-driven class that will help you improve your gardening for seasons to come. Class size limit: 25

Harlem in the Jazz Age: Exploring Improvisation as an American Phenomenon (Thursdays 9:30-11:30)  

The course will use literature, music and the arts to examine the results of cultural contact zones in Harlem, Manhattan during the Roaring Twenties. Participants will have a chance to create their own presentations within that context of “improvisation.” Class size limit: 30.

Writing Our Place in the World: Nature Memoir (Thursdays 1:30-3:30)  

This course is for people who want to explore their fit into the vast world that holds us. We will dive into the abundant material offered by our own bodies living at this very specific time and place on Earth. We will also write towards this question: “What is Earth asking of me now?” A substantial amount of our time together will be spent on writing exercises, and friendly, constructive group feedback. You will be encouraged to keep a personal nature journal as the spring unfolds, and to pay close attention to the places you are drawn to, and the larger processes affecting our world right now.. We will read Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola’s Tell It Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction, and Susan Cerulean’s Tracking Desire: A Journey After Swallow-tailed Kites, and many bits of poetry and memoir from Linda Hogan to Mary Oliver. Class size limit: 20