{"id":216703,"date":"2026-04-02T22:45:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T22:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/216703\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T22:45:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T22:45:33","slug":"usfsp-welcomes-senior-bulls-with-osher-lifelong-learning-institute-the-crows-nest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/216703\/","title":{"rendered":"USFSP welcomes\u00a0senior Bulls with Osher Lifelong Learning Institute\u00a0\u00a0 \u2013 The Crow’s Nest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo courtesy of USF\u00a0<\/p>\n

By Ashley Pena\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), a learning program for local seniors looking to continue their education, expanded to the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus in spring 2025. Since then, the OLLI program at USF St. Petersburg\u00a0has welcomed seniors from across the city to\u00a0participate\u00a0in low-cost opportunities for learning.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each course and lecture offered in the OLLI program is geared toward building a stronger community between seniors living in St. Petersburg. In a city with a dense population of retirees, the OLLI program is an accessible way for seniors to stay active and involved.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The OLLI senior learning program offers courses ranging from culinary studies to financial literacy for retirement. Many of the courses\u00a0utilize\u00a0alternative instructing styles to boost engagement and conversation within the classes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last spring, Catherine Wilkins, a professor at OLLI and the USF St.\u00a0Petersburg Honors\u00a0College, adapted her undergraduate course, Healing Arts, to be a better fit for the OLLI senior learning program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was thinking about developing an OLLI course\u00a0and recognized that many of my students would be older, I thought it would be interesting to the OLLI audience to aim for reducing social isolation and improving cognition,\u201d Wilkins told the\u00a0Crow\u2019s Nest.\u00a0\u201cSo, I basically taught a very condensed workshop for OLLI participants on therapeutic methods of engagement with art.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wilkins\u2019 experience instructing for OLLI differs from how\u00a0she teaches\u00a0for the undergraduate USF St. Petersburg Honors College.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a lot of experiential learning, rather than lectures, where I was demonstrating methods and engaging participants in those activities, so they could see for themselves the therapeutic value of art,\u201d Wilkins said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, many of Wilkins\u2019\u00a0students for OLLI were retirees with years of past\u00a0expertise\u00a0in other topics.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were two people in the course who had worked in a professional capacity in the arts and health fields, so they were able to bring their clinical and teaching experiences to bear on the conversations that we had in class,\u201d Wilkins said, \u201cThey really became co-teachers in a way. It was\u00a0really incredible\u00a0for me to learn from their history.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wilkins said she\u00a0never thought\u00a0she\u2019d\u00a0learn so much from her students \u2014 and she\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0anticipate\u00a0the spirit that students brought to the course.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe OLLI participants defy stereotypes about aging because everyone who was in my class was extremely dynamic and energetic,\u201d Wilkins said.\u00a0\u201cI think it\u2019s extremely valuable to have OLLI right in downtown St. Pete where there is such a large population that could be participating in the program.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t Post Views: 64 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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Written by: Ashley Pena<\/a> on April 2, 2026.
Last revised by: Julia Ferrara<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy of USF\u00a0 By Ashley Pena\u00a0\u00a0 The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), a learning program for local…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-216703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}