Exploring New Horizons
Osher lifelong Learning Institute of Yavapai College, Prescott
A Little Bit da Vinci
by Tricia Berlowe
Please note:
 Phoenix Art Museum
da Vinci Trip 4/4
 Spring 2 Schedules will
be in mailboxes soon!
 Summer Proposals are
due March 2
 Watch for an upcoming
issue with our Gadabout Reader!
 The OLLI office will be
moving—you will find
us shortly in the same
building, but over one
door!
OLLI Newsletter
Committee Members
Bob Kane
Al Herron
Ron Woerner
Staff
Tricia Berlowe
Cathie Martin
Contributing authors
Dianne Kuzminski
Barbara Mace
Donna Sherwin
Leonardo da Vinci accomplished more in a week than most
of us hope to in a lifetime. But on
rethinking that sentence, is it at all
possible we all could be as accomplished as da Vinci? Maybe a little
bit? He was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist,
cartographer, botanist and writer. Now, how would I describe myself?
Well, I was actually a math major in college, so mathematician? Check. Musician? Piano and flute. Check. Botanist? I have a flower garden, does that
count? And I want to get my hands on some milkweed seeds to plant to
help the monarch butterflies. Does that make me a little bit of an environmentally conscious botanist?
So what else should be on my list to accomplish? What haven’t I
tried yet? Truth – I’ve wanted to try to play the oboe. And I used to like
acting. Maybe when the kids are all gone, try out for a play? How would
you list your accomplishments? What haven’t you tried yet? What do you
still want to learn more about?
We have an amazing opportunity to look into the world of Leonardo
Da Vinci – and maybe even find a little bit of da Vinci in ourselves! We are
hosting a field trip on Saturday, April 4 to the Phoenix Art Museum to view
the exhibit Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester and the Power of Observation. The Codex manuscript, the only one in an American collection, will be
on display. The Codex is the most popular of his scientific writings. It
fetched $30.8 million dollars, purchased by Bill Gates, the highest price ever
paid for a book. The exhibit will explore the ideas of curiosity, direct observation, and thinking on paper as part of the creative process. There will be
works of art displayed that share aspects of da Vinci’s approaches, from
Renaissance to modern day artists. And, as a bonus, there will also be an
exhibit of Andy Warhol portraits in the museum during our visit.
So, in the spirit of expanding our horizons, looking wider and deeper
into subjects, and becoming a little bit da Vinci, I hope you will join us.
Page 2
Exploring New Horizons
Chair’s Potpourri
No Drawing-No Bumps Live in HD at YCPAC
The Governing Council has
the on-going priority of making
sure each member is able to
attend the class(es) requested.
Spring 1, 12 classes were oversubscribed, but creative methods
dissolved this “pebble in the
shoe.”
Thanks to Michael McClure
who agreed to add a second
section for his class. Thanks to the
10 other facilitators who agreed to
take a larger class than their
preferred number, including two
who moved to larger rooms to
accommodate those larger
numbers.
Thanks to the members
who knew they would be missing
a number of classes, and
volunteered to drop so there
would be no oversubscription for
that class.
But most of all – thanks
and kudos to Tricia Berlowe,
our administrator, who contacted
all 12 facilitators and all members
of that 12th class to make the
drawing-free session possible.
At the end of one of my classes I
was stopped by an attendee who
explained to me that he had never
been exposed to opera during his
childhood. However, because
OLLI was on the Yavapai College
campus, he decided to try a
Metropolitan Opera presentation
through the Live in HD at YCPAC.
He was entranced; he had found
a “new world” that totally
enthused and delighted him. He
asked me to inform our members
that the productions are incredible
and the price to attend is very
reasonable. He hopes, and I
concur, that many more will enjoy
this opportunity provided by
Yavapai College.
Nominating Committee
and Governing Council
Elections
Each and every year, the
Governing Council has half its
membership renewed through
elections. This year there will be 5
member positions and one
alternate to elect. Those on the
nominating committee – Saul
Fein, Barbara Mace, Chris
Maxwell, and Marge Rubin are in
the process of developing a list of
candidates for the election to be
held in May. If you are interested
in a Governing Council position,
contact one of us or the office for
further information.
Happy New Year!
Barbara Mace, Chair,
Governing Council
2014 Annual Meeting Presentation of the Board
We need summer learning group and workshop proposals! The proposal form can be found online at
www.yc.edu/prescottolli, scroll down to “Facilitator
Materials (Proposals…), or drop by the office. Explore
a new horizon—become a facilitator!
Page 3
Volume 10 Issue 1, Feb 2015
Peer-to-Peer Learning
The Many Ways We Help Each Other Learn and Explore New Worlds
By Donna Sherwin, Curriculum Committee
Peer-To-Peer Learning is what
OLLI is all about. It is the very
foundation of OLLI groups all over
the country, and we help each other
learn and explore in so many ways.
The title of an article by Jeff Brazil on
dmlhub.net, May, 2011 presents a
great definition of Peer-To-Peer
Learning: “Learning for Everyone, by
Everyone, about almost Anything.”
“...members who
attend classes, ask questions and offer comments
are also “facilitating.”
Prescott OLLI members who
teach classes, present seminars, lead
field trips and manage Special
Interest Groups (SIGs) are all called
Facilitators. However, members who
attend classes, ask questions and
offer comments are also “facilitating”
our Peer-To-Peer Learning
experience. If you attend an opera,
tour a museum, play bridge, write
memoirs or read books in a group,
you are learning with and from each
other.
You do not have to be an
expert. We can’t emphasize too
strongly that you do not have to be
an expert to lead a class or present a
seminar. In fact, finding DVDs,
articles, web sites, videos, movies,
books or TV programs about a
subject you are interested in, but
don’t know much about, is a great
way to learn along with your peers.
Participants will come with
information and ideas to add.
There are many types of
information to share (aka
“Facilitate”).
 Subjects that interest you.
Learn as you go from DVDs and
other sources. (Medicine,
Geology, History, Science, …)
 Subjects you know about.
Share your expertise with your
peers, using additional sources as
needed. (Life in the Universe,
Weather, Taxes, How Colors
Affect You, Computers, …)
 A set of movies, lectures,
articles or books. Discuss and
enjoy them together. (Ted Talks,
Opera for Everyone, ...)
 Your craft or hobby: Share
your skills with others. (Floral
Design, Birding, Chess, …)
“We can’t emphasize too
strongly that you do not have
to be an
expert to lead a class or present a seminar.”
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Good activities for group
particitation. Lead and
participate with others in new
and fun experiences: (Martin
Gardner’s Mathematical Puzzles,
Labyrinths, Hiking, ...)
Places to explore or events to
attend: Lead a field trip explore
a new place. (Opera, Theatre,
Museums, Local Prescott Bronze
Foundry, ...)
Ongoing group activities. We
have great Special Interest
Groups. (Book Club, Poetry,
Social Bridge, Memoir...)
Think beyond 6-week classes!
The list of venues we use to share
information and learn together is
long. Six-week class sessions are only
the beginning. Your program can be a
part of a semester with two or three
meetings or a one-day workshop, or
it can stretch over six semesters with
up to 36 meetings. See the list of
venues below. If you can think of
another venue for this list, we can
give it a try.
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OLLI Learning Venues
Learning experiences using
DVDs, TV specials, movies or
other material: Discussion always follows their viewing. Spend
a few weeks or several semesters
on your topic.
Lectures and supporting visuals based on your knowledge
of a subject: Again, take only a
few weeks or several semesters.
Munch & Learn/Workshops:
They usually have one or two one
to three hour sessions .
Special Interest Groups:
A group meets as appropriate to
share an activity together.
Winter and Summer
Doldrums: Programs occur
between semesters and include
lectures, “movie and a meal” or
single episodes from a series.
One-Day Field Trips: These
often involve bus trips.
Also, let’s not forget the hard work of
our committees and staff. They
manage our organization, making
Peer-To-Peer Learning possible.
Yavapai College
Phoenix Symphony
By Dianne Kuzminski
On Saturday January 24th, a
group of OLLI members went
to see a concert at Symphony
Hall in Phoenix. The shows
name, "Broadway Romance,"
gives you an idea of the
theme. Ted Sperling was the
conductor, with vocalists Laura
Osnes and Santino Fontana. Mr. Sperling wrote a
storyline about the stages of a
romance from first meeting,
dating, realizing they’re in love
and finally marriage. Woven
into the story were songs from Broadway hits that were relevant. The group enjoyed the bus, the wonderful seats center
stage and on the floor, and finally good food and conversation
at P.F. Chang's before returning home. This production, as all
others trips we will be taking to the Phoenix Symphony in the
future, are not presented when the symphony comes to Prescott, so even if you have season tickets, going to Phoenix will
not be a conflict with your purchased tickets for Prescott.
Times, They Are A Changin’
As you all know, we shifted our meeting times in order to insure that we
would have enough rooms for all our
learning groups during the construction on campus. We discovered during Spring 1 that leaving only 15
minutes between our 12-2pm and
2:15-4:15pm learning groups was
causing a number of problems, including not allowing enough time for facilitators to get ready and for members
to walk between classrooms. So for
Spring 2 we are going to try a slight
variation: 12-2pm and 2:30-4:30pm.
We understand this isn’t a perfect solution, and we thank you for your patience while we work through all these
changes.
Explore New Horizons
The theme of our Spring 2 Schedule is “Explore New Horizons.” Make sure to read Ward Stanke’s excellent column in the inside cover of our next schedule. You will see beautiful photographs, all taken by Chris
Maxwell, showing amazing horizons from all over the world. We want to invite you to try something new,
go somewhere different, change up your routine! Not a music person? Come with us to see Phantom of
the Opera. Not a science or art person? Come with us to the
Phoenix Art Museum to see the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit. Taking the French Revolution history learning group series? How
about adding Opera for Everyone this time – the focus is Paris!
(And two of the featured operas are even set during the revolution in France.) Love learning groups like Viewpoints? How
about trying to argue for the opposite side of your typical
stance on a topic? Already taking Asian Religions? How about
adding Foundations of Eastern Civilization to your schedule this
session to deepen your understanding?