I began attending OLLI at UNLV classes right after moving here in 2015. We moved here to be closer to our daughter and her family in LA and to get away from the snow in Michigan—our long-time home state.
I attended OLLI at UNLV classes for about two years before I began instructing mathematics classes.
“So you know, the bottom line is OLLI is a fundamental part of our life, you know, when people ask us, ‘Well, what do you do with your time? I think the first thing that comes to mind is we're involved with OLLI. It's really a fundamental part of every week.
Following my career in community mental health and a post-retirement coda teaching over 150 college and university courses, the prospect of retiring was daunting. I wanted to keep on helping people and I hadn’t yet had my fill of teaching.
I first learned about OLLI from a friend in an organization that I volunteered with who is also from Hawaii like me, and I joined OLLI five years ago. Then two years later, we faced the pandemic, but we didn’t really miss a beat because we have the Zoom virtual learning.
Around five months after losing my wife, I was spending time at a senior center and my friend Dawn told me about OLLI. She said that I would really enjoy it, and she was absolutely right.
When I retired in 2017 and moved to Vegas to be near family, I didn’t know anyone. I started going to Meetup lunches and happened to meet someone who regularly attended OLLI.
I heard about OLLI at UNLV from my friend Steve. He and his wife and I have been friends for years, and he was taking classes here at OLLI. He told me about it and I said, sure. I began taking a class he was teaching and I really liked it and I started taking other classes and I've enjoyed it.
I discovered OLLI at a turning point in my life. After 3 years of caring for my husband of 50 years who passed away from ALS, I found myself with a lot of time and energy, and nothing to do with it.