KU, Hutchinson Community College partner to offer lifelong learning courses


LAWRENCE — The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Kansas in partnership with Hutchinson Community College will offer six courses and three special events this spring on three HCC campuses. In addition to the courses offered on the main campus in Hutchinson, the McPherson and Newton centers now join the schedule.

Osher Lifelong Learning courses are held as three two-hour sessions, generally for three consecutive weeks. A unit of KU Continuing Education, the Osher Institute develops enrichment programs focusing on those 50 and over but welcomes lifelong learners of all ages. Three spring courses in Hutchinson are as follows:

March: “400 Silent Years: The Era between the Old and New Testaments” will be March 13, 20 and 27, 2-4 p.m., in the Justice Theater of HCC’s Shears Technology Center. The course reveals the political, cultural, geographical and religious shifts that occurred during these missing 400 years. The course will be taught by Ted Weis, adjunct lecturer in biblical studies at Sterling College.

April: “The Story of the Orphan Trains and the Quest for New Homes” takes place at Mennonite Friendship Communities in South Hutchinson, on April 17, 24 and May 1, 2-4 p.m. The course explores the most unusual migration in U.S. history. Starting in the mid-1880s, 200,000 desperately poor children were transported from eastern cities to settle in the Midwest. Many found homes in Kansas, sometimes with adoptive families who treated them as their own. Others were exploited as “cheap labor.” Instructor John E. Sharp teaches history at Hesston College.

May: “Feeding the Threshers: Harvest Customs of Kansas” will be presented May 21 and 22, 1-4 p.m. in the Justice Theater of HCC’s Shears Technology Center. The course explores the rich history of harvest traditions in Kansas, from the pioneer era to the wireless technology of today. Women’s role in the harvest will be emphasized. Instructor Roy Bird, former director of the Kansas Center for the Book at the Kansas State Library, invites participants to bring photos and share their memories.

Last year HCC expanded Osher courses to the Hutchinson Community College McPherson Center, 2208 E. Kansas Ave, just off the I-335 McPherson exit. Two courses will be held this spring. Taught by professional photographer Jim Griggs “Seeing the World, One Eye at a Time,” will help participants turn ordinary “picture-taking” into an art form. The course will meet March 5, 18 and 25 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. “Stars in Our Eyes” focuses on new information about our solar system, Milky Way galaxy and universe, their origins and their ultimate fates. It meets April 22, 29 and May 6 from 3-5 p.m. and is taught by Jim E. Yoder, Ph.D., of Hesston College.

This spring the Osher Institute expands to Newton. The Hutchinson Community College Newton Center, 203 E. Broadway, Newton, offers its first Osher course April 1, 8 and 15, 2-4 p.m. “Arlington National Cemetery: Its History and Its Heroes” is taught by Jim Peters, the author of the nation’s best-selling book on Arlington Cemetery and the director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at KU.

In addition to short courses, the Osher Institute and Hutchinson Community College will offer three special events. This spring’s day trip will offer “Seeing Lindsborg with New Eyes.” Participants will depart from the HCC campus by coach Friday, April 25, at 9 a.m. for a tour of the Old Mill Museum and Heritage Square, and a Swedish meatballs lunch at the Swedish Crown restaurant, followed by an afternoon of gallery hopping and shopping. The afternoon will finish with a guided tour of the Berger Sandzen Memorial Gallery.

On the HCC campus, from 7-8:30 p.m. April 9, Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, former Poet Laureate of Kansas, presents “Needle in the Bone: How a Holocaust Survivor and a Polish Resistance Fighter Beat the Odds,” profiling two extraordinary Kansas men whose stories of survival demonstrate the triumph of the human spirit. The presentation is repeated at the Newton Center on April 10, 7-8:30 p.m.

More courses and special events are available in other locations in South Central Kansas—North Newton, Hesston and McPherson. Course topics range from the Protestant Reformation to globalization. For a full list of course titles, descriptions, instructors, dates and locations, or to enroll, visit Osher or call toll free (877) 404-5823.

“This spring’s theme is Lifelong Learning. Lifelong Growing,” said Jim Peters, the Institute’s director. “It is also the name of our first annual fundraising campaign, launched in November.” After two years of rapid growth, the Institute is eligible in 2014 for a $1 million endowed grant from the Osher Foundation in San Francisco.

“We are close to meeting the last of seven of the Foundation’s benchmarks, a robust annual fundraising campaign that raises a minimum of $15,000 per year,” said Peters. “The response of our members has been gratifying. We’re getting close, but we’re not there yet.”

The Bernard Osher Foundation of San Francisco selected KU in 2004 as a site for this nationally acclaimed program that shares the rich resources of the University of Kansas with the general public. Hutchinson Community College was the first Kansas regional institution to partner with KU, bringing Osher courses to the south central area in 2008.The institute now has more than 2,700 members, statewide, and this spring is offering 68 short courses and 12 events in 32 sites in 17 cities. 

Mon, 01/27/2014

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Liz Black

Media Contacts

Liz Black

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

785-864-7889