Photo courtesy of USF
By Ashley Pena
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 has welcomed seniors from across the city to participate in low-cost opportunities for learning.
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.
The OLLI senior learning program offers courses ranging from culinary studies to financial literacy for retirement. Many of the courses utilize alternative instructing styles to boost engagement and conversation within the classes.
Last spring, Catherine Wilkins, a professor at OLLI and the USF St. Petersburg Honors College, adapted her undergraduate course, Healing Arts, to be a better fit for the OLLI senior learning program.
“When I was thinking about developing an OLLI course and 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,” Wilkins told the Crow’s Nest. “So, I basically taught a very condensed workshop for OLLI participants on therapeutic methods of engagement with art.”
Wilkins’ experience instructing for OLLI differs from how she teaches for the undergraduate USF St. Petersburg Honors College.
“We 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,” Wilkins said.
Additionally, many of Wilkins’ students for OLLI were retirees with years of past expertise in other topics.
“There 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,” Wilkins said, “They really became co-teachers in a way. It was really incredible for me to learn from their history.”
Wilkins said she never thought she’d learn so much from her students — and she didn’t anticipate the spirit that students brought to the course.
“The OLLI participants defy stereotypes about aging because everyone who was in my class was extremely dynamic and energetic,” Wilkins said. “I think it’s extremely valuable to have OLLI right in downtown St. Pete where there is such a large population that could be participating in the program.”
