This Week at OLLI

July 21, 2025

Week of July 21, 2025 

A MESSAGE FROM OUR DIRECTOR

Please join me in congratulating Beth Desrosiers on her promotion to Assistant Director at our OLLI. Beth joined our staff in November 2018 and quickly felt at home working with our vibrant and engaged members. Her energy, creativity, and technical expertise have greatly enhanced our operations, supporting both members and instructors alike. Beth’s friendliness and personal touch make everyone feel welcome, and her contributions have become an essential part of our community. We are truly fortunate to have her on our team, and we look forward to her continued impact as we shape the future of OLLI together. Please take a moment to stop by and offer Beth your congratulations.

Onward and upward!

Beth Leconte

OLLI Director

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (SIGS) & OLLI EXTRAS – Registration is now open for the current year (7/25-6/26). SIGS are FREE with your OLLI membership but registration is required. Click Here for More Info

REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED FOR THE FOLLOWING CLASSES –

  • What is Chamber Music? A Peek Behind the Curtain
  • Rhode Island Lighthouse Tour

ADDITIONAL CLASS OFFERINGS –

There are still a few spaces available in these Second Sessions: (Please look at the dates carefully as these are second sessions and not the dates listed in the catalog.)

Express Yourself: Learn to Paint Like Vincent van Gogh (Session 2) with Kara Marziali, Wed July 30, 3:30-6:30PM

Understanding Offshore Wind Energy: Consequences from Plankton to People (Session 2) with Barbara Sullivan-Watts, Mon Aug 18, 1-2:30PM

Don McLean’s American Pie & “The Day the Music Died” (Session 2) with Brett Morse, Fri Aug 22, 1-3PM

CLASS SPOTLIGHT – Register online or call 401.874.4197

Reading Your Medicine’s Labels & Inserts – 3 Sessions with John McLane beginning Thu, July 31 at 1:00PM. Have you ever tried to read the insert package on your prescription medicine and been left overwhelmed or confused?  Now you can learn how to interpret all that information and understand better how effective the drug is, what side effects are possible, and how to take it. During this session we can discuss medications you are currently taking. 

Inspire: Hands-on Motivational Techniques to Uplift Daily Living (ZOOM) – 3 Sessions with Teresa Testa beginning Tues, Aug 5, 2-3:30PM. This class will follow from Teresa’s “Inspire: Motivation” course, introducing students to brand-new and productive strategies for human motivation. The ultimate goal is to inspire a greater sense of wellbeing so that each day is more easily managed. This is a beneficial course for any individual looking to increase momentum in action, gain new energy to accomplish, and organize how to tackle any responsibility, task, or project. No task is too big or too small. Previous students remarked that the course was a great inspiration to getting moving, staying active, and organizing endeavors that need to be achieved.

School Math for Grandparents: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division – 4 Sessions with James Bierden, beginning Thur, Aug 7, 9:30-11AM. Parents and grandparents are often frustrated because the math their child brings home from elementary school is not the math they learned in school, certainly not the math they remember. We will look at what happens in elementary school classrooms as children use problem solving strategies to learn about computation so they can use computation to solve problems. We’ll explore how math is being taught, starting with addition in first grade through division in fourth grade. The course is based on suggested math standards, the content of college math methods courses, and observations by the instructor.

THIS WEEK AT OLLI 

Monday

  • 9:30AM In This Moment: Mindfulness Meditation
  • 10:00AM Let’s Re-read Banned Books
  • 11:00AM The Rehnquist Court, 1986-2005 (Osher Online)
  • 11:30AM Second Lives: The Journey of Brain Injury Survivors and Their Healers
  • 1:30PM From Both Sides: The US-Canadian Border
  • 1:30PM Spirit of Flight
  • 5:00PM 80th Anniversary of WWII in Europe, 1944-1945

Tuesday

  • 9:00AM Biking Group
  • 9:30AM Observing, Adapting, Creating Change in the Home Landscape
  • 11:30AM The Orchestra – From Birth to the 20th Century
  • 1:00PM The Economics of Public Policy (Osher Online)
  • 1:00PM The United Nations: Past, Present, Future 
  • 3:00PM Journey Through the Camino de Santiago
  • 7:00PM History of Beer (Osher Online)

Wednesday

  • 9:00AM Dartmouth Lecture Series- America’s Best Idea: The First Amendment…(Live-Stream)
  • 9:30AM Events Committee
  • 10:00AM Working Girls of Boston
  • 11:00AM Enjoying the Past and Present New York City (Osher Online)
  • 12:00PM Knowing Vincent
  • 12:30PM Bowling
  • 1:00PM Hiking
  • 1:00PM Demystifying Energy Security (Osher Online)
  • 2:00PM Finance Committee
  • 2:00PM Cribbage
  • 3:00PM Stories of Adventure: The Norse Saga (Osher Online)
  • 5:00PM Public Health Across the Lifespan (Osher Online)

Thursday

  • 10:00AM Don’t Forget to Pack Your iPhone
  • 11:00AM Current Events
  • 1:00PM Mah Jongg
  • 1:00PM Integrating Social Security
  • 1:00PM Architectural Oddities (Osher Online)
  • 3:00PM Program Committee
  • 3:00PM 20th Century American Short Story III (ZOOM)
  • 7:00PM 100 Years of Magic: The Disney Legacy & Influence (Osher Online)

Friday

  • 10:00AM Watercolor for Nature Journaling
  • 1:00PM Summer Sci-Fi Film Fest
  • 1:00PM Elvis – The King
  • 1:00PM What Is Chamber Music? A Peek Behind The Curtain

PARKING – Registration for the upcoming year is NOT open yet. Your current registration is valid until July 31, 2025.  We will notify you as soon as Parking Registration is open for renewal.

RHODY OUTPOST– Since the beginning of May there have been 725 visits to the Outpost, about a 15% increase from the same period last year.  The outpost has distributed nearly 11,000 pounds of food and personal care items to students experiencing food insecurity. The following are the most critical needs:

  1. Paper bags with handles
  2. Gift cards (regular or e-card versions welcome) to Walmart, Stop & Shop, Amazon, Dollar Tree, Job Lot – these allow us to distribute them directly to students who have additional needs, or gives us the opportunity to easily replenish our empty shelves
  3. Peanut butter, jelly, rice, toothpaste, pasta, tomato products, dish soap 

Click Here to view the updated list of all urgently needed items. You can also purchase items directly from Amazon on the Rhody Outpost Wish List.  As always, thank you so much for your support!

GET YOUR OLLI BAG TODAY! ($20)  Perfect for the beach or boat!  Click Here for more info. (HATS ARE SOLD OUT!)

OLLI UNLV WRITING PROJECT: OLLI UNLV invites you to submit your writing for a community-wide project. Click here for all the details.

DID YOU KNOW YOU COULD BOOK A ONE-ON-ONE TECH CALL WITH CYBER SENIORS? Click here to get started!

THE WAY WE SEE: A Visual and Emotional Conversation exhibit from Anthony Tomaselli 

The exhibit includes 50 works of art (3 series of work) by noted Rhode Island Artist Anthony Tomaselli, URI Green Hall and Higgins Welcome Center, Upper College Road, July 18-Sept 5, 8:30AM-5:00PM Click Here for details.

CALLING ALL VETERANS! RI Elder Info Presents: 6th Annual Calling All Veterans Day – A free, family-friendly event where Veterans of all eras connect with benefits, services, and each other! It’s more than a resource fair- it’s where honor, help and heart come together! Saturday, Aug 16th, 2025 10AM-1PM, SEABEE Museum Memorial Park, 21 Iafrate Way, North Kingstown, RI. Click Here for more info and Here for Free tickets!

If you would like to receive updates of URI News and Events subscribe to Rhody Today. 
If you would like to connect with OLLI go to our website olli@uri.edu or follow/like us on  .