Senior Academy

Get your pencils ready, registration is open! Hurry, classes begin April 2nd!

A Home for Lifelong Learners

The Senior Academy offers quarterly academic courses for Seniors that want to engage in academic material in a deeper way. We offer both online and in-person classes. Open to members and the general public!

Instructor:
Marty Worcester
Virgil Clarkson Lacey Senior Center

Late Life Design II: On-Going-Fine-Tuning of your Late Life Plans

Members: $40 | General Public: $60
Tuesday
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
April 2, 2024
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April 2, 2024

Open only to those who have taken a Late Life Design class from Marty in the past or by instructor permission.

In a two-hour class, you will review your past plans, joys, and challenges and work together on what you yet wish to do and be. New and updated resources are provided to keep you learning and growing!

Your Instructor: Martha (Marty) Worcester is a Consultant for Aging with a rich background in Growth and Development in the decades of life after age 65.  She works with individuals and groups to acquire the information and tools needed for the challenges and joys unique to each decade of late life. She fosters appreciation of the age you are and valuing those on the journey with you as you create your design.

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Instructor:
Pam Toal
Olympia Senior Center

Your Life, Your Story

Members - $160 | General Public - $180
Wednesdays
10:00 am to 12:00 pm
April 3, 2024
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May 22, 2024

Have you ever wanted to write your memoir or leave a legacy for your loved ones? This is your chance. This eight-week course includes activities and resources to help you write, share and preserve your life stories. Each week you’ll receive prompting questions to write two pages at home on a particular theme of your life history. You’ll bring your writing to class the following week to share with fellow storytellers and receive encouraging feedback. Sharing life stories is an ideal way to find new meaning in life and put past events into perspective. No writing experience is necessary, just an openness to appreciate and share the unique life that is yours.

Your Instructor: Pam Toal is a published writer, coach, and certified Guided Autobiography facilitator.  Her professional background in non-profits, higher education, and consulting led her to discover the rewards of writing and sharing life stories.

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Instructor:
Margo Benedetto
Olympia Senior Center

It's Enough Just to Put Something Down: Using Mindfulness for Dopamine Detox and Finding Reward

Members: $100 | General Public: $130
Thursdays
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
April 4, 2024
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May 9, 2024

In this continuing course on applied mindfulness, new and returning students will learn forms of daily meditation and practical skills to help “spring clean” the brain of toxic habits and restore healthful, reward-based mental, emotional and physical behaviors. We’ll explore how our brains work when we experience states such as craving, worry, depression, anger, willpower and liking versus wanting, and how mindfulness practices including compassion, gratitude and awe provide the helpful solution for our stressed-out nervous systems. Join us for a fun and interactive community workshop for the mind!

Your Instructor: Margo Benedetto is a certified mindfulness instructor and veteran classroom teacher in Washington State. She was a leader in bringing mindfulness education to Centralia School District from 2015-2020 and continues to provide personal and professional development on mindfulness for individuals and groups. She enjoys the variety of classroom setting she finds for her work, including Thurston County Dog 4-H, Olympia Senior Services and North Thurston Public Schools.

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Instructor:
Maia O'Brien
Olympia Senior Center

Introduction to Astrology

Members: $60 | General Public: $90
Thursdays
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
April 4, 2024
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May 2, 2024

Join Maia O’Brien as she offers as introduction to the fascinating world of astrology. The basic foundations of astrology will be presented including planets, signs, houses and planetary cycles. We will explore the many ways astrology is reflected in our own lives and the lives of those around us. It can give us a broader perspective on world events as well. Join us for lively and enlightening conversations about the beautiful, ancient, mystical art and science of astrology!

Your Instructor: Maia O’Brien is a physical therapist who uses dance, the creative arts therapies and astrology to help facilitate personal growth to enrich our connections with the world around us.

Class requirements: Please bring a printed copy of your birth chart to the classes, based on the time, date and place of your birth. Use the Whole Sign House system. Look this up on Time Passages or Astro.com apps.

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Instructor:
Ron Johnson
Zoom

Northwest Nations: Uncolonizing Our Shared Story: A Storywork Journey

Members: $100 | General Public: $150
Fridays
2:00 - 4:00 pm
April 5, 2024
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May 10, 2024

Embark on a transformative journey through storytelling and reflection, exploring the enduring impacts of colonization on our contemporary world. Designed using a “storywork” approach, this course will work to foster mutual understanding, empathy, and collective action.

This course is for you if you are:

• A participant curious about the legacy of colonization and its impact on our world.

• Committed to lifelong learning and personal growth.

• Passionate about building bridges of understanding and advocating for social justice.

• Open to exploring new perspectives and engaging in meaningful dialogue.

Join us on this journey of shared learning and collective action as we navigate the complexities of our past and work towards a more just and equitable future.

Your Instructor: Professor Ron Johnson is an enrolled member of the Makah Nation in Neah Bay.  His mother Julie is an enrolled member of the Lummi Nation. Ron has worked in a variety of natural resource fields, has three beautiful children and is currently pursuing his Doctorate degree. Ron has taught courses at The Evergreen State College and currently teaches at Northwest Indian College.

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Instructor:
Tony Usibelli
Olympia Senior Center

It's All Greek to Me: An Introduction to Ancient Greek History, Society, and Archaeology

Members: $120 | General Public: $160
Tuesdays
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
April 9, 2024
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May 14, 2024

This six-week class examines the eastern Mediterranean world of the Bronze Age Minoans and Myceneans, Archaic and Classical Greece, and the Hellenistic societies emerging from Alexander the Great’s conquests.  We will explore archaeological remains, selections from ancient literature and philosophy, and modern scholarship all within the context of social, political, and cultural history.  As part of the class, we will try to better understand the contradictory elements of Greek democracy and philosophy juxtaposed with elements of xenophobia, misogyny, slave-holding, and violent conflict.

Your Instructor: Tony Usibelli - B.A. in classical archaeology and art history from the Univ. of Missouri and the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome. He is an active member of the Puget Sound chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America, the Puget Sound Ancient Numismatic group and has taught classes at Evergreen and SPSCC.  Tony has  taught previous classes on Ancient Italy and Greece through Senior Academy.

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Instructor:
John Rapano
Olympia Senior Center

On the Shoulders of Giants

Members: $100 | General Public: $120
Thursdays
1:00 - 2:30 pm
April 11, 2024
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May 9, 2024

Baby boomers are replacing their parents’ generation as our culture’s elders and impacting our society in unique ways. The parents of the boomers, “The Greatest Generation” wanted to put the trauma of the Depression and World War II behind them. After the war was a period of unprecedented prosperity and technological innovation. This generation challenged racism, sexism and ageism–reinventing our concept of elderhood. During this period in the study of human development such as Erikson, Kubler-Ross, Flynn, and Friedan taught us for the first time that human development extended into late life. Standing on the shoulders of these giants, today’s elders can go even further along the path to a meaningful old age and pass on this legacy to future generations. Understanding this legacy will impact how elders can be better informed in making decisions for their family members, themselves, and their communities, impacting healthcare, government, and organizations locally and globally in a meaningful way.

Your Instructor: John is retired from teaching Human Development and Family Studies at Pennsylvania State University. John also worked in a variety of human service roles: early childhood education, community mental health, aging services, and geriatric partial hospitalization programs. John earned a Ph.D. in the Administration and Leadership Studies for Nonprofits program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2010. John “fully” retired and relocated to Olympia in 2019 but continues to be involved in a variety of volunteer activities.

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Instructor:
Bruce Lerro
Olympia Senior Center

Visionary Adult Development: The Psychological Evolution of Extraordinary People

Members: $120 | General Public: $160
Tuesdays
2:00 - 4:00 pm
April 16, 2024
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June 18, 2024

Is there a place for the lives of extraordinary people in the traditional models of adult development? After all, the actions and cognitive capacities of extraordinary people like Gandhi, Leonardo or Madame Curie were qualitatively different from the average

person, yet there is no stage in individual development models that captures it.

For example, the great psychologist Jean Piaget has named four stages of cognitive development. The first four stages take place between birth and about 15 years of age. There is no new stage of cognitive development beyond this stage. This means

people’s thinking process remains qualitatively stagnant for 50 years. There is something wrong with this picture.

However, psychologist Robert Kegan has developed a visionary stage of adult development that not only makes sense of the lives of extraordinary people, but it provides the average individual with signposts for what it would take to become extraordinary. Kegan presents a new, dialectical spiral shape of adult development in which flux, conflict, crisis and improvisation are foundational, inevitable processes that all adults must face. He further suggests that there is a 5 th stage of cognitive development called dialectical thinking which matches the activities of extraordinary people. Our case study of an extraordinary adult will be the great Irish-American socialist and labor organizer Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890-1964).

We will consider three other dimensions of adult experience which are often not covered in traditional models of individual development. The first is the impact of world history on the constraints and possibilities of individual evolution. We will consider the individual as a micro-slice of world history in the making. The second is the extent to which socio-economic class both impedes and promotes individual development. Lastly is to understand the dynamics of that the fifth stage of cognitive development can transform how extraordinary adults live. An added bonus to this is that you can incorporate the six stages of Kegan’s model of individual development as a way to make sense of your own psychological development in new ways.

Your Instructor: Bruce Lerro has been a night-school college teacher for 27 years. He has taught in alternative college settings, in prisons, in the Air Force and in the Navy.  Bruce has taught in community colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bruce has written eight books, including three on the application of Russian Lev Vygotsky’s work on word history. Bruce is also a pen-and-ink- artist.

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Ready to register or have questions? 

Please contact us at 360.586.6181 ext. 103 or via email at info@southsoundseniors.org

Questions?

Contact our knowledgeable staff if you are interested in learning more about our services.

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