Try a New Hobby, Learn a New Skill This Summer Through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Rutgers

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. –  As the summer sets in, there’s plenty of time to learn a new skill, take up a hobby or enjoy a cultural or intellectual diversion in classes offered for adults over 50 by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Rutgers at sites in Highland Park and Freehold.

Online and mail-in registration is underway for more than two dozen courses in art, music, film, language, current events, psychology and other topics.

Classes will meet on Mondays for five weeks, June 4 through July 2,  at The Reformed Church of Highland Park, 19 S. 2nd Ave.; and on Tuesdays, June 5 through July 3, at the Western Monmouth Higher Education Center at Brookdale Community College, 3680 Route 9 South, in Freehold. 

The noncredit courses are taught by current and retired instructors from area colleges, including Rutgers, as well as high schools. There are no grades or tests, and a college degree is not required to enroll.

The complete catalog and course descriptions along with registration information can be found online at olliru.rutgers.edu. For a print catalog, send email to olliru@docs.rutgers.edu, or call 732-932-7233, ext. 4200. Registrations are accepted up to and including the first day of a class, provided space is available.

OLLI-RU is a unit of Rutgers’ Division of Continuing Studies. The program was established by Rutgers in 1993 in The Reformed Church of Highland Park. The Freehold location was added in 2006.

In its 19 years, OLLI-RU has grown from 75 students and eight courses to 1,843 students enrolled in 122 classes at three sites in spring 2012.  A site at Raritan Valley Community College was added this spring.

OLLI-RU receives funding from the Bernard Osher Foundation, which was established in 1977 to benefit a wide range of educational and cultural activities. Osher, a Maine native and San Francisco resident, is a successful businessman, community leader and a patron of the arts and education. His wife, the Honorable Barbro (cq) Osher, consul general of Sweden in San Francisco, serves as chair of the foundation.


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