OLLI class

OLLI to retirees: Want help volunteering?

Los Angeles, CA – With today’s American retirees better educated, in better health and more financially secure than any previous generation, many of them are benefiting their communities by volunteering their energy, time and skills.

To tap into this resource of talent and experience, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Cal State L.A. will offer “Volunteerism in the Community,” a course taught by instructor Marilyn Kronmal.

Preparing participants for volunteer experience with PrimeTime LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) in the spring, this class will offer an insight into volunteerism and the nonprofit sector. It will also include presentations by directors of volunteers from different nonprofit sectors, such as education, the arts, health, and foundations. Skills necessary for successful volunteering will be addressed, along with the importance of the volunteer role in community settings.

PrimeTime LAUSD’s goal is to register these highly-qualified retiree volunteers as PrimeTime members and match them with specific volunteer opportunities that will make the most of their unique experiences, skills and interests. PrimeTime LAUSD is a partnership of the LAUSD and The Sherry Lansing Foundation.

Connie Corley, OLLI director, said, “By strategically matching uniquely experienced retiree members with specific needs in L.A. public schools, PrimeTime LAUSD volunteers reach and directly benefit more children and families than would be possible by any other means.” She adds, “In return, volunteers get the reward of knowing they made a difference.”

Kronmal, the class instructor, has been active in nonprofit organizations for 30 years working in education and community involvement, nonprofit management, professional training, volunteerism and fund development. She earned a doctorate degree in institutional management from Pepperdine University.

“Volunteerism in the Community” will meet every Tuesday, noon – 1 p.m., during the winter session (February 6-March 13, 2007). The first class meets in the Applied Gerontology Institute (Salazar Hall, room C98) and participants may join the class at any time.

Cal State L.A. is located at the Eastern Avenue exit at the interchange of the 10 and 710 freeways. Public permit dispenser parking is available at Lots C and F or upper level of Parking Structure 2. For registration information or campus directions, contact the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at (323) 343-4695 or lifelearncsula@yahoo.com.

Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 190,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, to be housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center now under construction. www.calstatela.edu