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October 3, 2011
Dee Perry, an NPR radio legend on WCPN in Cleveland, closed her broadcast of the "Around Noon" radio show by reading OLLI member Jack Vanek's poem, "The Hardest Thing". Learn more.

ThinkOutside

Are you 50 years of age or better and looking for learning opportunities that challenge you without tests, grades, or papers? Then OLLI at Eckerd College invites you to become part of our learning community.

What does it mean to think outside? It represents more than a catchy phrase written in a cloudless seascape sky. It signifies more than thinking in different ways. Thinking outside incorporates learning through doing, risking a novel approach, embracing the outdoors as a learning laboratory, engaging with a diverse world. Yes, it is also a nod to our beautiful campus.

Most of OLLI's 1200+ members can easily relate to the words ThinkOutside on the current OLLI at Eckerd College catalog cover. They understand the value of lifelong learning, of integrating daily life with daily learning, but maybe they're not aware that this same ThinkOutside motif appears in publications across campus. It is a new way of thinking about something we've always known: Eckerd College attracts individuals who seek a unique, inspiring and motivating education - people who think outside. Of course, this includes OLLI members.

In honor of our catalog's metamorphosis into a publication that better reflects Eckerd College's mantra of ThinkOutside, I asked Carol Walker to contribute photographs for the issue. Almost all of the photos were taken by Carol and many of them reflect, in some way, one of the classes, trips or events on the page the snapshot appears. Keep in mind that I was in charge of photo placement so the connection between photo and class may tenuously rely on my sense of humor. Or should I call it my way of thinking outside?

Carol Walker is someone who has been with OLLI from the very beginning and I have fond memories of OLLI trips with her. These journeys resulted in an abundance of photos. Then Carol found her wings and began to travel the world. More photographs. Looking through the thousands of photos she collected for the catalog, I felt a mixture of nostalgia and wanderlust. But more than that, I appreciated her photographic point of view, her knack for finding beauty in the spectacular and the mundane. She's truly a photographer who thinks outside.

- Tom Santee, Director, OLLI at Eckerd College