(upbeat music) - Will you "Consider This"?

We're back again this week, and I have a very lovely young lady with me.

Her name is Diane Rock.

And she is the past President and current Membership Chair of OLLI.

So that is the Osher Lifelong Living Institute at Bradley University.

And we see the buses around town, the white buses with the red letters, OLLI, all caps.

First of all, let's start with you and how you ended up in Peoria 'cause you're not a native.

- I'm not.

I moved to Peoria in October of '89.

I worked for the Anheuser-Busch Brewery outta St. Louis and was transferred here.

And when I first moved here, I was a District Manager.

I called on distributors in a large swath of Central Illinois all the way from Danville to Galesburg.

And did that for a number of years.

And then became a Key-Account Manager and called on chain accounts like Kroger and Circle K and Casey's General Stores.

Did that for a number of years.

And then in November of 2011, I was offered an opportunity to retire early, which I did.

And that ended my 29 years with Anheuser-Busch, which was a fun job to have.

Everybody's got a beer story.

- [Christine] Yeah, exactly.

And well, you met your husband here.

- I did, I did.

I met him the day I moved to Peoria.

- Isn't that a great story?

- Yes.

- [Christine] I love that love story.

- Yes, I met him the day I moved to Peoria, and we got married two and a half years later.

- How about it?

Yeah, how about it?

So you've been here since 1989.

And you have managed to incorporate your life even though you did a lot of traveling.

You were on the road.

- Yes.

- And you were, I'm not gonna say the brat word.

But you were a military child, so you moved a lot.

- Yeah, I was an Air Force brat.

- Okay, but you knew how to make friends.

So you knew how to incorporate yourself into different communities and stuff.

Was that difficult here in Peoria?

- Peoria's a very friendly town.

So no, it was not difficult.

But I was traveling a lot.

My husband was from Peoria, so he knew a bunch of people.

So I could adopt his friends, so to speak.

But Peoria's very friendly, so it was not hard.

And I learned from an early age, 'cause we moved every year or two.

You have to move in and make friends.

- Good, and you did it.

You just made that part of your life.

- I did.

- Good for you.

And you have a couple of boys.

- I do, two sons, Brian and Jason Rock.

The older one lives in Detroit, and the other one lives in Denver.

So they're far away.

- So you get to travel?

- I do get to travel.

I do get to travel.

- All right.

All right, so let's get back to, you moved here, you married.

And then you were offered early retirement.

And about that same time or not long after, you found out about your husband's medical condition.

- Yes, my husband was diagnosed with cancer shortly after I retired, a couple of months.

And so I didn't get a job right away, a new job which was the original plan, because I wanted to be here for his cancer treatment.

And then he passed away 17 months later.

My sons were 14 and 16.

I didn't wanna get a new job and start traveling then.

So I stayed home, and I was a soccer mom and a football mom.

And that was super fun.

And then when my younger son was a senior in high school, I thought, "What am I gonna do now?

"What am I gonna do after he graduates?

"He could go off for a job.

"And the dog doesn't talk much.

"What am I gonna do?"

And I'd heard about this program, OLLI, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

I'd heard about that from a friend, just one person who had done a trip to Hummingbird Haven it's called, which is this woman that has 40 hummingbird feeders.

- And in Central Illinois?

- Yeah, yeah, it's like an hour away.

So I'd heard about OLLI from this friend.

And I thought, "Well, I'll check it out."

And so, I checked it out in January of 2017, and I've never looked back.

It was so much fun, I could not get over it.

And everybody was super friendly.

And Anheuser-Busch did everything with excellence when we did stuff.

If you couldn't do it with excellence, you didn't do it.

And OLLI was the same way.

Everything is excellent.

All the administration, the classes, it's unbelievable.

It's so fun.

- So now OLLI was started, it was the brainchild of Bernard Osher from San Francisco.

- Yes.

- So there are OLLI programs all throughout the United States, or maybe throughout the world.

I don't know.

- No, just in the United States.

Bernard Osher is still alive.

I saw him a couple of years ago at the OLLI Convention.

There's 121 OLLI's.

They're all associated with a university.

And you have to meet certain criteria to be considered an OLLI.

And each OLLI operates a little bit differently as far as their membership, how they run their programs.

But we are blessed to have one of the best OLLI's in the United States.

It's well known that OLLI at Bradley is one of the best.

- Wow.

And what makes it so remarkable?

I know that your dues are nothing.

- $5 a quarter.

- [Christine] That is just the craziest thing in today's world.

- It is crazy.

My coffee costs more than that if I go to a coffee shop.

What makes it one of the best is the diversity of programming that we have and the number of volunteers.

We have 1,100 active members right now.

And that's the same number we had before COVID.

So we've bounced all the way back from COVID.

And 400 of those people volunteer: teaching, leading, doing all sorts of things.

We always have cutting edge programs.

During COVID, we did this program with local restaurants where we partnered with a restaurant.

And you could order a meal online, and then you would go to the restaurant the designated day and somebody would hand you the meal.

And then the next day, the owner of the restaurant and the chef would be online on Zoom, this was during COVID, to talk about how they prepared the meal, the history of the restaurant.

So we started that during COVID, and no other OLLI did that.

- What a great way to take advantage of that situation.

- And then all these other OLLI's started doing it after they heard about Bradley's OLLI doing it.

- How about it?

How about it?

All right, so you have quite a bit.

This is the summer catalog with the new one out, at least online.

- Yes.

- All kinds of offerings.

And this is not only for retirees, people 65 and over.

You can be 50 and over to be a member?

- During COVID, people in their 40s started coming 'cause it was all Zoom.

And we were like, "Well, whatever, it works."

- [Christine] Yeah, let's give 'em some exposure.

- So yes, we have people... And the book I think says age 50 and above.

But if you're 49 or 48, come on.

We don't check your ID.

And if you work part-time, we have things that you can... Like in the center of the catalog, there's a calendar that shows what's offered each day.

And so if you are always off on Wednesdays, as an example, you can come to things that we have on Wednesdays, or always off on Fridays, whatever.

But no, it's not just for retirees.

People that are partially retired or work part-time also come.

- So there's all different kinds of programs.

So you went to see the Hummingbird Lady.

But you also have gone to like Raber's Meat Packing Company and you've gone over to Illinois State University or over in the Bloomington area to check out things that are going on with their businesses.

And I mean, you're learning all the time.

And it's also social, but mostly it's to continue...

These are people who are thirsty for more knowledge, to continue learning.

- Yes, there's two criteria that have to be met with every OLLI program.

You have to learn something and there has to be a social component.

So whenever we go on a learning trip, which these are field trips where you learn stuff.

You know, you go to the business, and what I love about learning trips is you can get entry into places that you couldn't on your own.

So if I went and knocked at the door of the AgLab and said, "I'd like to meet one of your scientists," they'd send me away.

- Can I have a tour?

- But OLLI gets tours at the AgLab.

If I went to Natural Fiber Welding, said the same thing, they'd go, "Ahh."

You can do a tour with OLLI.

If you went to Saffron Social and said, "I'd like a tour of the kitchen," they'd say, "Ah no."

But Travis Mohlenbrink is a big friend of OLLI's.

He's done a bunch of programs on Saffron Social and his other places.

So you get entry into all these places that you never could get through the door.

But OLLI opens the door.

And then we always have lunch at one of our locally owned restaurants.

And you sit next to somebody that you didn't know at the beginning of the trip and you get to meet 'em.

So we always have a social component and a learning component.

There's five different ways you can learn at OLLI.

So learning trips is what we're talking about right now.

- [Christine] Right, so those are the field trips.

- Field trips with social, and you get to learn.

There's also classes.

And classes are offered in April and October in person at Bradley.

- By Bradley instructors?

- Sometimes by a Bradley.

Cory Barker's an instructor in the School of Journalism and he's an instructor for OLLI.

Sometimes they're just volunteers.

Like I just took one that an air traffic controller taught.

That was super interesting.

You know, those numbers on the runways, those mean things.

(Christine laughs) - [Christine] I need to go see that one.

- Yes, oh my gosh, it was so interesting.

I just loved it.

'Cause you sit on the airplane, you're like, "Ah, whatever."

So the classes are in four Wednesdays in April or four Wednesdays in October.

And then in January and February, they're online, which has been very cool because you can get people from all over the world to teach in January and February.

But in April and October, it's online.

We have four different times during the day.

And you go for four weeks in a row.

So you can go at nine, four classes at, you know, it's the same class for four weeks, nine, 10:30, 12:30, or two.

You can do all four classes or you can just do one.

So like, some people are morning people, they just do the morning classes and then they leave.

Some people babysit their grandkids in the morning, so they only are available in the afternoons.

So they just go in the afternoons.

So we've made it completely flexible.

You can't even believe all the stuff you could learn.

(Christine laughs) - I think I can believe by looking at this, that's for sure.

You know, I used to kind of pride myself that I kind of kept my finger on the pulse of things that were going on.

And I had no idea everything that was involved with OLLI.

And it's been around for 30 years?

- 30 years, we're having our 30th anniversary this year.

It was started by a woman named Janet Lange who started looking at learning in retirement or learning, you know, when you're older.

And it was originally called the Institute of Learning in Retirement, ILR.

And she started it 30 years ago.

She's now since retired, and she's our guest speaker.

And we transitioned to OLLI, I'm not even sure, 25 years ago maybe.

I don't know, I don't remember.

I wasn't around when it became an official OLLI, so I don't know.

But Janet started the program and it's, you know, thrived.

- Really, really growing.

And you also have some study groups.

- So, okay, so the five points: learning trips, classes.

- Right, no tests.

- No tests, no homework with classes.

- Okay, we like that.

- No tests and no homework, no grades.

- We definitely like that.

It's so much different than college.

- It is, you go just for the joy of learning.

And it's just amazing.

Then we have things called study groups, which I personally love 'cause I like to do research and learn about, like dig in and learn.

And study groups meet throughout the year, and they usually are two-hour blocks.

Classes are one hour, and it's more instructor teaching.

You know, it's like the instructor teaches.

Study groups are more like this learning.

You're learning from the other people in the class.

So I took a study group recently on 3D printing.

- [Christine] I bet that was interesting.

- It was super interesting.

It met up on Pioneer Parkway in a place where they have 3D printers.

So we got to see all that stuff.

And everybody in the study group was assigned a topic to research.

And so I'm not medical, but I took Medical Use of 3D Printers.

What is medicine doing with 3D printers?

So that was what I researched and presented back to the other people in the group.

- Did you go to Jump to learn that?

- I've been there with OLLI.

- Of course.

- Of course.

But no, I did not do that.

But, you know, I learned about, they're making casts, they're making prosthetics, they're making all sorts of stuff in the medical community.

They're making artificial organs with 3D printers.

Like, that's crazy.

Anyway, so study groups are more this way, you know, like I actually facilitated one on the Hubble Telescope.

So people brought their telescopes in, and we did all sorts of crazy stuff.

The study groups are more participatory.

- Okay.

- But I love that.

That's my favorite thing at OLLI.

- And when you sign up for a class or if you sign up for a study group, that's your thing.

- And you know in advance you're gonna have homework.

A lot of 'em are literature.

So there was a fun class called Irish Short Stories With a Pint on the Side that met at Sullivan's in the Heights.

And so we read Irish short stories and met in one of their back rooms and all talked about the short story.

- Fun.

- Yeah, there's a lot of literature study groups as well.

So we have learning trips, classes, study groups.

And then there's OLLI Originals, which are one-time things.

So we have a retired professor from Bradley, Joe Roach, who comes back.

He lives in Arizona.

He comes back.

And he was an expert on Russia.

And he comes back and he does a one-time thing sometimes online, sometimes in person where it's just a one-time deal.

- Okay, one hit wonder kinda thing.

- Yes, so it's called an OLLI Original.

- All right, and then how long does that last?

Is that an hour and a half, a couple of hours?

- An hour, to hours at the most.

- Interesting.

- And then we have OLLI Online.

So for our people that have moved away or people that don't wanna come in person, still are uncomfortable with that, you can just do Zoom.

And there's a million things with that.

- There really are.

Okay, so that's four.

So did we get to all five?

- Yeah, so we got learning trips, classes, study groups, originals, and online learning.

- All right.

- So all five of those.

There's something for everyone in each one of those segments.

- Well, so some of your members, do they make suggestions for different programs that might be ahead?

From year to year, do you repeat a lot of programs or classes?

- We hardly repeat.

What we teach comes from members, their suggestions.

We have committees that meet before each quarter starts.

- And you have a Board?

- We have an Executive Board.

So each of the committees.

So there's a Study Group Committee.

Like fall's done and winter is well underway.

So they work six months out.

And the people write in suggestions, and then people suggest instructors.

So it's all volunteer driven.

Volunteers suggest the ideas.

So yes, everything we teach at OLLI has come from someone that isn't at OLLI.

- Okay, I like that.

- It's great.

And the same thing with places to go.

They know someplace cool, somebody's been to such and such, somebody's been to DESTIHL in Bloomington, let's do a trip over to DESTIHL Brewery.

- I love the beer-battered asparagus there.

Just saying.

- Okay.

(Christine laughs) - Okay, so there are also like field trips that are more than field trips.

They are actual trips, like to the Grand Canyon or to Yellowstone.

- Iceland.

- To Iceland?

- Iceland, a group went to Iceland, a group went to Italy.

We have international trips, we have local trips.

And we have, I guess they're national trips now to Yellowstone or to wherever.

And we have international trips.

So we've got a trip coming up to Costa Rica.

We've got a trip coming up to, mm, I should know this, but...

I've never been to any of the international trips 'cause I'm doing other stuff.

- You're busy here, right?

- Yes, and people love the international trips.

- Mm-hmm, so how long are they usually?

And then there's a cost for those; they pay for that.

- Those are more expensive.

But they can even pair you up with a roommate.

Oh, Croatia's one that's coming up also.

- I think I did see that somewhere; yeah, yeah.

See my people are from Slovenia, so that's right by it.

I've been to Slovenia and Croatia and all that too.

But beautiful country.

Definitely beautiful.

So maybe you'll think about going on that one.

When is that again?

That's in the fall.

- I think it's September of '25, but I'm not positive.

I'd have to look.

- So what do you do as Membership Chair?

So you don't get to do a lot of the traveling 'cause you're doing all this other stuff here.

You know, you're the paddling feet underneath the smooth sailing on the top.

And what all else do you do?

I mean, you're taking a lot of the classes.

You're involved in a lot of programs.

- I do a ton of stuff.

I mean, you can do OLLI one day a week if you want.

I tend to do it four days a week because I love it.

I think it's so much fun.

So my job as Membership Chairman is to bring in new members.

That's why I asked you if you were... - What I need to do when I'm not doing this show or taking care of my grandkids.

- Yes, yes, you need to come.

- Well, I was looking at it.

I think there's something in there for me, definitely, and something in there for everybody really.

So we go out into the community and we speak to groups like the Rotary, or P.E.O.

or different groups in the community to tell them about OLLI.

Because the majority of people that come to OLLI have heard about it from a friend or been at one of these presentations.

- And had no idea, like me, beforehand.

I mean, we know that it's there, but I didn't really know what all was involved.

- Yes.

Mostly, people hear about it from friends.

So yeah, so my job is to spread the word.

And I'm one of OLLI's biggest cheerleaders.

I love OLLI.

And I just think there's something for everybody there, which there is.

I mean, we had a class on how to magic.

- Really?

- Yes.

- What did you learn?

- I did not take that.

But I know someone that did and loved it.

- How about it?

- [Diane] Yeah, so he wanted to do magic for his grandchildren.

- Ah, well that's good.

- So, you know, who knew?

- So if you're going to a class, so can you bring a friend with you to that session even before a membership kind of?

- Yes, if you want.

Everybody that attends a class is invited to bring somebody with them.

We ask that you let us know in advance, the office know in advance so that we can make sure there's a chair there for them.

- A chair and a lunch.

- Yes.

- So that's lunch and learn.

- Well, we have lunch and learns.

But lunch, as far as the classes go in October and April, you can sign up for lunch that's in the OLLI area that we have a lot of the OLLI classes, or you can go down to the Bradley Student.

The classes are in the Bradley Student Center.

You can go to their lunch facilities.

Oh, and let me tell you something else that's super easy is parking.

Because parking on Bradley campus can be tricky.

But we have two different areas that you can park at.

One, Shea Stadium right off University; one, Westminster Church on Moss.

- And then the bus will come and get you.

- Yes, and drop you off at the front door.

- All right.

- Runs nonstop.

- You really have thought of everything.

- Yes.

- Really have thought of everything.

What's been the most exciting program or class that you've been involved in?

Or there's probably one a month for you.

- Every time I take an OLLI class, I go, "That was one of the best things I've ever done."

- [Christine] How about it?

- We had one this winter that was an only Zoom that I kind of helped coordinate.

And it was called Four Women, Four Doctors, Four Topics.

- [Christine] Huh.

- And so we had four different doctors.

And one of them actually was my college roommate who lives in New Hampshire.

So she could Zoom in 'cause it was all Zoom.

And it was four topics women are interested in.

And that was, you know, amazing that we could do that.

And it got good reviews.

I mean everything...

I took one years ago on artificial intelligence when it was just starting.

This is like seven years ago.

And I was like, "I'm not quite sure what it is."

- Not sure about that, right?

- A class I took that has been life changing, like a lot of it's been life changing, it was on podcasts by Cory Barker who's the professor at Bradley.

I knew what podcasts were.

I didn't know exactly how it all worked and how you subscribed.

And I didn't know the range of topics.

And he's an amazing professor.

- I bet.

- And so he assigned us podcasts to listen to.

- Ah, so you learned the ropes on that.

- Yeah, and now I subscribe to a bunch of podcasts.

- So I know that you have a Trivia Night coming up like August 16th or something.

- Yes.

- So membership, the dues aren't very much.

But some of the other programs that they pay for, where else do you get some support?

Where do you get extra money from to keep OLLI going?

- Membership and program costs.

And we've just, actually, it's not in this catalog but the next catalog, we've started approaching local advertisers.

Because OLLI's a really good source for people that wanna do a lot of things, downsize, remodel their house, move to a condo, whatever.

So we're getting some sponsorship dollars from outside.

But Trivia Night's a big fundraiser for us.

And that is a fun night.

I'm not good at trivia.

- Where will they be?

Well, you gotta get the right demographics on the team.

- And you gotta get the right questions.

Yeah, and I don't... - [Christine] You don't make up the questions, do you?

- No, I don't make up the questions and I'm not good at trivia.

But one of the first years, somebody said, "You're going, and you're gonna have fun."

And I said, "Oh."

- Okay, great.

- So she took me at her table.

So it's Greg and Dan from WMBD are the hosts.

And they're hilarious and they do a great job.

And so the theme this year is rock and roll.

- You might be good at that.

- Probably not, but that's okay.

- You just never know.

And then you're gonna have a 30th anniversary celebration.

- Yes, and both of those are fundraisers.

Primarily, Trivia Night's a fundraiser.

And they're both really great events.

Trivia's just fun.

People decorate tables and they wear crazy costumes.

Not me for either one of those, but other people.

And they just have a great time.

- Where will trivia night be?

- It's at the Hayden Alumni Center, on campus.

- Oh, on campus?

That's good.

- And then the 30th anniversary is in the Bradley Student Center.

- Okay, well it's nice to make sure that Bradley is still part of all that.

- Oh yeah.

We get a ton of support from Bradley, so it's good.

- That's nice.

Well you get to use the classrooms.

You you get some of the...

So let me ask you this.

Do some of the professors and some of the staff who have done things and presentations for OLLI, in their retirement, do they end up being members also?

- I would imagine they do.

Most of 'em are the instructors at this point.

But like Cory Barker's young, who's one of our favorites.

He's young.

He just had a baby.

He and his wife had a baby a couple years ago.

So he's way prior.

And Joe Roach moved away.

Well, Janet Lange was at Bradley, and she participates.

So yes, people do.

We get a whole variety of people, as I told you.

Lots of lawyers, lots of doctors, lots of nurses, lots of retired teachers.

- Anybody who has that quest for learning, for lifelong.

- So on the top of our brochure, "Explore, Connect, Learn."

And that's what we're about: exploring new places, exploring new topics, exploring things you didn't know about.

- [Christine] That's awesome.

- Learning about them and connecting with other lifelong learners.

I mean, lifelong learning really.

- It's important, it keeps you young.

- Well, you've seen all the research.

What are two important things to do?

Learn and connect.

- [Christine] Right, and that's it.

Well, thank you so much for being here.

- You're welcome.

- So nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.

- And your enthusiasm is gonna attract a lot more members, I can tell.

- Yes, well, they can look online.

Go on Bradley's website, look at OLLI.

If you wanna receive one of these catalogs in the mail, you can call the OLLI office.

Let me see.

I should know that number by heart, but I don't 'cause it's in my phone.

- They'll find it online, yeah.

We're okay.

Well, thank so much for being with me, Diane.

Thank you for being with us.

And again, you got any ideas, got any people we need to know about, please get ahold of us here.

And thanks for joining us.

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