Campus OLLI: Osher Lifelong Institute (OLLI) within the Greater Burlington Area

4 sessions
with Amanda McIntire
Fee: $40

In this online, introductory class, learn the basics of yoga, including the physical practice (asana), breathing techniques (pranayama), and meditation. Required equipment: Yoga or exercise mat.  Yoga blocks are encouraged. This session will be recorded.

Class is FULL – Register to Add Your Name to the Waitlist

with Rebecca Starks
Fee: Free to members! 

In this online Banned Books Club, we will read and discuss Jeanette Walls’ 1994 memoir The Glass Castle, which depicts a family navigating addiction, poverty, and homelessness. We will discuss the reasons given for banning, any discomfort the books cause in us, and the value we might find in that discomfort. New participants are welcome. Limited seats. This is a Special Interest Group (SIG).

4 sessions
with Jay Sherwin
Fee: $60

In this four-week online course, we’ll consider some of Alfred Hitchcock’s very best films, focusing on two films each week that share a common theme. Students should watch the films on their own; in class, we’ll look at brief film clips and discuss key elements. Join us to explore the surprising, entertaining, confounding world that Hitchcock created on film. Offered in collaboration with OLLI at UMass Boston. This program will not be recorded.

Class is FULL. Waitlist is closed.

with Shelburne Orchards
Fee: $20

Explore Shelburne Orchards in its full season and indulge in cider donuts and apple cider. Tour the distillery’s barrel house and purchase samples of apple brandy and pommeau. Most of the tour will be standing or walking on dirt and grass or into buildings with wood or concrete floors. There are picnic tables available if participants need to sit. Held in Shelburne.

with Reverend Don Chatfield
Fee: $20

In this program, Pastor Chatfield will acquaint you with a variety of meditative techniques including guided meditation, movement meditation, mindfulness, and insight meditation.  You will build a meditation tool kit that will provide you with meditative techniques to match your spiritual style and needs. Held in Shelburne.

6 sessions
with Robert Weibezahl
Fee: $70

In this six-week online course, explore the short story as we delve into The Best American Short Stories of the Century, selected by John Updike. This session, we will concentrate on stories from the beginning decades of the last century by both well-known and less-remembered writers. Participants read the stories in advance, then we discuss them within the context of their time, investigating themes such as immigration, race, social progress, and individuality. There is no prerequisite. This class will not be recorded.

with Samantha Alger
Fee: $15

Participants will be introduced to the diversity of Vermont’s bees, their importance, and their major threats with a focus on pesticides. Held in Shelburne.

3 sessions
with Barry Snyder and Rick Winston
Fee: $45

Film historians Rick Winston and Barry Snyder continue their survey of the hallmarks of art house cinema with screening and discussion of Italian director Vittorio De Sica’s Neo-realist classic Bicycle Thieves (1948), Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s artfully enigmatic Rashomon (1950), and India director Satyajit Ray’s profoundly humanist debut film, Pather Panchali (1955). Discussion will focus on historical and cultural context of these films’ creation, their place within the art house movement, and the legacy of their impact on cinema. Popcorn, coffee, and tea provided. Held in Burlington.

6 sessions
with Ron Miller
Fee: $70

How did the Democratic and Republican parties take their current form? What other parties have sought, and sometimes won, power in the U.S.? This course will review the evolution of parties and explore how they change and why they sometimes disappear. Held in Charlotte.

with Michael Strauss
Fee: Free to members!

In this online, discussion-based class, explore various types of drawing, emphasizing informal drawing’s significance in observation, reflection, exploration, and art creation. Discover artists’ techniques in creating spatial illusions (“The Magic Portal”) through linear perspective, light and shadow, and object overlap. Discuss how drawing fosters creative thinking across disciplines. Focus on drawing as a path to complete expressive art, examining works by Da Vinci, Klimt, Van Gogh, and others. This class welcomes participants of all skill levels. This program will not be recorded.

4 sessions
with Nicole Carpenter
Fee: $50

Through this 4-week online series, explore your breathing habits, increase your breathing efficiency, and move your body.  Develop your breathing toolkit and learn techniques to calm down, create focus, and improve your performance.   As we explore breathing science and practice intentional breathing exercises, you will want to be in a space where you can sit, stand, move, and lie down.

with Salvation Farms
Fee: $15

Enjoy this presentation from Salvation Farms about the work they do to move surplus produce from farms and into the community. They will detail what that looks like and how they have modeled this work for the state/country. Held in Shelburne.

4 sessions
with Amanda McIntire
Fee: $40

In this four-week online, introductory class, learn the basics of yoga, including the physical practice (asana), breathing techniques (pranayama), and meditation. Required equipment: Yoga or exercise mat.  Yoga blocks are encouraged. This session will be recorded.

with Rebecca Starks
Fee: Free to members! 

In this online Banned Books Club, we will read and discuss the 2017 award-winning historical fiction novel Homegoing by Ghanaian-American author Yaa Gyasi. A panoramic portrait of the slave trade and its reverberations, the novel follows the descendants of one Ghanaian woman across multiple families over three centuries in both Ghana and the United States. We will discuss the reasons given for banning, any discomfort the books cause in us, and the value we might find in that discomfort. New participants are welcome. Limited seats. This is a Special Interest Group (SIG).

Class is FULL. Waitlist is closed.

with Katherine Elmer
Fee: $15

Consuming local plants as food and medicine is an excellent way to deepen your relationship to the natural environment while nourishing yourself. Join community herbalist Katherine Elmer of Spoonful Herbals to meet common medicinal plants growing in backyards and urban spaces on a walk at the former Ethan Allen Homestead (Winooski Valley Park District). Plant identification and safe harvesting of plants from urban areas will also be discussed. You might come away with a newfound appreciation for those “nuisance weeds”! Held in Burlington.

4 sessions
with Amanda McIntire
Fee: $40

In this in-person introductory class, learn the basics of yoga, including the physical practice (asana), breathing techniques (pranayama), meditation and yoga philosophy. Required equipment: Yoga or exercise mat. Held at UVM.

2 sessions
with Corinna Thurston
Fee: $50

Learn the techniques that renowned artist Corrina Thurston uses to create detailed, vibrant colored pencil drawings. First class is learning the different techniques for layering and textures and the second class teaches how to use colored pencil to draw directly on a wood surface! Held in Milton.

Class is FULL. Waitlist is closed.

with Derek Allen
Fee: $15

Join us as on a tour of the UVM Main Campus Greenhouse facility, and an exploration on how the greenhouse supports the teaching, research, and public outreach mission of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the broader University. Light walking and standing on concrete through the greenhouse facility. Held in Burlington.

with Laura J May Collado
Fee: $15

In this online program, dive into the sea to explore the different ways humpback whales use sound to communicate. In the 1950s, the famous underwater filmmaker Jacques Cousteau described the ocean as a “silent world” – but the ocean is anything but silent! Novel remote acoustic technology allows scientists to listen with our ears and study the structure and function of whale songs. You will learn about who makes sounds and how we can turn sound into useful information for ecological and conservation studies.

Class is FULL. Waitlist is closed.

with Shelburne Museum
Fee: $25

Join us for this curator-led tour of contemporary artist Lorna McMaster at the Shelburne Museum. View portraits and landscapes in felted wool that call attention to the interdependence of pollinators like bees and birds, native plants and local communities. Walk to exhibit is 0.5 miles, but there is a shuttle available. Held in Shelburne.

with Mary Rose Dougherty
Fee: Free to members! 

In this online class, we will reflect on the “golden years.” Amid the unique challenges of this time of life, as we pause to consider our past, how can we make this special stage of life a time that shines a positive light on this very moment and brings the shimmering glow of deep peace? We’ll lean on the poets Mary Oliver and Ross Gay, and poems about trees for guidance and reflection. Then, we’ll take a turn at writing in response to the poems, fusing and welding our discoveries to carry back what is valuable into our lives. This is a Special Interest Group (SIG).

with Ethan Tapper
Fee: $15

What does it mean to love a forest? This is the question posed by Ethan Tapper, a forester and author from Vermont. Ethan will read from his recently published book — How to Love a Forest — and discuss what it means to care for our forests and other ecosystems at this moment in time. How do we respond to the harmful legacies of the past? How do we use our species’ incredible power to heal rather than to harm? How do we reach toward a better future? Held in Essex.

Class is FULL – Register to Add Your Name to the Waitlist

with Shelburne Farms
Fee: $25

Explore the stories of Shelburne Farms  on a unique open-air wagon tour through a beautiful working landscape. You’ll discover how the farm has evolved from a private estate to an educational nonprofit that’s inspiring learning for a sustainable future. Maybe you’ll be inspired, too! Along your landscape tour, you’ll visit the Inn and Flower Gardens, stop at the lake shore, and watch cheesemaking in the historic Farm Barn. Held in Shelburne.

with Pamela H. MacPherson
Fee: $25

Holding Space and being Present are the threads that run through Pam’s poetry. She will read poems and share the stories around them, those of sitting at the bedside of the dying. Become better equipped to be present to those you love through Pam’s shared experiences. Signed books will be available for $15.00. Held in Shelburne.

with Michelle Acciavatti
Fee: $20

In this online program, delve into the topic: What is natural burial and why does it matter? By being intentional about how and where you are buried, you are embarking on an entirely new experience of deathcare: one that integrates the needs of mourners and the needs of our planet and one that is in sync with the cycles of grief and nature. In this presentation we will view a 20-minute documentary that features the first burial at Vermont Forest Cemetery and look in depth at the environmental and emotional benefits of natural burial for individuals and communities.

with Pablo Bose
Fee: $15

The US Refugee Program, a highly effective initiative that has resettled millions of refugees over five decades with bipartisan support, has over the past decade become the target of sustained criticism and faces an uncertain future. Despite great success in resettling Bhutanese, Congolese, Syrian, Afghan, and Ukrainian populations over recent years, the refugee program finds itself under attack over its outcomes and sustainability. In this presentation, Dr. Bose will discuss the challenges, opportunities and future of refugee resettlement in the US in the face of global pressures and domestic politics. Held in Shelburne.

with Liza Baker
Fee: $20

Hosting Thanksgiving dinner for the masses (or just for a few)? Got picky eaters or dietary preferences to consider? It’s time to rethink what’s on the menu—and make it all land on the table at the same time! Join health coach and cookbook author Liza Baker for a Zoom session on Thanksgiving, new and improved.

with Michelle Acciavatti
Fee: $20

In this online program, Michelle Acciavatti, a death doula, home funeral guide and licensed funeral director, will address common mistakes people make in planning (or not planning) for end of life. She will explore how natural deathcare and natural burial can help alleviate some of the financial and emotional burdens that come with dying in Vermont.

Please note updated program date.

with Huck Gutman
Fee: Free to members! 

William Butler Yeats, considered by many to be the finest English language poet of the twentieth century, had an astonishing poetical career. He was a great poet when young, an even greater poet in middle age – and an astonishing poet as he grew older yet. His poems encompassed love, and Irish identity, and politics, and what poetry is and does (and fails to do). This one-session course will chart Yeats’s career and will focus on poems which help define who we are – in history, and in our lives’ progression. This program will be recorded. This is a Special Interest Group (SIG).

4 sessions
with Amanda McIntire
Fee: $40

In this four-week online, introductory class, learn the basics of yoga, including the physical practice (asana), breathing techniques (pranayama), and meditation. Required equipment: Yoga or exercise mat.  Yoga blocks are encouraged. This session will be recorded.

Class is FULL – Register to Add Your Name to the Waitlist

with Rebecca Starks
Fee: Free to members! 

In this online Banned Books Club, we will read and discuss the 2006 YA novel Sold by American journalist Patricia McCormick. A National Book Award finalist, it tells the story of a Nepalese girl who is sold into sexual slavery in India. We will discuss the reasons given for banning, any discomfort the books cause in us, and the value we might find in that discomfort. New participants are welcome. Limited seats. This is a Special Interest Group (SIG).

with Julie Filiberti
Fee: $15

In this online program, learn about the Missiquoi National Widlife Refuge, which was established as a protected area for migrating waterfowl. This program will focus on some of the birds that can be found breeding in and migrating through the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge.