Celebrating our Members
OLLI at Duke is blessed to have many highly accomplished people as members of our Lifelong Learning community. This page highlights recent accomplishments of our membership that we, the editors, think you would like to see. We solicit articles on topics of interest to our members. If you have something you would like to share or know of another member who has recently celebrated an accomplishment, please let the Communications Committee know at communications@olliatduke.org.
We will list the articles here, once we add new articles.
If you would like to see prior articles, check out the page Celebrating our Members, which covers the prior OLLI year of 2015-2016.
- Jackson Cooper: Tar Heel of the Week
- New Horizons Band Member Starts Musical Group at Croasdaile Village
- New Publication by OLLI Instructor, Tara Lynne Groth
- OLLI Harp Ensemble debut concert!
- OLLI Instructor Pleased by Student’s Success
- Dorita Berger publishes book on kids, music and autism.
- Photos of Duke Campus, Chapel
If you would like to see prior articles, check out the page Celebrating our Members, which covers the prior OLLI year of 2015-2016.
Instructor Jackson Cooper: Tar Heel of the Week
The News & Observer named OLLI Instructor Jackson Cooper its Tarheel of the Week on Feb. 1, 2018. This term he is teaching Easy Riders & Dirty Harry: The Films of the Vietnam Era on Tuesday mornings at the Bishop's House.
In addition to teaching at OLLI, Jackson is the Executive Director of Chamber Music Raleigh at the NC Museum of Art and his goal is to make North Carolina an 'epicenter' for the arts. Read more about Jackson here. |
New Horizons Band Member Starts Musical Group at Croasdaile Village
OLLI at Duke member, Kathy Silbiger, joined the New Horizons Band at OLLI at Duke after retiring from Duke as Director of the Duke Institute of the Arts. In 2012, she and her husband moved to Croasdaile Village and soon started a performance group called Rusty Pipes. Read more about their music here.
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New Publication by OLLI Instructor, Tara Lynne Groth
OLLI Book Marketing instructor Tara Lynne Groth released a guide for freelance journalists in June 2017. Magazine Queries That Worked: Build Income and Authority With Freelance Journalism is a collection of all her successful queries and the stories and rates behind each article. Additional sections cover media liability, contract terms to avoid, and getting paid. The book is available in print on Amazon ($6.99), on Kindle ($2.99) and free on Kindle Unlimited. www.taralynnegroth.com
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OLLI Instructor Pleased by Student’s Success

Erika Hoffman was glad to return to the Bishop House as an OLLI Instructor after a long absence from it. She recalled spending a lot of time there when it was an infirmary for Duke students back in the bad, old, good days of the ‘70’s. In the fall of 2016, she returned to the front parlor room to instruct OLLI students on how to write stories for the Chicken Soup for the Soul anthologies. Erika used to be a high school teacher, once upon a time, but these days she scribbles personal essays and sells them to anthologies, magazines, and e-zines. She wanted to offer what she has gleaned the last few years about writing non-fiction vignettes and more specifically convey to her OLLI students how to polish essays to fit the guidelines of the international, inspirational anthology called Chicken Soup for the Soul. Being accepted by this anthology’s publisher is an accomplishment. Their last edition on gratitude had 5,000 submissions. Only 101 stories were featured. Erika’s story is within this collection, and her true tales have appeared in twelve others.
Yet, proud as she is of being a published author, she’s happier still to say that one of her ten students in her debut course teaching for OLLI has been informed that her piece has been selected for an anthology on “Mothers.” Cathy Shavalier-Chernow’s story about her mother will appear in a Chicken Soup for the Soul edition due out in 2018.
Erika felt her students worked hard on their writing tasks and produced publishable works. She fully expects others in that class to sell their memorable stories to this anthology or to other venues. During the fall session, almost every student produced three complete stories--- edited and ready to submit.
Erika worked hard, as well, to assist the students in their endeavors; she felt the OLLI students achieved a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment in creating their mini-memoirs of a thousand or so words.
She looks forward to teaching again in the fall of 2017.
Yet, proud as she is of being a published author, she’s happier still to say that one of her ten students in her debut course teaching for OLLI has been informed that her piece has been selected for an anthology on “Mothers.” Cathy Shavalier-Chernow’s story about her mother will appear in a Chicken Soup for the Soul edition due out in 2018.
Erika felt her students worked hard on their writing tasks and produced publishable works. She fully expects others in that class to sell their memorable stories to this anthology or to other venues. During the fall session, almost every student produced three complete stories--- edited and ready to submit.
Erika worked hard, as well, to assist the students in their endeavors; she felt the OLLI students achieved a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment in creating their mini-memoirs of a thousand or so words.
She looks forward to teaching again in the fall of 2017.
Dorita Berger Publishes book titled, Kids, Music 'n' Autism: Bringing out the Music in Your Child

OLLI member and instructor has recently had her latest book published by the Jessica Kingsley Publishers. More information can be found to the right. Congratulations to Dorita on her achievement!
Great photos of Duke University & Environs

We thank Maury Krystel for these photos he took of the Duke area. Maury volunteers with the OLLI Communications Committee to share his talent for photography with us. His photos are in the newly improved header on each page of the member website. If you see Maury around campus, please tell him how much you enjoyed seeing these photos.
Click on any photo to see a larger image, and then you can click to move to the right or left.
Click on any photo to see a larger image, and then you can click to move to the right or left.