A new name, a new face

A few days before Lucy Strausbaugh Woodhouse saw the job posting for the director of Furman's Learning in Retirement program a neighbor left a pot of pansies on the front steps of her Davidson, N.C. home.

Woodhouse fertilized and watered the plants but could not coax the small green nubs to bloom. This March, Woodhouse returned home after her second interview with a university selection committee to find that the gift had blossomed into a beautiful bouquet of purple and white pansies.

It was a sign, she said, that moving forward with Furman was the right way to go. And she emailed a digital image of the flowers to the interview committee.

I told them that they couldn't deny the signs and they had to hire me,jokes Woodhouse.
The group took her advice and Woodhouse, who joined Furman in July, is poised to help the popular learning program blossom in different directions. In 2012, she hopes to celebrate the programs 20-year anniversary in a sparkling 16,000 square foot building. As the Upstate grays, she also envisions expanding course offering to satellite sites in McAlister Square, Simpsonville and Greer.

Fueling her ambitions is a $2.2 million grant the program received from the Bernard Osher Foundation, a San Francisco-based philanthropic organization that supports

 

lifelong learning institutes at U.S. college campuses. In conjunction with the grant, the Furman program was renamed the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Furman this summer.

Woodhouse says the grant will be dispersed over a four-year period providing annual membership milestones are met. The Osher Foundation, named for founding member, business entrepreneur and philanthropist Bernard Osher, supports 122 Osher Institutes in the United States including programs at Clemson, Coastal Carolina and the University of South Carolina at Beaufort.

OLLI was founded in 1993 as the Furman University Learning in Retirement program by Sarah Fletcher, who retired this summer after leading FULIR through 15 years of both remarkable and steady growth. The first term began with seven classes and 62 course. This fall, OLLI will enroll more than 600 in 80 courses ranging from the Lewis and Clark Journey to Introduction to the Internet. Some classes are taught by current or retired Furman faculty who volunteer time to teach. Others are led by OLLI students, local business executives or anyone with a passion to share their knowledge in his or her field.

In a society where family members often live in different states and grandparents move away to retire, learning programs help seniors make new friends. They also serve as a source of intellectual stimulation for some retirees who miss the daily mental exercise of holding down a full-time job.

Woodhouse says Fletcher cultivated an educational program that doubles as a social network of close friends and volunteers who are passionate about OLLI.

œI have nine standing committee and 200 volunteers to work with,says Woodhouse. People are constantly dropping by here just to catch up and talk.

On the job for three months, Woodhouse wants to harness the energy of those volunteers to launch OLLI in more directions. And with a background in fundraising, creativity, entrepreneurship and volunteerism, she is well-equipped for the job.

A native of Greenville, Woodhouse graduated from Wofford College in 1990 and worked for Congresswoman Liz Patterson, the Peace Center for the Performing Arts and South Carolina Governor School for Arts during the next five years.

From 1995 to 1999 she served as the executive director for Habitat Humanity in Georgetown County. During her four years she helped boost both the organizations annual budget (from $40,000 to $225,000), volunteer and donor list (from 200 to 2,500) and the number of houses built from 1.5 to 12 .

After moving to Davidson, Woodhouse worked as a freelance grant writer and publications specialist with a client list that included universities and a number of non-profit agencies. Before joining Furman, Woodhouse had served four years as the senior development officer for Crisis Assistance Ministry where she was responsible for fundraising, donor relations and campaign management.

With a third of Greenville County's population over 55 and the nearby Woodlands at Furman, a senior living community, nearly completed, Woodhouse says OLLI growth is inevitable.

Looking ahead our challenge will be how to manage the growth while keeping the spirit of the program alive, kind of like nurturing those purple and white pansies while they are in full bloom!