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UD OLLI Summer Selections: June 22 – July 23, 2026
Five weeks of fun topics, short courses and field trips
Detailed course listing coming soon — click here for a preview of Summer Selections 2026
Use the dropdowns below to view available offerings by day of the week, category, or other filters.
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Online: April 1, 2026 to April 29, 2026
Wednesday at 10:45 AM
Explore the use of light, shadow and color to create forms using watercolors. Previous experience required. Supply list is provided for students to purchase before class starts. Offered in partnership with The Art Studio, the arts education center of New Castle County’s Department of Community Services. The class may run 1.5 hours each week if the student’s schedule allows. Prerequisite: Beginner’s watercolor class or other watercolor experience. Additional fee: Requires a fee of $45 payable to the Art Studio. A payment link is sent to class members prior to the first class.
Sign up for the Tuesday section held off-site at The Art Studio, located at 310 Kiamensi Road, Wilmington, DE 19804, or the online section held on Wednesdays.
Please note additional fee mentioned above.
Taught by: Karen Berstler, Nicole Sexton
Wilmington (Arsht Hall): March 31, 2026 to April 28, 2026
Tuesday at 10:45 AM
Required text: The Berlin Stories, Christopher Isherwood, ISBN 0-81-121804-X. A shockingly brilliant new musical in 1966, Cabaret’s message is frighteningly relevant in today’s world. Since then it has been made into an Academy Award winning film, and the stage version has undergone two radical reinterpretations in London and on Broadway. We will travel back and uncover Cabaret’s source materials including the Berlin Stories and look at life in Weimar Berlin. This class is an updating of material from Cabaret 50 first presented in 2022.
Taught by: Thomas Powderly
Online: April 1, 2026 to April 29, 2026
Wednesday at 10:30 AM
This course covers finding music online (written and audio), using music notation software to edit music, software to help you practice, software to help you read music directly (no more paper!), and how to manage and share your music library. Software includes ForScore and MuseScore; websites include Google Drive, DropBox, OneDrive, SmartMusic and YouTube. We’ll also discuss playing live music online with others.
Taught by: Ellen Sherin, Pam Wilson
Online: April 3, 2026 to May 1, 2026
Friday at 9:00 AM
This course provides tactical tools and techniques to broaden participants’ knowledge of the philanthropic sector, and to encourage their exploration of the role of philanthropy (time, talent and/or treasure) in their lives. We explore the role of philanthropy in the U.S. nonprofit sector, intentional philanthropy (what inspires you to give), selecting charitable causes and organizations to support, due-diligence tips, your legacy, and an overview of common charitable tools.
Taught by: Beth Harper Briglia
Wilmington (Arsht Hall): March 31, 2026 to April 28, 2026
Tuesday at 2:30 PM
Today’s news isn’t just about reporting facts: it’s about creating compelling stories that engage/enrage and influence audiences. Every headline, photo, blog post, article and soundbite is crafted to capture attention and frame how we see events. This course explores how news stories are constructed, why different outlets discuss the same event in very different ways, and how storytelling techniques influence public opinion, trust, and democracy itself.
Taught by: Andrea Westerinen, Jeff Westerinen
Online: March 30, 2026 to April 27, 2026
Monday at 9:00 AM
From virtually the beginning of recorded history, flowers have been treasured and depicted in paintings, sculpture and other visual arts. This series examines the role and depiction of flowers in arts from around the world. From delicate touches to ultra realism to huge exaggeration, we explore how the fragile ephemeral beauty of flowers has inspired a broad range of artistic expression from ancient Greece to contemporary times.
Taught by: Melanie Moser
Wilmington (Arsht Hall): March 30, 2026 to April 27, 2026
Monday at 2:30 PM
Prerequisite: Suggested to have taken the New Orleans History course. Musician Jesse Moore said New Orleans is “not a city. It’s a way of life…. a place that you fall deeply in love with.” This class will explain the culture of the Big Easy: Creoles and Cajuns, free people of color, food and architecture like nowhere else, Mardi Gras, and jazz. We’ll explore stories of fascinating people, many of them women, who made a unique city. Hopefully at the end of the class, you will agree with Bob Dylan that “There are a lot of places I like, but I like New Orleans better.”
Taught by: Suzanne Stone
Lewes (Trinity Faith Education Building): April 2, 2026 to April 30, 2026
Thursday at 12:45 PM
This presentation provides interesting details related to the challenges of meeting President Kennedy’s goal of getting to the moon by the end of the decade in the 1960s. It focuses on ILC Industries, a Dover, Delaware, company that was a true underdog in the competition to develop the ideal space suit to provide our astronauts the safety and freedom needed to move about on the lunar surface. It all came down to great engineering and the skills of the seamstresses that stitched the materials together.
Taught by: William Ayrey
Lewes (Trinity Faith Education Building): March 31, 2026 to April 28, 2026
Tuesday at 9:00 AM
Two minutes was the time allowed for a pony express rider to switch mounts at a relay station. The iconic Pony Express would be the first “fast” mail between the settled East and the developing West of America. This step forward, in speeding up communications, would be a factor in holding California in the Union. This course covers the Pony Express from the beginning to its end, 19 months later, with its amazing history and impact upon America.
Taught by: Ray Glick
Dover (Wyoming Church): April 2, 2026 to April 30, 2026
Thursday at 12:45 PM
In the 1960s, Greenwich Village pulsed with rebellious energy. Folk music thrived in its cafes, hosting Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and others. It was a haven for artists and activists, and it embodied counterculture. This class explores the music, poetry and literature that permeated the area of New York City known as “The Village.”
Taught by: Susan Watkins, Larry Watkins
Dover (Wyoming Church): April 2, 2026 to April 30, 2026
Thursday at 2:30 PM
This class will present a series of biographies of people who made significant contributions to the development of the automobile industry in the early twentieth century.
Taught by: Larry Watkins
Lewes (Trinity Faith Education Building): March 30, 2026 to April 27, 2026
Monday at 9:00 AM
Since ancient times, humans have chronicled the world: from inscribed bones of our earliest ancestors to today’s Google Maps. See how geography shapes our view of the planet and how maps have fashioned the world we know today. Visit some of Earth’s most isolated locales and places where conflicts still arise due to disputed borders and contested national boundary claims. Finally, explore our maps of other worlds and even the entire cosmos.
Taught by: Jim O’Leary
Lewes (Trinity Faith Education Building): March 30, 2026 to April 27, 2026
Monday at 10:45 AM
After his Waterloo defeat, Napoleon knew he was in danger. He quickly abdicated and appealed to Great Britain for protection. Britain accommodated Napoleon’s request although not at the “hearth of the British people” in England as he had envisioned, but on the remote British-owned South Atlantic Ocean island of St. Helena, a natural fortress. From his arrival in 1815 to his death in 1821 Napoleon impacted the British citizens, while life on the island became Napoleon’s “last battle.”
Taught by: Katherine Henn
Online: April 1, 2026 to April 29, 2026
Wednesday at 10:45 AM
Learn about contemporary and modern poetry through close reading and discussion of poems presented in the New Yorker Poetry Podcast archive. For each class, students listen at home to a selected episode. In class we continue the discussion begun by the host and guest poet, considering matters of craft and process. The New Yorker Poetry Podcast is free and easily available on the internet.
Taught by: Linda McMeniman
The online section of this class has been added since catalog publication.
Online: April 2, 2026 to April 30, 2026
Wednesday at 12:45 PM
Required Text: My Dear Hamilton, by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie, ISBN 978-0-06-246616-7. This historical novel explores the hard fought war of American independence and even harder struggle to establish a working government for the new nation as envisioned by Alexander Hamilton, seen through the eyes of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, his wife, widow and warrior. A widow for almost 50 years, Elizabeth became a person of prominence in her own right. Join us to learn how and why she did.
There are two sections of this book club. One meets online, Wednesdays at 12:45 p.m., and the other meets Thursdays, in Dover at 9 a.m.
Taught by: Bobbi Neaton
Online: March 30, 2026 to April 27, 2026
Monday at 9:00 AM
We will look at many of the spiritual teachings of Jesus and Eckhart Tolle. No outside reading is required, but if so inclined, participants may want to brush up on Jesus’ teachings in the gospels and Eckhart Tolle’s books such as The New Earth, The Power of Now, or Stillness speaks.
Taught by: Deborah Brown
Wilmington (Arsht Hall): March 30, 2026 to April 27, 2026
Monday at 9:00 AM
Additional fee: This DelNature course requires an additional $50 registration fee. There is also a $15 fee for each optional weekly field trip if students choose to participate, which is payable to the Delaware Nature Society. Do you love nature and want to learn more about it? Then this introduction to Delaware’s natural resources is for you! Each week’s presentation will center around a different key topic, and an optional weekly field trip will be offered to participants. Please note additional fees mentioned above, which support the work and expertise of the Delaware Nature Society (DelNature) Adult Education Team.
Taught by: Declan O’Neil
Lewes (Trinity Faith Education Building): April 2, 2026 to April 30, 2026
Thursday at 10:45 AM
This course examines the history, current status and potential future of five diseases representative of major categories of illness (e.g., cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, infectious disease, and neurologic disease). This is intended to be an engaging and interactive discussion.
Taught by: Sheldon Scheinert
Online: March 31, 2026 to April 28, 2026
Tuesday at 9:00 AM
This course focuses on issues affecting health and the environment in Delaware including air and water quality, climate change and renewable energy. The course reviews current science on each topic and, where feasible, includes Delaware-specific data. Current state and federal regulations are discussed.
Taught by: Rae Tyson
Online: April 2, 2026 to April 30, 2026
Thursday at 9:00 AM
Estate planning organizes your affairs to accomplish long range goals for yourself and your family. We explore the three stages of estate planning, clarify the role of a power of attorney, unravel the probate process and explain the use of trusts to avoid probate. This class also covers personal property memorandums, jointly owned assets and appropriate beneficiary designations as well as the ethics surrounding asset protection planning.
Taught by: Michele Procino-Wells
Online: April 1, 2026 to April 29, 2026
Wednesday at 2:30 PM
How do you make retirement as amazing as you want it to be? This course guides you through a simple, systematic process of thinking strategically about who you are, and how you spend both your time and money.
Taught by: Leonard Hayduchok
This course has been added since catalog publication.
Ocean View Community Center: March 30, 2026 to April 27, 2026
Monday at 1:45 PM
Foundations of Investing is an educational program for people who are either new to investing or need a refresher. Participants will learn the importance of developing a strategy, the impact of asset allocation, and the influence of inflation on your long-term goals. We cover the basic features of bonds, stocks and mutual funds, and the importance of asset allocation.
Week 1 Subject: Foundations of Investing
Week 2 Subject: Healthcare and Your Retirement
Week 3 Subject: Retirement: Making Your Money Last
Week 4 Subject: Social Security
Week 5 Subject: Creating your Estate Plan
Taught by: Kevin Thompson, Lance Rogers
This one-session class has been added since catalog publication.
Ocean View Community Center: April 29, 2026 to April 29, 2026
Wednesday at 12:45 PM
Learn about the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, famously known as “The Way,” a hiking pilgrimage in Spain. There are eight official routes listed by the Cathedral of Santiago (but many variants) that would enable one to receive a certificate called the Compostela. Each route has a minimum distance, usually over 100km. However, a hiker’s goal may not be obtaining the Compostela but simply to enjoy hiking a well-marked route for physical, mental or spiritual health. This is a one-day class that meets on April 29, 2026.
Taught by: Cezarina Cornejo Alzona
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Delaware
OLLI is an academic cooperative for adults 50 and over to enjoy classes, teach, exchange ideas and socialize together, with no exams or educational requirements for participation. OLLI welcomes you.
Kent/Sussex | Wilmington