Wednesday   

Take a behind-the-scenes tour of the zoo's newest animal residents. The lead zookeeper will provide a special look at the new giraffe barn. Zoo staff will lead a tour of the medical facilities and describe the zoo’s conservation efforts. John Chapo, president and CEO, will chat with us about the history, evolution and future of the zoo.

Take a behind-the-scenes tour of the zoo's newest animal residents. The lead zookeeper will provide a special look at the new giraffe barn. Zoo staff will lead a tour of the medical facilities and describe the zoo’s conservation efforts. John Chapo, president and CEO, will chat with us about the history, evolution and future of the zoo.

Explore the details of the June, 2025 OLLI travel opportunity to Philadelphia, when you will experience rich history and culture and be some of the first to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America! Begin your journey at Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated and adopted. Delve into the art of coin-making at the U.S. Mint and marvel at the grandeur of Philadelphia City Hall’s stunning architecture. Stroll down Elfreth’s Alley, America’s oldest continuously inhabited residential street, before immersing yourself in the Nemours Estate, a breathtaking example of French-inspired architecture and gardens. Explore the natural splendor of Longwood Gardens, where lush landscapes and vibrant blooms captivate the senses. Get a glimpse into the region’s scenic beauty on a railway journey through the stunning vistas of Lehigh Gorge. From historic landmarks to natural wonders, Philadelphia promises an unforgettable blend of exploration and discovery.

Explore the details of the June, 2025 OLLI travel opportunity to Philadelphia, when you will experience rich history and culture and be some of the first to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America! Begin your journey at Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated and adopted. Delve into the art of coin-making at the U.S. Mint and marvel at the grandeur of Philadelphia City Hall’s stunning architecture. Stroll down Elfreth’s Alley, America’s oldest continuously inhabited residential street, before immersing yourself in the Nemours Estate, a breathtaking example of French-inspired architecture and gardens. Explore the natural splendor of Longwood Gardens, where lush landscapes and vibrant blooms captivate the senses. Get a glimpse into the region’s scenic beauty on a railway journey through the stunning vistas of Lehigh Gorge. From historic landmarks to natural wonders, Philadelphia promises an unforgettable blend of exploration and discovery.

Whether you are seeking strategies for your own self-care or are looking for a positive approach to caring for an older loved one, learn practical tips for embracing life's changes as we age. Focused on five key emotions—gratitude, empathy, forgiveness, love, and awe—known to enhance overall wellbeing, reduce stress, and create meaning, we will explore several easy-to-implement activities designed to harness these powerful emotions. These practices have been designed to help you savor each day, strengthen your relationships, and build personal resilience at every stage. This course is well-suited for caregivers and anyone seeking an easy-to- follow path for ongoing personal growth and wellbeing.

Whether you are seeking strategies for your own self-care or are looking for a positive approach to caring for an older loved one, learn practical tips for embracing life's changes as we age. Focused on five key emotions—gratitude, empathy, forgiveness, love, and awe—known to enhance overall wellbeing, reduce stress, and create meaning, we will explore several easy-to-implement activities designed to harness these powerful emotions. These practices have been designed to help you savor each day, strengthen your relationships, and build personal resilience at every stage. This course is well-suited for caregivers and anyone seeking an easy-to- follow path for ongoing personal growth and wellbeing.

Opera is a form of theater in which music has the leading role and the parts are taken by singers. It incorporates singing, acting, scenery, costumes, and dance. Learn about opera and what makes it so. Explore the genres of opera, including opera “seria,” and opera buffa, Wagner’s musical drama, and modern opera. Understand several important elements of the genre like arias, recitatives and ensembles, without which opera does not exist.

The Scarlet, Lincoln, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel is located at Innovation Campus. It has 154 guest rooms and suites and event space, plus the Well and Good Signature Restaurant, Barred Owl Rooftop Bar and Good Life Coffee Shop. Enjoy a tour of the entire facility. The hotel also provides a teaching space of hands-on experience for UNL students who are participating in the Hospitality, Restaurant and Tourism Management (HRTM) degree program. By combining classroom instruction with experiential learning, the program is designed to meet current industry needs. Learn about the current learning laboratory at the hotel and receive an update on future plans for the HRTM program to be located in a separate space at the hotel. Participants can stay afterwards to enjoy a beverage at the Barred Owl or dinner at Well and Good Restaurant.

This class is structured for the student who has no or little knowledge of the game of bridge, and for those who played it years ago and need a refresher. We will cover how the game is played, bridge vocabulary, basic Standard American bidding, and basic card play. There will be opportunities to play hands that will illustrate what has been taught in class. The students will dictate how fast the class will move.

Canoeing is a great way to explore local lakes and rivers. If you enjoy being on the water and are an adventurous beginner this class is for you. We will go through both a land-based and paddling progression to gain this new skill. You must provide your own entry fee into the State Recreation Area.

Sacred Ground is a film and readings-based dialogue series on race, grounded in Faith. Small groups are invited to walk through chapters of America’s history of race and racism, while weaving in threads of family story, economic class and political and regional identity. In the first session of this introductory course, view the film “American Creed” in preparation for discussion. In the second session, we will discuss the film and learn about the full curriculum of the entire Sacred Ground series, which will begin later in Term 1 and run 11 consecutive weeks through Term 2, from September 25 through December 11. The entire course has a commitment to racial healing, reconciliation, and justice in our personal lives and society.

Sacred Ground is a film and readings-based dialogue series on race, grounded in Faith. Small groups are invited to walk through chapters of America’s history of race and racism, while weaving in threads of family story, economic class and political and regional identity. In the first session of this introductory course, view the film “American Creed” in preparation for discussion. In the second session, we will discuss the film and learn about the full curriculum of the entire Sacred Ground series, which will begin later in Term 1 and run 11 consecutive weeks through Term 2, from September 25 through December 11. The entire course has a commitment to racial healing, reconciliation, and justice in our personal lives and society.

Learn about the history, symbolism, and mindfulness practice of walking this singular meandering path leading to a center. Labyrinths are tools for personal, psychological, and spiritual transformation, also thought to enhance right-brain activity. Explore mindfulness and the benefits of the walking meditation that labyrinths invite. We intend to visit one local labyrinth as the weather allows.

Whether retired already or planning ahead, it is important to keep up to date on the financial aspects of your life. Review and understand the principles for successful retirement, while having the opportunity to discover potentially new concepts in current financial markets. Learn about setting goals, the costs of retirement, retirement sources, estate planning, traditional and non-traditional investments, and strategies for protecting your assets. The content is not biased toward any strategy, company or product, but rather focuses on the concepts needed to make informed decisions in this ever-changing environment.

Prudential Advisors is a brand name of The Prudential Insurance Company of America and its subsidiaries. Joel T. Barjenbruch offers financial planning and investment advisory services and programs through Pruco Securities, LLC (Pruco), under the marketing name Prudential Financial Planning Services (PFPS), pursuant to a separate client agreement. Offering insurance and securities products and services as a registered representative of Pruco, and an agent of issuing insurance companies. JS Financial is not affiliated with The Prudential Insurance Company of America and its affiliates, including Pruco. Other products and services may be offered through a non-Prudential entity. 1-800-778-2255.

Before she passed away in 1974, Felicia Bornstein Lubliner wrote about her internment in Polish ghettos and two Nazi concentration camps, Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen. Her powerful stories have recently been published by her son, Irv Lubliner, an emeritus Southern Oregon University professor and OLLI instructor. He will share excerpts from “Only Hope: A Survivor’s Stories of the Holocaust,” shedding light on his mother’s experiences and indomitable spirit, as well as his experience as a child of Holocaust survivors and his process in bringing the book to fruition.

This course is for beginning players with limited or no prior pickleball experience. You will learn the basics of pickleball in small groups of four OLLI participants taught by one or two experienced players (mentors). Emphasis will be on the fun and joy of pickleball. A limited supply of paddles and balls are available to borrow. Purchase pickleball paddles at local sporting goods stores starting around $50. On-line purchase is not recommended! Questions? See contact information for the instructor/facilitator below.

After founding by Romulus, rebellion against Etruscan kings, and sacking by Gauls, Romans gradually worked out of a republican form of government, expanded their control of the Mediterranean world, altering their officials, assemblies, legal policies and rights of citizenship. How did their form of government change over the centuries, until it ended up as an autocratic empire, which then declined and fell? Review and consider the actions of Scipio, Marius, Pompey, Cicero, Julius Caesar, and Augustus, based on the writing of historians and whatever we can figure out actually must have happened, to aim for power, peace, and principle.

Sacred Ground is a film and readings based 11-week dialogue series on race, grounded in faith. The class is invited to walk through chapters of America’s history of race and racism, while weaving in threads of family story, economic class, and political and regional identity. This course has a delayed registration beginning at 1 p.m. September 4 and closing on September 18. The course begins September 25 and runs straight through for 11 consecutive weeks, ending December 11. Participants will be asked to prepare for each session by reading online materials and viewing films. Most course materials are provided online; however, participants will need to acquire two books: “Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race” by Debby Irving, available on Amazon for $16; and “Jesus and the Disinherited” by Howard Thurman, available on Amazon for $13. The entire course has a commitment to racial healing, reconciliation, and justice in our personal lives and society.

Volleyball has been a part of the UNL athletic landscape for more than a century, but the sport didn’t gain much notoriety until the early 1970s, when the Huskers began to put together a program that is now known worldwide. Learn how its reputation grew from its humble beginnings, reaching a pinnacle last August when Volleyball Day put 92,003 in Memorial Stadium stands. Meet some of the players who made it possible from those early Title IX days at Mabel Lee Hall and the Coliseum. They had big dreams, and so many of them have come true.

Volleyball has been a part of the UNL athletic landscape for more than a century, but the sport didn’t gain much notoriety until the early 1970s, when the Huskers began to put together a program that is now known worldwide. Learn how its reputation grew from its humble beginnings, reaching a pinnacle last August when Volleyball Day put 92,003 in Memorial Stadium stands. Meet some of the players who made it possible from those early Title IX days at Mabel Lee Hall and the Coliseum. They had big dreams, and so many of them have come true.

The Founders who wrote our U.S. Constitution faced two uncompromising attitudes: small states demanding equality with large states and slave states seeking a stronger voice in congressional districting and in presidential elections. Creating a U.S. Senate with all states delegated two senators and also granting slave states the right to count three-fifths of slaves in each U.S. Census for congressional districts helped to mollify both groups to protect their interests. Turning to the election of the President, the delegates held 30 separate votes unsuccessfully and finally used a model based upon the election of emperors under the Holy Roman Empire. The Constitution was then ratified. Despite critical Constitutional amendments that enhanced both democracy and citizen rights, neither the U.S. Senate nor the Electoral College, other than 12th Amendment, have been reformed to avoid “minority rule.” Explore how both institutions contribute to our “creeping counter-majoritarianism” in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Founders who wrote our U.S. Constitution faced two uncompromising attitudes: small states demanding equality with large states and slave states seeking a stronger voice in congressional districting and in presidential elections. Creating a U.S. Senate with all states delegated two senators and also granting slave states the right to count three-fifths of slaves in each U.S. Census for congressional districts helped to mollify both groups to protect their interests. Turning to the election of the President, the delegates held 30 separate votes unsuccessfully and finally used a model based upon the election of emperors under the Holy Roman Empire. The Constitution was then ratified. Despite critical Constitutional amendments that enhanced both democracy and citizen rights, neither the U.S. Senate nor the Electoral College, other than 12th Amendment, have been reformed to avoid “minority rule.” Explore how both institutions contribute to our “creeping counter-majoritarianism” in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The “Tales of Hoffmann” is an opera fantastique by German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach, his final opera. In Luther’s tavern in Munich, where the operate begins and ends, the poet Hoffmann, with his confidant Nicklausse, begins to tell the story of his three unfortunate love affairs, in which Councillor Lindorf has played a crucial role, dressed in three different costumes, each more diabolical than the others. We will listen to and discuss the history of this opera; its structure, information about the composer’s sources, and different musical elements which are characteristic of this opera. Other information will be shared to define additional contributions to the opera genre.

Get a behind-the-scenes look at six different Lincoln artists in their studios. See the creative environments and study the artists finished pieces or works in progress. Hear them describe their creative process and perhaps see a demonstration of their techniques. We will visit all new/different studios from past offerings of this course. 

The last OLLI visit to Offutt AFB was in 2015. Much has happened and changed since then including flooding and recovery operations, stand up of the USSTRATCOM Command & Control Facility, the movement of the 55th Wing to new headquarters, and a major runway renovation. The day will include briefings by the 55th Wing, 557th Weather Wing, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), and USSTRATCOM. Lunch will be enjoyed in the Airman Dining Hall. We will conclude with a driving tour of the base. Be prepared to walk a bit.

The last OLLI visit to Offutt AFB was in 2015. Much has happened and changed since then including flooding and recovery operations, stand up of the USSTRATCOM Command & Control Facility, the movement of the 55th Wing to new headquarters, and a major runway renovation. The day will include briefings by the 55th Wing, 557th Weather Wing, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), and USSTRATCOM. Lunch will be enjoyed in the Airman Dining Hall. We will conclude with a driving tour of the base. Be prepared to walk a bit.

This course is back by popular demand. Learn about the Piedmont neighborhood, which was developed by Lincoln businessman Charles Stuart beginning in 1926. A classroom session will focus on historical concepts behind the development, as well as the area’s architects, early residents and unique landscape features. A second session will be a guided walking tour through the streets of Piedmont. As the area’s sidewalks are narrow, or nonexistent, and traffic on Cotner Boulevard can be busy. Both groups will meet in the classroom for the first session, then split into two groups for the walking tours for the second session.