Horizon Studies Offers New Venue for Lifelong Learning in Berkeley
East Bay knowledge seekers, take heart! A new lifelong learning program called Horizon Studies has opened in Berkeley.
Aimed at students age 50 and up - those who've entered what Horizon calls the "Third Stage" of life - the program
offers a range of courses focused around history, spirituality, philosophy and psychology.
For the Winter quarter that began in January 2007, Horizon Studies offered two courses - "Eastern Spirituality and Western Living" and "Great Cities: Capitals of Western History."
About 80 students, mostly East Bay residents, enrolled.
Horizon Studies' initial courses were taught by Bruce Elliott, a lecturer on European history at UC Berkeley and Stanford
Continuing Studies, and Bill Garrett, a professor of philosophy and religion at John F. Kennedy University.
Elliott has a particular interest in the interplay of history and artistic expression in early modern Europe,
while Garrett has for the past 30 years taught courses on the history of ideas.
Elliott and Garrett, the program's founders, launched Horizon Studies in 2006 to help fill the vacuum created
when UC Berkeley closed its Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) in the fall of 2005. Elliott and Garrett
both taught courses in the Berkeley OLLI program.
"There is a large and growing demand for classes that allow people to explore their interests and add to
what they've got," says Elliott. "It's really exciting to be involved in expanding learning opportunities
for people in the third stage of life. These students are a lot of fun to work with."
Bruce Elliott in class
Horizon Studies' courses meet once a week for eight weeks at the historic Berkeley City Club
on Durant Avenue in Berkeley. Classes run from 10 a.m. to Noon in the morning, and from 1 p.m. to
3 p.m. in the afternoon, following a lunch break.
For the upcoming Spring quarter, which begins at the end of March, Horizon Studies is expanding
by offering four new eight-week courses. There will be a History/Philosophy set of classes on
Tuesday in a morning/afternoon format and also a Spirituality/Psychology series on Thursdays.
The registration fee is $185 for one course, or $295 for both courses in a series. Students are
not required to take tests or write papers, though each course has a recommended reading list.
Information about these courses and about Horizon Studies is available at http://www.horizonstudies.org
The director, Bruce Elliott, can be reached at belliott@berkeley.edu.
(This article originally appeared in the Winter 2006/2007 issue of Bay Area Summit)
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