The Center for Lifelong Learning, an organization committed to providing learning opportunities to alumni, parents, and friends connected with St. Olaf, is offering a new program entitled, "Service Learning In Tanzania." Available this January, the program will work together with an organization called "Global Volunteers" to provide a unique study abroad experience to its participants. Members of the trip will work together with volunteers of all ages and people of the highland village of Pommern, in addition to being invited into the villages and working on projects chosen by the villagers themselves.

The programÕs focus is on learning through working and experiencing a culture, not via textbooks or a class. Karen Hansen, executive director, stated "what you learn from fellow group members is just as interesting [as what you could learn from a textbook]." The Tanzania program is unique in that the participants will be various ages while the villagers themselves are a part of the overall volunteer group as well. The group will spend time together at meals, working, talking, and relaxing by doing things like listening to music by a campfire.

The group will also bring a wide variety of talents to share with the villagers of Pommern, Tanzania. Heidi Quiram, program director of the CLL, emphasized that "you donÕt have to be a doctor or a teacher to help - just bring your everyday skills." This program is still open and available to St. Olaf students. The duration of the abroad program will be over Interim 2001, from January 5-27.

While the CLL started as an "alumni college," the Tanzania program is just one example of how they provide many services to current St. Olaf students. The organization currently offers a class in American Sign Language and several psychology and law conferences aimed to help further studentsÕ education. Both Hansen and Quiram were excited to be working in a program where "people have a mission and you try to match that mission."

The Center for Life Long Learning (CLL) is an organization on campus that officially began in January of 1999. The mission of the organization is to focus on learning, and to continue this learning beyond the four years of undergraduate education. The CLL incorporates people of all ages into its programs, and its work spans from summer youth athletic and music camps on campus, to involvement in Elderhostel, a national umbrella organization for ages fifty and older available on campus.

Since its first "mini Global" program in 1985, opportunities for study travel have continued to expand. This year the CLL is offering a wide range of travel opportunities including some focused on the Italian Renaissance; European culture in Weimar, Germany; exploring Madrid and Barcelona; and abroad trips to Norway and Australia as well. St. Olaf professors who are well acquainted with their areas of travel lead all of the programs.

Being a service for the St. Olaf community, the CLL is always looking for new ideas and input. To contact or give information/input to the CLL, or to find out how to sign up for the program in Tanzania, please visit them on the upper level of Manitou Cottage or consult their webpage at (http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/cll/index.html).