Maine Senior College Network news & updates |
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Happy December 2021
This issue brings news from Senior College Belfast and how they have kept in touch with members during the pandemic. They created the "Corona Chronicles" to share photos, essays, and poems. Now, to everyone's delight, the Corona Chronicles finds itself in the news!
I also have a reminder about the Maine Senior College Network's reciprocal membership. Membership at one college gives you access to classes offered by senior colleges all across the state! To help you stay up to date with upcoming Zoom classes keep an eye on our " What's Happening?" web page. Colleges use this page to send out upcoming registration dates, event news, and invitations to join their classes.
Please take a look at OLLI's 2021 Reflections magazine featuring the creative work of its members. This year's issue is a treat! And, last but not least, see what the MSCN's book reviewer, Pat Reiff recommends for your reading pleasure this month!
Program Director
Wikimedia Image:
George Bellows - December 1910
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Senior College Belfast
The "Corona Chronicles,"
SC Belfast's pandemic newsletter finds itself in the news!
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"Sharing poetry, photos and stories connected an older community through the pandemic."
The Senior College Belfast newsletter, the "Corona Chronicles," was featured in the Bangor Daily News on December 2nd. Journalist Abigail Curtis describes how the senior college's e-newsletter has helped members stay in touch through the pandemic by sharing stories about themselves as well as their creative work.
Congratulations to the Corona Chronicle's co-editors Janet Williams and Nancy Perkins and all the members of SC Belfast.
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Don't forget that you get reciprocal membership in the Maine Senior College Network!
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Reciprocal membership
As a member of one senior college, you can sign up for online classes at other senior colleges. And, sometimes activities only require a small fee while other offerings are entirely free to MSCN members! You do not pay membership fees at other colleges, just the class fee!
This is our "breaking news" page. We post notifications about upcoming events and opportunities here. You can also see lists of classes with open seats on our Online Class Openings webpage.
Online Zoom Classes
Our online Zoom classes are top-rated, especially in the winter. There is no shoveling snow to get to your car, no scraping ice off your windscreen, no slippery roads, and no parking! Just sign up for your online class and click on a link to join at the appointed hour. Make yourself a nice hot drink and sit down with your fellow lifelong learners from across the state.
Advantages to Zoom? - Yes, there are some!
We know that everyone wants to get back to meeting in person as soon as they feel safe. In the meantime, consider taking an online class or sitting in on a lunchtime lecture. We have heard that people have found some advantages to online courses! On Zoom, you can see everyone's face (not the back of their heads), you can hear clearly, and before you know it, you forget all about the technology and the geographical distance separating you from each other.
Need help with Zoom?
Zoom Tipsheets
Support your local college
So support your local senior college, renew your annual membership, and keep an eye open for exciting lifelong learning opportunities from all across the state!
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Information about Winter 2022 classes.
Visit the MSCN website for more information.
You can also go to Online Class Openings for a list of classes around the state with openings for members of other senior colleges. This page receives updates from around the network as registration information is made available by the colleges.
Senior College Class catalogs available at the time of posting this newsletter
Acadia SC
Registration is open!
Act now! Registration closes on Friday, December 17, at midnight.
Augusta SC
Preview classes
Belfast SC
Registration open
Coastal SC
Gold LEAF Institute
Preview classes
Lewiston-Auburn SC
Preview classes
Registration begins January 3, 2022
Midcoast SC
Registration for members of other senior colleges opens on December 15.
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)
Registration for members of other senior colleges opens on December 15.
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Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)
Presents:
Reflections 2021
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Take a look at this year's issue of USM OLLI's Reflections magazine.
You will see a range of creative pieces by OLLI members.
All contributions are beautifully presented in this quality production. Works include photographs, paintings, poetry, and thought-provoking essays. Click on the button below to view.
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Cokie, A Life Well Lived
by Steve Roberts
Published by Harper Collins 2021
Pages 251 Price $27.99
Reviewed by Pat Davidson Reef
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Steve Roberts, an important journalist, and author has written a new book titled, “Cokie, A Life Well Lived”. It is a moving tribute to his wife, Cokie, of 52 years, and a perfect Christmas book because there is love on every page. Cokie Roberts was a pioneer in the field of woman journalists in the 1960s and 1970s when women were considered decoration, not intellectual enough to be professional journalists. Cokie proved she was a great journalist and could discuss and write about any topic equal to a man before her death at 75 of breast cancer in 2019. Her husband’s memories and stories of her struggle to juggle marriage, motherhood, and a career in the broadcasting world of national networks such as NPR, ABC, and NBC as a writer, panelist, and anchor are filled with love, admiration, deep respect, and a dash of humor.
Steve Roberts’ narrative style of writing brings intimate and loving views of his wife through the many quoted comments from her friends and those whom she had worked with over the years.
They were married in Cokie’s home in Washington D.C. by a priest and former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg in an interfaith ceremony in 1966. Cokie was Catholic and Steve was Jewish, which was unconventional in those days, but they were very happily married for 52 years and brought up two wonderful children, Lee and Rebecca.
Cokie was not an at-home mother but she loved children and wanted a family as well as a career at the same time. She had writing talent, a great clear mind, researched her topics, and had an enormous drive to succeed in a man’s world of Broadcast journalism in the 1970s. She fought for equal respect with dignity, and never held grudges about seasoned broadcasters (like Jennings and Donaldson) who at first felt she was not good enough. She made friends with David Brinkley because of her quick mind and sense of humor and he came to respect her as an equal.
By 1996 Cokie was a major journalist and co-anchor of “This Week” a Sunday political news program which she did for a decade and became highly respected in the broadcasting world. However, every weekend she was tied up with this program and she eventually moved on to CNN as a panelist to have some private time for herself and to write four books.
The most important element for me in the book was she helped other women broadcasters and opened doors for their rise. She gave them personal advice on their children and helped them get jobs and encouraged their juggling of scheduling with family issues and careers. Steve Roberts quotes from a dozen women she helped and how she encouraged them are impressive. Two women that remain in my mind are Leslie Stahl who is still interviewing on the T.V. program “60 minutes” and Donna Brazille, a Democrat woman broadcaster who was outstanding.
Cokie’s name is a nickname from her childhood that she kept all of her adult life. It came from her younger brother who could not pronounce her real name, Corinne. Cokie was the daughter of Representatives Hale and Lindy Boggs of New Orleans and at the age of 4 moved to Washington D.C. where she lived much of her life. Her father Hale Boggs served as a Representative from New Orleans in the United States House in Washington D.C. for 26 years and was killed in an airplane crash in 1972. Her mother, Lindy Boggs ran for his office and was a Democrat Congresswoman for 18 years. Cokie was steeped on important national issues at the dinner table while growing up. She was educated at Wellesley College, a natural writer, and debater, who knew political issues by heart.
In conclusion, while Cokie was not an at-home mother, she was an at-home broadcaster of the whole world. She covered thousands of topics that were newsworthy which affected us all. Her writings and interviews on radio and television made the world a better place to live in.
The whole book is filled with their love for each other and their love for journalism. I recommend it highly!!!
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