Senior citizens in UMass Boston’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) program never know quite where their love of learning will lead them. Many ride the shuttle bus from the JFK T station out to classes on Columbia Point. Others may find themselves riding an elephant in a jungle in Thailand.

Part of a national network of 119 similar organizations spread throughout all 50 states, the UMB OLLI program enriches the intellectual, social, and cultural lives of those 50 or older without the pressures of the typical university environment.

Nearly 1,200 seniors study at the Harbor Point campus each semester, according to OLLI office manager Lucille Nguyen. “We currently have 119 members from Dorchester and 2 from Mattapan,” she said. “We have 18 total course facilitators who live in Dorchester, 5 of whom are OLLI Scholars.” The latter are young people pursuing an advanced degree in Gerontology in the university’s nationally celebrated PhD program.

Dorchester provides roughly 10 percent of the student body and ranks second only to Quincy as the neighborhood with the most OLLI members.
The Fall 2015 on-campus offerings range from entry-levels like “A Web, Not a Maze: Finding Information with the Google Search Engine” to more specialized like “The Kasena of Ghana: A Cultural Expedition to West Africa.”

Among the veteran Dot facilitators is retired elementary school teacher Helena Zubrin, who continues her Monday morning “Working with Watercolor” series. Other Dot residents teach popular language courses. Judy Planchon continues her “Intermediate French Conversation through Cinema” series while Jones Hill’s Dr. Irene L. Roman has a strong following for both her “Basic Italian” and “Introduction to Italy and Italian Culture.” This past spring she co-led a Classical Studies in Italy trip through Rome, Umbria, and Tuscany.

Another Jones Hill resident, cable TV host and theatre columnist John Joseph Fahey, continues his American Lit series with “Notable Dramas on the American Stage.” This course will examine works by William Inge, Lillian Hellman, Tennessee Williams, Reginald Rose, and Lorraine Hansbury.

This fall, Cedar Grove’s Robert P. Dunford, a 38-year veteran of the Boston Police force and former commanding officer of the Boston Police Academy, will repeat his popular class on “The Police, the Constitution and the Citizen (Part II).”

Other courses led by Dot residents include Dr. Aurobinda Mahapatra’s “An Introduction to the Conflict in South Asia” and Genevieve Forde’s teaches two classes, one on Italian cuisine, the other on Far East cuisine.

Finally, this reporter will present two Wednesday afternoon videoconferences that may be accessed in Hingham, Plymouth, and Nantucket: “Shakespeare’s ‘Richard III’ ” and “The History of Mystery 9: Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot.”

No academic or other credentials are required for the programs. There are no tests, no papers, and no degrees. Daytime classes meet once a week and a term lasts anywhere from 4 to 12 weeks. In addition, during each semester there are about 40 one-shot lunchtime lectures known as Brown Bag presentations. Irene Roman will do a special presentation on “Leonardo da Vinci and the Last Supper.”

OLLI also sponsors theater outings to touring Broadway musicals and local productions at the Huntington and Speakeasy theatres, as well as day trips to New England museums. Among the 2016 overseas adventures on offer are “England, Scotland, and Wales” and “Portugal: Porto, Lisbon and the Algarve.”

To enroll in courses, which start in mid-September, visit www.OLLI.umb.edu, or call 617 287-7312 to request a catalog. Full or partial scholarships may be available on request.