Northwestern Emeriti Organization wins innovation award for ‘mini-courses’

The Northwestern Emeriti Organization (NEO) has won a prestigious national award for establishing a series of “mini-courses” taught by retired faculty for residents of Evanston and other local communities. The “Innovation Award” for the mini-courses is one of three given this year by the National Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education (AROHE) to organizations that demonstrate leadership, service and innovation.

The courses began in the fall of 2019 in partnership with the Evanston Public Library. So far, seven courses have been taught by Northwestern faculty, with course participation ranging from 50 to 300.

“Emeritae and emeriti are effective contributors to their communities,” said Jeff Garrett, librarian emeritus and NEO president elect. “The mini-course project demonstrates that, and the fact that there has been an innovation award for it shows we are going in a good direction and might even be a model for others.”

At the beginning of her term as president of NEO in 2019, Emerita Professor Michal Ginsburg proposed launching the non-credit, no-charge “mini-courses” for local residents, with each course running for two 90-minute sessions. She thought they would leverage the expertise of retired Northwestern faculty across a spectrum of disciplines, allowing those faculty to give back to the community by donating their time.

Learn more about the “mini-courses” and how to participate in Northwestern Now.