Lifetime Learning earns 3 awards
Janna Overstreet, project coordinator of Eastern’s Lifelong Learning Academy, was informed that she and two other members of her department had received awards during the Illinois Lifelong Learning Services Coalition Annual Summit on Sept. 27.
Of the three awards, two were for individual academy members and one for the Fall 2011 brochure created by Overstreet and Diane Highland.
“This is a huge accomplishment for us, we are a relatively young program statewide as well as in a rural community,” Overstreet said. “So to be recognized like this shows so much not only about the program, but the commitment we are getting from the community.”
The award-winning brochure has a circulation of about 5,000 copies per semester and is distributed in more than 37 places on campus and in the Charleston-Mattoon community. Overstreet said she got much of her inspiration from community members and other programs.
“I joked [while accepting the award] that I just took what I thought was the best from the other programs and put it together, we also put a lot of what members asked for, like a calendar in it,” she said.
The other two awards the department received were the Outstanding Lifelong Learning Professor to retired professor Alan Baharlou and the Outstanding Lifelong Learning Volunteer to retired professor Lillian Greathouse.
The awards were presented by Michael Gelder, acting director of the Illinois Department of Aging, and George Reid, executive director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
The Dean of the School of Continuing Education William Hine, and Overstreet accepted the awards on behalf of Eastern according to a press release by the School of Continuing education.
Overstreet said as part of the nomination process, fellow academy members wrote letters of recommendation in support of both Babarlou and Greathouse.
“There are so many deserving people but these two were both instrumental in founding and maintaining the Academy of Lifetime Learning,” Overstreet said. “They have both maintained high levels of participation and support through our growth.”
The awards will be publicly awarded during Nontraditional students’ week at ceremony at 3 p.m. on Nov. 10 at the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union Transfer Lounge.
Amy Wywialowski can
be reached at 581-2812
