INSIDE OLLI   -  
Information about Who Is Who and 
What Is Going On at Our OLLI Program        

The home for OLLI at SF State   - 
                             Photo by Kathy Bruin                                    

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A Personal Education on the 
Topic of Human Evolution
​by  Elsa Fernandez -
Roving Reporter for Vistas & Byways

​A few weeks ago, the Editorial Board of Vistas & Byways asked me to look at the current status of OLLI's Interest Groups.  So, Mike Lambert and I decided to do some sleuthing and see how the Groups were faring. 
 
There are currently 10 active interest groups which meet either weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly.  It seems to me that the Interest Groups proliferated when the Pandemic hit our shores and we transformed ourselves into a Zoom Society.
 
I wanted to enroll in an OLLI class this Fall and found one that stirred my interest. It's a reading and discussion class intending to examine and study To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. It is the type of class and author many of us are familiar with.
 
Then, I looked through the list of OLLI Interest Groups and found one that was particularly challenging and struck me:  Human Evolution, led by Dr. Charles Vella. The group meets once a month on Zoom. 

Dr. Charles Vella - Leader of the OLLI Interest Group on Human Evolution

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My exposure to Human Evolution was sparse but I have always been curious about the subject, but never found the opportunity to get closer to it. There were always questions, searching for educated, "professional" answers.

I asked Dr. Vella some typical neophyte questions and slowly edged my way into a peripheral world of knowledge and study on our origins--very simply, "how did we get here?"  What was the focus of this challenging Interest Group?
 
Dr. Vella was a clinical neuropsychologist who worked at Kaiser Hospital, Psychiatry Department, from 1978 to 2009. He was Chief Psychologist and founded and directed the Neuropsychology Service.

To my surprise, Dr. Vella is not a paleontologist, just an avid amateur. Not just an amateur as we understand it, but an avid teacher and learner who wanted the answers.

He has also volunteered for the last 14 years as a docent at the California Academy of Science (CAS), specializing in the Human Odyssey exhibit and human evolution.

 In 2016, he taught a class on the Human Brain for OLLI and in 2018 he taught a class on pre-Homo human evolution.

Obviously, Charlie Vella has an amazing background . . . but I must confess what gave me immense personal pleasure was his docent involvement at the California Academy of Sciences (CAS). Why was I so excited? Because that's where Claude lives! He is the blind albino alligator who is beloved by most San Franciscans and his sad touching story . . . he was sent to SF with Bonnie, his companion, a green alligator who turned out to be a fickle girlfriend. She chomped on his right foot and bit off a toe and was rightfully sent back to Florida. Now Claude revels in being San Francisco's favorite son, living in luxury with all possible earthly delights at CAS. I try to make one visit a year to say Hello to Claude. He's not getting younger! It's hard not to love the dude with his crooked sneering grin that everybody finds so heart-warming.

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I asked Dr. Vella about the OLLI Interest Group on Evolution--the mechanics and topics of discussion.
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Each fourth Wednesday of the month from 10 to 12 noon, he lectures on human evolution, focusing on each of the known hominin species (homo habilis, erectus, heidelbergensis, neandertal, Denisovans, floresiensis, naledi, and sapiens.)

He gets his data from the major textbooks and 100s of human evolution published studies of the last 14 years. Given the revolution in ancient DNA studies since 2009, Charlie started a series of talks on paleogenetics. The group uses David Reich’s 2018 book, Who We Are and How We Got Here, as a general study guide.

As Charlie said "I have been fortunate in having a very dedicated group of about a dozen or so OLLI members, a third of whom are CAS docents. I lecture; they ask lots of questions. If I don’t know an answer, I will research it and talk about it next month. In the last two years, the first hour of the talk has been a human evolution science update of all the new studies of the last month (and these studies keep coming!); the second hour is our continued exploration of Reich’s book."

Recently, we saw reports of new footprints found and analyzed in White Sands, New Mexico--this seems to be upending the timelines of human life in the North American continent. I'd love to hear what Dr. Vella thinks.
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Human Evolution is the study of all the ancestors of modern Homo sapiens (see list above). Looking at all the ecological variables that produced the genetic changes that lead to all the speciation events in our ancestry. Everything from climate to food types, to tool usage, etc.
 
Every child born has at least 100 genetic mutations that differ from its parents. Evolution is forever.

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I asked Dr. Vella--Is  there a Study Guide you adhere to?  His answer: “No. Although we have reviewed S. Pääbo’s Neandertal Man; Reich’s book; Thomas Higham--The World Before Us; Rebecca Wragg Sykes--Kindred. We’ve reviewed every major book in the last 14 years.”
 
I remember feeling excited when Donald Johanson, the famous American paleontologist discovered "Lucy":  Australopithecus afarensis--(thereafter called "Lucy" because the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was playing in the camp at that time). That was in 1974. Dr Johanson became quite a heartthrob when he was inextricably bound to Lucy!
 
It is exhilarating to see the discoveries unfold with new learnings and then to learn more about how our ancestors lived and survived.

The OLLI Evolution Interest Group has worked together since its inception in February 2019. If I proceed to join it, I probably will feel a level of intimidation--but, I suppose that might come with any new venture we take on for ourselves.
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The lure of learning new things is powerful!

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​​Elsa Fernandez grew up in Asia. She has lived in San Francisco since 1970 and never gets tired of this lovely city. She has travelled the world and still gets excited flying back home and to finally land at SFO. Her family is scattered around the world—India, Australia, Dubai, England, Ireland and Argentina. She is a political junkie and majored in Journalism and Political Science. She loves music and plays the piano quite well (one of her dreams was to own a piano bar in upcountry Maui . . . she would probably call it the Maui Moon!). Writing poetry is an emotional outlet for her.

Other works in this issue:
Poetry:
​Two Poems:  ​Playdate With Layla, and
​ Unexpected Lessons
Inside OLLI:
The Inevitability of Destiny

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