The Lark: Vol 1, Issue 7, December 2021

WHO WE ARE

One goal of The Lark is to feature articles about LLC personalities, the people who make LLC such a successful organization.

Linda Shamoon

“Buona giornata!” Linda said as we finished our conversation one chilly Saturday morning, a conversation about how Linda discovered, joined, and contributes to LLC. In 2010, Linda Shamoon retired as a Professor on Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Rhode Island. One year later, she and her husband Sam joined LLC. Her “career” as a coordinator for courses began in 2013. Linda has co-coordinated over 15 courses in the arts, music, and literature categories.

Linda attended school in New York City at the High School of Music and Art with a focus on classical music and the clarinet. “I received a terrific music and music theory education.” At Purdue University, she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Experimental Psychology. On to Tufts University where she earned a Master of Arts degree in English Literature. URI welcomed her as a professor of literature and later as professor of writing and rhetoric. In that position, Linda helped found the writing program at URI, as well as found a Bachelor’s Degree program and a Master’s Degree program in writing and rhetoric.

Linda and Sam have two children, David, a professional chef, and Deborah, a professor of Japanese literature, film and popular culture at the National University of Singapore. Linda and Sam are the proud grandparents of Deborah’s twins, Sophie and Peter.

The Shamoons find joy in traveling. Many of their travels generated from visiting family: Japan, Israel, Singapore, Canada, and England, where Sam’s parents lived and his older brother, who lives in London. They also have traveled extensively around the United States. Italy is a favorite destination.

Linda’s interests are varied. Music, of course, and chamber music, “one of my passions.” When Linda coordinated LLC’s “Concerts and Conversations” class, it allowed her to reengage with Classical music in a new way, to devote serious study time to a lifelong love and to share that love with others. Her love of poetry spurred her to co-coordinate LLC poetry classes, including co-coordinating a poetry class this semester, “Luminous Things: African American Poetry,” with Christine Rose and Karen Stein. “I love reading poetry and talking about it with others.”

Another interest: cooking. Linda loves to try new recipes, especially for Indian food “which Sam loves.” One interest developed from an LLC class Linda took called IPhonography – photography using only your iPhone. This creative class, “gets you outside for photography walks. You work right on the phone to create pictures you love and can hang on the wall.”

Another of Linda’s passions is something you might not know about her: After retirement she decided to try to learn to speak a foreign language that was new to her. Why? “A friend showed me a list of “20 things to do when you retire.” High on the list was learning a foreign language. “I always thought I would do that after I retired.”

Her decision to focus on Italian came from her music background and “just feeling that it is a beautiful language. My first step was to find a good teacher. I discovered Professor Maria Mansella at CCRI, the world’s best teacher of Italian. But even with a great teacher, it is hard to learn a new language at our age. I have been at it for nine years, and I am still a novice, but I get great satisfaction from reading it, speaking it, and understanding it when others speak. Speaking Italian also introduced me to a whole new community of friends. All in all, it has been a joy.”

Now integral members of LLC, Linda and Sam learned about our organization from Roberta Segal, president of LLC when it was called BCLIR (Building a Community of Learning in Retirement). After talking with Roberta, they decided to try some BCLIR classes. After one semester, they were both hooked. Linda became very active as a co-coordinator of classes in the arts and music. Sam took a variety of courses, co-coordinated courses on City Planning, his profession, and he joined the Board and, within a few years, becoming president for a two-year term.

Along the way, Linda took LLC’s training workshop for coordinators, where she demonstrated one of her long-time teaching methods: collaborative learning. These days, Linda joins with LLC’ers Catherine B. Hurst and Kathy Webster to help others to use collaborative learning in their LLC classes. Providing that help underscores Linda’s belief that using your professional skills after retirement, perhaps in a different way, is a very good thing for everyone.

Grazie mille, Linda, for a stimulating Saturday morning conversation.