Jeff Olma

The Wizard of Creativity

Jeff Olma
Professor of English and Creativity, Deerwood Center

When unassuming Jeff Olma crosses the threshold of his classroom, a transformation happens. Anyone who has ever experienced one of his creativity classes would agree: When it comes to teaching, he’s not just a phenomenal professor. Jeff Olma is the wizard. With his special powers, he works magic with every student in the room.

His introductory creativity course at the Deerwood Center looks like fun, and it is fun. But behind the Mr. Potato Heads, jacks, marbles and Lego’s, some serious teaching and learning are taking place. Professor Olma is an enthusiastic proponent of the “learning communities” model of teaching. Learning communities come in a number of innovative variations, but they all have one element in common: a break from the traditional teaching environment, structure or delivery.

“The days of teaching with content that stays inside the classroom are pretty much over,” Olma says. “I see the world coming into the classroom all the time.” And the wizard’s “anything goes” style leads his students to new ways of looking at that world. One of Olma’s students designed a unique flat cooler in class and got his invention patented for marketing. Business managers have used their newfound creativity to generate innovative ideas for their companies. Writers have said good riddance to their writer’s block.

Professor Olma is passionate about discovering the creativity within everyone. That passion began while starting out at the University of New York as a pre-veterinary biology major, when a growing interest in writing eventually led him to study creativity and explore his own creative potential. Olma went on to earn his master’s degree in creative writing from Bowling Green University in Ohio. He also received a graduate certificate in Creativity and Change Leadership from the International Center for Studies in Creativity, and earned his second master’s in creative studies from Buffalo State.

About half of Olma’s 30-year teaching career has been at Florida Community College; he held teaching positions in Hawaii and Ohio before relocating to Florida. If you ask Olma why he loves to teach, he answers: “I can extend myself and enrich my own life by watching my students learn and deepen their learning, as clichéd as that may sound. I also get a tremendous amount of return from working with inspired faculty who are more innovative than I’ll ever be. This is like a giant learning community.”

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