Have you often wondered how hurricanes develop, why Rembrandt is considered a master artist or would you simply like to understand the important issues of our current presidential campaign?
If so, this fall offers the opportunity to stimulate your mind, meet new friends and discover new interests ... all in your own Shoreline neighborhood.
The second session of the new Shoreline Institute of Lifelong Learning (an Elderhostel Institute Network Affiliate) will be starting the end of September, and the fall catalog of new, thought-provoking classes is ready now.
These "quick tastes" of a variety of subjects have been fashioned into mini-courses of just one to eight classes, and the modest registration fee covers the cost of one-session classes, with a $10 charge for all other multiweek courses.
The idea of developing a lifelong learning program on the Shoreline began at the Guilford Foundation, a community foundation dedicated to supporting projects and programs to improve the quality of life in Guilford.
Virginia Czaplicki, the energetic and charming director of Guilford Senior Services, suggested it be done as a two-town program, partnering Guilford and Madison.
The primary mission of the resultant Shoreline Institute is to offer meaningful intellectual programs to retired and semiretired citizens. Interested residents from other communities are also welcome.
I met recently with Paula Schiller, vice president of the Guilford Foundation, Bo Huhn, its past president, and Wendy Oberg, a member of the Madison Senior Commission. They all were so excited about the program and proudly showed me the new fall course catalog and the outstanding group of volunteer presenters who will lead the classes.
While the curriculum is delightfully eclectic — history, arts, science, literature, even ballroom dancing — classes are all about the love of learning. There are no grades and no previous level of education required to participate.
As a member of an older but similar group, the Institute for Learning in Retirement at Albertus Magnus College in Hamden, I can speak from having had the dual experience of being both a student and a presenter.
Both of these organizations offer a format that permits the unique opportunity of tasting intellectual appetizers, to try something new and perhaps even a little daring, without a long-term commitment of time or money.
To steal a line from a lovely Cole Porter melody, "This could be the start of something grand."
For a fall catalog of offerings from the Shoreline Institute, call (203) 453-8086, and for the fall catalog for the Institute for Learning in Retirement at Albertus Magnus, contact me at (203) 481-5868.
Jean Cherni
is founder of Senior Living Solutions, a retirement advisory
service. Contact her at jeancherni@sbcglobal.net or
15 The Ponds, Branford 06405.
H. Pearce Company REALTORS®
is a full-service real estate company with more than 100
agents and branch offices in greater New Haven and the Shoreline.
Corporate and & Commercial offices are located in North
Haven, where the company was founded in 1958. All listings
can be found in color on the web at: www.hpearce.com. |
