ORICL courses benefit seniors; register by Aug. 7 for fall term

 

By Carolyn Krause

As traditionalists and baby boomers age, they are looking for ways to be as productive, safe, healthy, and comfortable as possible. This September, the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning, which will be celebrating its 20th anniversary, is offering many practical courses for seniors.

Sample topics are caregiving, movement improvement, maximizing the brain-body connection, aging in place, fall prevention, effects of normal aging on driving, and making lifestyle changes, such as downsizing and moving.

At ORICL, you can learn how to write a memoir, operate a computer, invest wisely in the stock market, and do estate planning.

If you wish to lead an almost painless and peaceful life, you might want to take courses in Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and meditation.

Would you like to know more about the history of Russia, Alexander the Great, and the history of Scotland and the Scots-Irish?

Are you interested in learning about the impacts of climate change on human health, small modular reactors (one of which may be supplying electricity to Oak Ridge someday), and the current understanding of the abundance of “dark matter” in Earth and the universe?

These are among the courses offered during ORICL’s fall 2017 term, starting September 11 and ending December 1 at Roane State Community College’s Oak Ridge Branch Campus. The early registration deadline is August 7 for the fall term.

Online registration begins on August 7, and paper registrations (sent to or dropped off in the ORICL office) will be entered online on August 8. If you register by the early date, you have the best chance of getting preferred classes and trips.

Anyone interested in receiving a catalog and becoming a member of ORICL should call administrator Susan Perry at (865) 481-8222. Or you can Google ORICL and look at the online catalog. The cost for a new membership or renewed membership in ORICL for the three 2017-18 terms is only $100.

You can also take ORICL courses on the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association concert series this fall and on Mozart’s chamber music and Appalachian mountain music.

If you enjoy travelogues, you can learn at ORICL about Vietnam, the wild west of China, and the paintings and sculptures in the Louvre museum in Paris, France.

Members also may sign up for ORICL-sponsored bus trips to Etowah to board the Hiwassee River Trail Train, which takes passengers to Copperhill; the Hunter Museum of Art and the Tennessee River Gorge; and Local Motors, the small company in Knoxville that uses 3D printing and its new designs to produce the bodies of electric cars.

If you are fascinated by religion and philosophy, you might wish to sign up for films with existential themes, terrorism as a tactic, teachings of supernatural phenomena, life after death, human subject research, confronting religious violence, witchcraft, lovingkindness (Buddhist), understanding Hinduism, and “Founders of Faith.”

You can join a book group and read and discuss classic literature, mystery novels, other fiction, nonfiction, or technical books. You can take language courses, such as German, Latin, and Spanish.

ORICL courses range from one to 12 sessions. Each session lasts 70 minutes. Some ORICL members take as many as 30 courses a year.

ORICL has more than 500 members who take courses in two classrooms and the auditorium in the Coffey-McNally building on the Oak Ridge campus of Roane State Community College, accessible from Laboratory Road or Briarcliff Avenue. A few of the art classes are taught at the Oak Ridge Art Center.

The ORICL office is located in Room F-111, RSCC, 701 Briarcliff Avenue in Oak Ridge. For more information and a catalog, e-mail the ORICL office at [email protected] or visit www.roanestate.edu/oricl to see the online catalog.

This press release and photo were submitted by Carolyn Krause.