Submitted
Looking for a way to beat the winter blahs? Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning announces that registration for its winter/spring term will open on January 2, 2018. ORICL is a not-for-profit organization offering a full catalog of classes, field trips, and other activities for area residents of all backgrounds and education levels. All of this is available for as little as $100 for full year of three terms beginning in September, $80 for two terms beginning in February, or $45 for the summer term only. What a bargain for all these opportunities for enlightenment and intellectual stimulation.
Classes are held at the Oak Ridge campus of Roane State Community College. Some meet once a week for several weeks; others are held for only one or two sessions. There are no tests and, in most cases, no homework. This is learning for the fun of it.
A participant might study a new language or learn about buried treasures and/or artifacts. He or she may be interested in Alexander the Great or in the sacred places in Willa Cather’s fiction. There are classes on the Vikings, Yankee Imperialism, and issues in American history. An ORICL student can gather tips on traveling to foreign countries, view a travelogue on trips to Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and England, and/or enjoy lectures and photographs from a cruise through the Indian Ocean.
ORICL offers an amazing array of different classes. The avid reader will find book groups, reading and discussing selections of fiction, non-fiction, mysteries, technical books, and classic literature. A person who enjoys writing may join a class on memoir writing or free verse poetry. Other opportunities include reading Shakespeare out loud with a group or studying Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson.
In the realm of science and medicine, offerings range from learning the lingo of aging to Mother Teresa’s way of aging with dignity, from meditation to Chinese medicine and acupuncture, from good news for bones to seeing through the brain via imaging, and from celiac disease to topics in zoology.
Finances and money matters are considered in investing 101, economics 101, legacy planning, and how to invest with confidence, among other topics. The choices continue with computer classes, climate change impacts, and the national women’s equality initiative. For more variety, ORICL offers a cooking class, practice in solving cryptic varietal crossword puzzles, and watching and discussing movies on various subjects.
Become an ORICL student and awaken your creative side with beading basics, collections savvy, vintage button jewelry, or a tree of life pendant necklace. Study reincarnation or supernatural phenomena. Learn about poets of the piano, the ORCMA concert series, or laments, slow airs, and waltzes.
In addition to more than 80 classes available during the winter-spring semester, there are several trips, including one to historic Gay Street in downtown Knoxville, one to Gibbs Gardens in North Georgia in early spring, one to Chattanooga to visit the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum and to tour the Volkswagen Manufacturing Plant, one to the Lincoln Library at Lincoln Memorial University with lunch atop McCloud Mountain, and one to the Biltmore in Asheville.
For more information about ORICL, to receive a catalog, or to become a member, call the ORICL office at (865) 481-8222. The catalog is available online at https://www.roanestate.edu/?8465-ORICL-Oak-Ridge-Institute-for-Continued-Learning.
Join ORICL now and liven up your life with new knowledge, new opportunities, new adventures, and new friends.
This press release was submitted by Katherine Smith.
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