Community Service Education
The Outreach School NEWSLETTER - Summer 2007 - (Volume 10 Issue 2)
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Programming Focused on Customer Needs
I always view summer as a time to reflect, recharge and focus on the future. CSE has been seeing some major potential changes in non-credit. Some of these changes are based on national trends and some are unique to our region.
Conferences: As a general rule, each has a life span that we must consider; the stages are new growth, maintenance or continued growth of headcounts and then decline if the topic is no longer of interest. Therefore, account turnover is expected. The most popular subjects currently in Wyoming are health, education, work force issues and business; many of these conferences are new or are in the mid-stage of conference life. Single subject conferences are combining similar topics into a single larger event; therefore, we are hosting fewer, but larger conferences every other year. Technology is playing an even larger role as face-to-face meetings become more costly; the financial increase relates directly to hotel, food and transportation bills.
Enrichment Programs: We are now trying to address five generations in programming and each must be marketed to differently. Retirees are asking for training in the arts, boomers are showing an active interest in exploring alternative life styles, making healthier choices and in general improvement of personal time. Generation X looks for ways to increase marketable work-skills. Generation Y is beginning to focus on family. The millenials are focusing on easier ways or assistance in entering the work force. Consequently, the types of programming we offer are driven by the needs of our entire clientele.
The new fall focus will be on work/professional development as well as globalization. The areas of professional development will address various work-force populations - specialized skills, return to work force needs, entrepreneurial business needs and making the move from school to work. These directions in programming are based on research, analysis and meeting with various constituencies throughout the region.
With the traditional student becoming a minority in learning communities, we are addressing such issues as ease of accessibility, class time frames conducive to unique audiences, awareness of physical limitations, and specific learning to enhance individual generational needs.
Look for changes in what is coming up, and as always, if you have suggestions, please let me know. We strive to keep our programming up to date and focused on customer needs.
Western Trial Advocacy
Wyoming Forensics Institute
Summer Institute
Universal Cheerleaders
Council for Humanities
Music Conference
Western Region Joint Summer Meeting
WY Dept of Corrections
Western Region Mid-Managers Meetings
WY Symposium for Health Information Professionals
Snowy Range Summer Dance Festival
Medical Librarians
Exploring Science Summer Workshop
WY Bar Exam
College Debate
Snowy Range Non-Profit Institute
Public Health Summer Institute
American Ornithologists
Mental Health and Aging
Rocky Mountain Day Trip
From the Ground Up: The Building Block of Success
Back to Top Conference Center to Open in February Construction is well underway and anticipation is growing for the completion of the Hilton Garden Inn and University of Wyoming Conference and Education Center. “I met with Delta Construction on May 31, and we have a target date set to open the first week in February.” said Tom Kiel, Area Manager for Hotel Investment Services, the company that owns the new Hilton Garden Inn and will manage the conference center.
The hotel and conference center will offer a venue unlike anything available in Laramie, for conferences and meetings. The Conference and Education Center’s 7100 sq. ft Grand Ballroom can accommodate up to 700 guests. It also has two smaller conference rooms, a board room, and business center.
The Hilton Garden Inn will house 135 rooms and includes two full-sized elegant suites, 12 junior suites, and 8 additional rooms with king sized spa tubs. It includes a 2100 sq. ft. Garden Ballroom with capacity for 170 guests, and its own Board Room. Guests can swim in the pool, work out in the fitness center or connect to it’s wireless network.
The hotel and Conference center offer a great venue to university and government agencies as well as corporate and private associations. The first conference is scheduled for February 17 so make your reservation today! To schedule your conference, meeting, or family gathering call (307) 745-5500 or go online to www.uwconferencecenter.com.
And don’t forget, CSE offers complete conference planning, along with venue arrangements. Call Sheila at (307) 766-5641 to take advantage of full conference planning include meal arrangements, registration, ticketing, speaker contracting, and more.
Back to Top Certificate in Gerontology: Non-credit online class at UW I occasionally enroll in an online noncredit class to insure quality, examine new listings, and let’s face it, to satisfy my unquenchable learning urges! This past spring I enrolled in a certificate program for gerontology. The modules included ten choices on such subjects as the physiology of aging, mental health and aging, death and dying, the older woman, aging and disorders of communication, and elder abuse, and it required 40 contact hours. No, I’m not a nurse, or a social worker, health professional or a psychologist. I am, however, getting older myself, occasionally volunteer at senior centers, and have elderly parents.
I was impressed with how relevant and informative the information was. The time commitment was about three-five hours each week for six weeks and consisted of posted lessons, discussion list serves, quizzes, supplemental reading material (quite a bibliography!), and a final test that resulted in certification from a California based provider of continuing education. The information provided was relevant, even for my layman (woman’s) level of understanding of health and aging issues. The process was easy and I recommend this learning experience to anyone interested in learning more about the aging process, either for yourself, for professional reasons, or for information that will help you address this rapidly-growing demographic. For enrollment information please call John at (307) 766-5634, or visit http://outreach.uwyo.edu/
enrichment/onlinecourses.asp.
If you have any questions about the content, feel free to call me, Sheila Couture directly at 766-5641 for more insight.
Back to Top Win a Free Enrichment Class We want your feedback! When you complete a UW Community Enrichment course through UW Community Service Education, you will recieve a satisfaction survey to be completed online. When you take the time to fill it out, you not only provide us with valuable feedback for improvement, you increase your odds of winning another class. Each completed survey will be entered into a drawing for a FREE CLASS! Beginning in Fall 07, we will draw a lucky name each semester, so be sure to fill out your survey to be included in the drawing. It’s that simple!
Play Therapy: June 29 - 30 Filial Therapy is a highly effective intervention, integrating play and family therapy to address child and family problems. Caregivers (parents, grandparents, educators) are taught how to conduct special child-centered play sessions with the children they care for (ages 3-12) in an approach designed to resolve presenting problems while strengthening family and school relationships.
Filial Therapy has been used successfully with many child and family problems: oppositional behaviors, anxiety, depression, abuse/neglect, family substance abuse, single parenting, trauma, attachment/adoption/foster care, relationship problems, divorce, family reunification, chronic illness, and others.
More than 40 years of research has consistently shown Filial Therapy to be cost-effective in facilitating positive and long-lasting child and family change. Play sessions help improve children’s self-concept, behavior, and self-management, while helping caregivers become more sensitive and respond more effectively to their children.
Wyoming Forensics Institute: July 8 - 28 For the past six years, the Wyoming Forensics Institute has offered national caliber training in policy debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate, public forum and individual events at roughly one third the cost of other institutes. Graduates of the WFI have won state
championships for Wyoming and Kansas, have qualified for nationals from Wyoming, Kansas, and Colorado, and have received scholarships to debate at universities all over the country. For additional information, call Matt Stannard at (307) 766-6690 or email him at stannard@uwyo.edu.
Snowy Range Summer Dance Festival: July 18 - 29 The Snowy Range Summer Dance Festival is just around the corner. Final preparations are being made to insure this year’s festival is exciting, challenging, fun, and full of new experiences for all. All participants take daily classes in Ballet and Modern and also choose three classes from optional classes of Jazz, Tap, Pointe, Improvisation and Choreography. A free student showcase concert is scheduled for July 25, Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet will perform July 27 at 7:30 pm, and the Festival wraps up July 28 with a Galla Concert at 7:30 pm. For more information, including scholarship applications, please contact either Margaret Wilson at (307) 766-5138, mawilson@uwyo.edu or Jennifer Deckert at (307) 766- 2227, jdeckert@uwyo.edu. You may also visit the web site at: http://outreach.uwyo.edu/conferences/dancefestival.
Ornotholgist Meeting: August 8 - 11 Birds Anyone? The American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) will be hosting their 125th Stated Meeting at the University of Wyoming campus August 8-11, 2007.
AOU was founded in 1883 and is the oldest and largest organization in the New World devoted to the scientific study of birds. Although the AOU is a primarily professional organization, its membership of about 4,000 includes many amateurs dedicated to the advancement of ornithological science.
The conference will offer many options to their program; kicking off on Wednesday, August 8 and concluding Saturday August 11. There will be scientific sessions, plenary sessions, a symposium, workshops, business sessions as well as time for social events. The conference will be held in the Wyoming Student Union as well as the newly renovated Classroom Building
There are pre- and postmeeting field trips planned including: Fundamental of Rock Climbing outing to Vedauwoo, Flying fishing trip to the North Platte River, and Birding the Scenic Snowy Range. For more information you can visit their website at www.aou.org.
Summer in Laramie is a wonderful time. For me, it usually shapes up the same way each year. I’ll spend a quarter of it standing in the smoke of my neighbor’s barbeque, watching the brats turn brown (I mean the sausages of course, not his kids); and another quarter throwing water at my sunburned lawn, wondering if it might be cheaper to replace it with green concrete. But after all that, there’s still plenty of time for adventure. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be thinking about trips.
Maybe you'll take a trip around your own back yard, around your own state, or around the world. Perhaps you'll learn about foreign cultures, or about the people and history of your home town.
In our new summer classes you'll find a wide range of choices — some familiar, some not so familiar — designed to help you with whatever adventure you choose. You'll find fitness classes to stretch your muscles, and new classes to stretch your imagination. Whatever path you choose, they all lead to the adventure of summer.
Laramie Walkabout on the UW Campus is a fun and leisurely way to explore your neighborhood. This walking tour is guided by Phil Roberts, who will show you the colorful stories and fascinating history campus.
We've arranged a series of classes that will help you improve your photography skills to help you capture the sights of Laramie during the summer: Don’t miss out on our popular Wild Edible Plant Tour. This is a unique chance to identify dozens of the best tasting wild plants in the Rockies.
If your eyes are fixed on wider horizons, we're providing a range of language and culture classes to both prepare and stimulate you. Explore fascinating cultures from across the globe in our Armchair Traveler series. These classes are designed to give you a taste of the traditions, cuisine, landscapes, and lifestyles, both European and Asian. Tie these classes together with a basic, intermediate, or advanced foreign language class, and you’ll be prepared to travel the globe like a seasoned adventurer.
If these world horizons are not quite wide enough for you, we have fascinating stargazing classes that will let you gaze into the very heart of the universe. Gain answers to some of those cosmic questions you’ve always pondered: how many stars are there in the night sky? Are we alone in the universe? Is the moon really made of cheese?
If stargazing whets your appetite for things cosmic, take advantage of a rare chance to spend an entire night on Jelm Mountain, sharing in the intriguing scientific discoveries made at the Jelm infrared observatory.
Remember — each semester we offer needs-based children’s scholarships of $25 that are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. Please see the application form at the back of our summer catalog, or call our friendly registrations staff at (307) 766-6802.
We think you'll be pleasantly surprised with our class offerings this summer. Whether you’re aiming to improve your golf swing or your Country Swing, center yourself with tai chi, or challenge yourself to learn racquetball, we think you'll find just what you're looking for in the pages of our new summer catalog.
Laughing Academy Patt Harper is a surprisingly jovial woman. For a start, even though she lives in Nebraska, she never gets bored. “Humor is a great antidote for boredom. It’s the surprise element that gets our attention and keeps things interesting,” she chuckles. “It can help us look forward to trying new things.”
“Laughter improves our physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social health,” she continues, “and learning how to see the funny side of everyday situations gives us resilience. Laughter is a way to bring together the mind, body and spirit in perfect harmony.”
“A healthy sense of humor and hearty laughter can help one cope with the changes, challenges and unexpected obstacles that can come with aging. People who can laugh at their temporary defeats no longer feel sorry for themselves. They feel stimulated, inspired and in charge of the situation.”
We took Patt at her word, and created THE LAUGHING ACADEMY. This unique event enables all of Laramie to be part of the growing wave of laughter that is sweeping across America. Laughter workshops are serious fun!
We’re offering two distinctly different sessions in our day-long Academy. Grab some friends, family, and co-workers and sign up for the morning, the afternoon, or both sessions. We guarantee you’ll leave with a spring in your step and a smile on your face as wide as all Wyoming!
The Laughing Academy will be held in the UW Beta House. Saturday, August 4. The morning session is from 9:00 am - Noon and the afternoon session is from 2:00 - 5:00 pm.
"There's no rush to get to class, you can do the work at your own pace, and everybody’s doing it!” These are just some of the reasons why students enroll in noncredit online classes at UW. According to a 2006 study by a national think-tank, the Sloan Consortium (www.sloan-c.org), one in six students completed an online course, and that number continues to rise.
My name is John Scozzafava, and as the new Assistant Marketing Coordinator for Community Service Education at UW, I will continue CSE’s commitment to offer the best in online education. I joined CSE this summer after completing my B.A. in Communication from UW. I will continue to monitor new online educational opportunities and as they arise, pass along course information to our university and state communities.
Community Service Education offers non-credit continued educational opportunities over a broad range of topics. For employees looking to gain an edge on the job, CSE offers courses in software and business training. For students looking to continue their educational journey, we offer SAT, ACT, GRE, LSAT, and GMAT preparation courses. We offer online certification in the fields of Paralegal, Veterinary Assistant, or Certified Microsoft Technician, just to name a few.
I’m a Laramie native and other than a one-year stint at a university in Washington, D.C., have lived and worked in Wyoming for the past 18 years. I witnessed first-hand how Wyoming’s small businesses must adapt to compete with larger competitors in the region. To assist Wyoming businesses, we offer Marketing Your Business on the Internet, Business Marketing, Effective Business Writing, and a number of software package courses.
UW offers Wyoming communities the chance to grow and incorporate new skills into our daily routines, at work and at play. You can learn a new language online then travel to a new country. We can help you manage your finances with QuickBooks 2007 training. Learn to take pictures like a Pro with Digital Photography training online.
There’s a class for everyone at a pace you’ll enjoy. Online learning is easy, affordable, and fun. To register visit http://outreach.uwyo.edu/enrichment, or contact John at (307) 766-5634 or cse_mkt2@uwyo.edu.
