GOLD College kick-off March 18
The Southwest Minnesota State University's GOLD College spring session will begin with registrations on Wednesday, March 18. The event features several interesting and educational programs.
Registration will be from 2:15-3 p.m. in Charter Hall 201 on campus. Participants will have the opportunity to pick up class schedules and parking permits at that time. Refreshments will also be served. The cost is $110 regardless of how many classes an individual decides to take.
The GOLD College kick-off program begins at 3 p.m. on March 18 with an overview of the spring session. Following that, keynote speaker Dr. Ellen Radel will share the "magic" of Little Golden Books.
Dr. Radel is an avid collector who enjoys sharing her lifetime of memories and the history of Little Golden Books. One of the classes will be taught from 9-11 a.m. on Mondays by Minneota native Deb Ahmann. She will be instructing class members on organizing and writing the memoirs of our lives.
"It looks like GOLD College has a lot of interesting offerings for spring," said Ahmann. "If I'm fortunate to get enough participants, I'll be teaching memoir writing for the first time, which I envision including a lot of reminiscing and sharing.
"I plan to introduce a variety of organizational styles, questionnaires and discussions to elicit memories, and sample memoirs in an informal writing workshop format." GOLD is an acronym for Growth, Opportunity, Learning, Development.
GOLD College offers non-credit classes with a variety of topics: art, history, computers, current events, music, writing, health, physical well-being, and more. Each class is held one day per week for two hours.
There are no tests or grades. Study groups are planned for six weeks, from March 23 through April 30.
"Some interesting classes this time around," said Jim Tate, Associate Director at SMSU. "There is no age demographic and it is open to everyone." One of the most popular classes each semester is "Civil War" taught by Lloyd Petersen, a former Marshall High School football coach who came to SMSU as a history professor. His class runs from 9-11 a.m. on Tuesdays.
"He dresses up in period uniform and is just a delight," said Tate. "New this year is the HAM radio class." Contact the GOLD College office for registration material or for more information by emailing GoldCollege@smsu.edu, or call 507-537-7164.