Mini College offers continued learning opportunities

LAWRENCE – The old adage “you learn something new every day” seems to take a vacation during the long, lazy days of summer. But it doesn’t have to. For the past six years, the University of Kansas College of Liberal Arts & Sciences has offered adults a unique option for summer vacation. Adults can expand their minds and rediscover a love of learning through Mini College.

Mini College is a weeklong experience for adults to take classes in a wide variety of subjects, from discussions on Jane Austen novels and the history of infectious diseases to the study of film in Kansas and the benefits of Tai Chi.

A sample of course titles for Mini College 2015:

• Some Stupid Seismic Experiments I Have Done – (Department of Geology)
• Mapmaker, Mapmaker Make Me a Map: Gerrymandering and the Crisis of Congressional Redistricting – (School of Public Affairs & Administration)
• Facing Ferguson and the Long Shadow of the ’60s: Writing Civil Rights Movement and Occupying History – (Department of African & African American Studies)
• Your Brain on Nature (Department of Psychology)
• Playing God: The Bible on the Broadway Stage – (Department of Theatre)
• Douglas County Jail Blues (Department of English)
• Monarch Watch: The Challenge of Sustaining the Monarch Migration (Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology)
• Stuff Accumulates: Managing and Downsizing Possessions (Gerontology Center)

Registration for Mini College is now open. Registration is $250 and includes all classes, light breakfasts, all lunches and two dinners. Accommodations have been arranged at special rates in the area for participants. For the full college experience, participants can even stay in on-campus student housing. Visit the Mini College site to register today. For more information, contact Jessica Beeson or Brandon Woodard at (785) 864-4815 or minicollege@ku.edu.

Mini College has been providing lifelong learners the opportunity to rediscover the student experience since the summer of 2009. Nearly 150 people attend each year from all over the country. All KU alumni and non-alumni are welcome to attend.

Mini College is a program developed through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, which encourages learning without boundaries in its more than 50 departments, programs and centers. Through innovative research and teaching, the College emphasizes interdisciplinary education, global awareness and experiential learning. The College is KU's broadest, most diverse academic unit.