Shepherdstown resident David Rampy gives a brief preview of what his course, “Bel Canto Opera: Rossini, Donizetti & Bellini,” will focus on this fall, in the Robert C. Byrd Center auditorium on Tuesday night. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — On Tuesday evening, Lifelong Learning held its course preview for the coming season in the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History & Education auditorium.

Lifelong Learning Director Karen Rice opened the course preview up, noting the wide variety of courses being mainly offered at Shepherd University and in a hybrid mode, on Zoom, for older community members.

“Welcome to tonight’s course preview fo the fall semester of Lifelong Learning,” Rice said. “I’m excited to see you all here!”

Some of the courses offered this fall will meet for a number of weeks, like will be the case with Marty Amerikaner’s course, “Deep Dives – Podcasts as a Vehicle for Long Form Exploration of Ideas and Issues.”

“I am teaching a course on Thursday afternoons at 1:30 p.m,” Amerikaner said. “I have been leading ‘Deep Dives’ for a while now. The premise is very simple. We listen to a podcast together. Usually I’ll stop at least once in the middle of it, so we can discuss thoughts about its contents so far. Then, we’ll do a more thorough discussion about it at the end.

“The main criteria for the podcast choices, is that the host is skilled at what they’re doing — they know how to bring out the expertise of the guests and can contribute valuable information themselves,” Amerikaner said. “We’ve done one on the history of comedy. We’ve done one on the psychology of wellbeing. We’ve done one on the history of Supreme Court decisions that was really interesting — we’ll probably do one or two of those this semester. Another we’ll probably bring back is one on poetry, which was really popular last year. It should be a fun ride!”

“Mindfulness and Meditation: Strategies for Living in Uncertain Times” instructor Michael Kemp said his course would be developed from his own 60 years of research into mindfulness and meditation practices, as well as being enriched by the knowledge of course attendees who have experience in either of these areas.

“It is my intention that, for those of you who have been practicing either of these techniques, to give input themselves into the course,” Kemp said. “We will delve into the practice of meditation and how it came to the West. Through this, we can delve into the crisis that are facing us every day — sometimes they can feel like an elephant sitting on our shoulders and weighing us down! Mindfulness and meditation can help us to deal with these and other challenges in our lives.”

Along with these and many other courses, the preview highlighted a variety of other Lifelong Learning-related events being held in the near future, including interest groups, such as the Photography Interest Group, Sherlock Holmes Society and Opera Interest Group; international trips to Spain and Costa Rica; day tours to Hillwood Estate and Glenstone Museum; the Shepherd University President’s Lecture Series; the Shepherdstown Film Society fall movie series; Brown Bag Luncheons with special speakers; FASTEnER Lab courses on subjects such as mig welding and creating decorative cutting boards; and a two-week seminar with Appalachian Heritage Writer-in-Residence Director Sylvia Shurbutt on “2023 One Book One West Virginia Common Read Author Ann Pancake.”

“As I’ve said many times, the best students I’ve ever had are the Lifelong Learning students! They always raise the level of our classes,” Shurbutt said. “This class will be dealing with our common reading book author. Ann Pancake is such an extraordinary writer! She is probably the most brilliant writer we’ve had.”

To learn more about Lifelong Learning, visit https://www.shepherd.edu/lifelonglearning.

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