One-time free 'College Now' course offered

Call it a taste of college, a test of whether you want to study for exams, a chance to determine if you really want to be an adult student.For the sixth year, the Mayor’s Literacy Commission is making available a one-time free college course through its program College Now. Registration has been held, but a second registration opportunity will be at 5 p.m. Thursday at branch of Stark State College on the Timken High School campus.We offer this in the spring and the fall, said Thelma Slater of the Literacy Commission. “We can take up to 20 students each semester.

Perhaps because of the bustle of the holidays, the full number of students didn’t sign up during the first registration.We wanted to have another registration after Christmas, in time for students to start the spring term.Students can choose a course either at Stark State or Kent State University Stark Campus.The idea is they will be able to experience one class to discover if they have the time or even like it,Slater said.It’s a way of having an experience in college, rather than just saying, ‘I’m too old’ or ‘I have a job’ or ‘I have family responsibilities.Students usually have some idea of what they want to study, Slater noted, and courses may be chosen from each school’s catalog.It’s free at both schools. This results in a pretty hefty gift of several hundred dollars,” Slater said.

The literacy Commission obtained the money for the program through a grant from Dominion Foundation.One of the students who took a course through the program for the fall semester at Stark Tech was Christi Klimes. Her one-day-a-week class was a beginning level computer class.
A lot of the jobs I was looking at require knowledge about (Microsoft) Word and Excel,she said.She intended to take the single course proficiency in those programs, but she has since decided she will take additional advance-level computer courses.I really did enjoy it. I had a great teacher. I had a wonderful experience.Cindy Lotz, who also took a computer class at Stark Tech, said she has been away from school for more than three decades.

It’s been quite awhile,she said, adding that returning to school is something she “always wanted to do.But, you have other things in life that keep you too busy to do it. I saw it in the paper and thought it was a fantastic opportunity.Fears about how she would do returning to the classroom faded when she earned a 98.16 grade point average.I really enjoyed it, and I learned a lot,” she said, adding that she, too, will return to the classroom in the future, when time and funds permit. “I love learning. There are so many other courses I’d love to take.