Rice University’s Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its Community Learning and Engagement offerings and its new designation as a center.

The recently named Center for Community Learning and Engagement will continue its work building thriving urban communities in and beyond Houston with a variety of accessible courses and initiatives that promote lifelong learning. The center serves adult learners from ages 18 to the program’s oldest student, who turned 104 this fall.

“Our mission is to serve as a bidirectional bridge between Rice and Houston,” said Cathy Maris, assistant dean of the center. “We share Rice’s educational and creative resources with our community and foster engaged learning communities. We think about learning not as a time of life but as a way of life.”

“The center name really carries with it the recognition from the university of the excellence and impact of these programs within our community,” said Robert Bruce, dean of continuing studies. “Learning is not a luxury — it’s an imperative for each of us if we want to live the fulfilling lives to which we aspire. And the Center for Community Learning and Engagement exists to make those learning opportunities accessible.”

The center is collaborating with a wide range of campus and community partners to address financial, physical, geographic and other barriers to lifelong learning and to address a range of urgent social issues.

“We made an intentional decision to honor our 50th anniversary by deepening and embodying our commitment to community access and engagement,” Maris said.

The center has awarded nearly 250 scholarships totaling more than $60,000 to educators, nonprofit professionals and community members for whom course fees are an obstacle to participation. And in honor of its 50th anniversary, the scholarship program has been expanded to encompass almost every course offered by the center.

“If we’re truly committed to people leading their own learning, then we need to provide access for people to select the courses that they feel are most relevant to their lives,” Maris said.

The center also creates and leads impactful initiatives like Facing Race: Shaping Equitable Futures, a series that addresses structural racism, inequity and social justice, and Lifelong University, a pilot program that brings university-caliber learning to retirement communities across the country.

This spring, the center will offer more than 40 in-person and online courses like:

The Psychology of Thriving taught by Sandra Parsons, associate teaching professor of psychological sciences

Exercise as Medicine with the Center for Human Performance, taught by Nadia Agha, lecturer in kinesiology

Reimagining Religion taught by Jeffrey Kripal, the J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Religion

Key Topics in South American Political and Cultural History taught by Nicolas Shumway, the Frances Moody Newman Professor Emeritus of Spanish and Portuguese

Creativity Up Close: Creative Process and Practice taught by Anthony Brandt, professor of composition and theory, Shepherd School of Music

Midweek Medley: From Spark Birds to the Hawaiian Islands featuring Cin-Ty Lee, the Harry Carothers Wiess Professor of Geology and professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences, and other Rice faculty and community experts

Registration for these and other spring courses opens Dec. 16.

“We’re dramatically expanding the concept of who universities can and should serve and engage,” Maris said. “And we are centering access and community engagement in the fullest sense.”

To learn more about the Center for Community Learning and Engagement, visit continue.rice.edu/community.

Original article written by Andrew Bell and published in Rice News.

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Rice Continuing Studies: continue.rice.edu

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