Jenn Blum has partnered with the Lifelong Learning program at the U to take 30 classes this spring.
Blum is an artist from Georgia who now calls Utah home. After graduating college, she packed her bags and moved to Prague and spent the next seven months traveling across Europe. She’s a French-speaking, fun-loving, alpine slide champion who has spent the last 15 years working in marketing, communication, design and real estate.
The 30-class challenge was designed for learning, sharing and for seeing just how much one person can learn in 10 weeks, Blum said. She took a course with Continuing Education a couple of years ago and loved it and was inspired to do more. Lifelong Learning agreed to sponsor her for the intense-learning experiment. The challenge started at the end of February. Continuing Education calls Blum their “test subject,” but it is a symbiotic relationship.
“I’m a big fan of learning through Continuing Ed,” Blum said. “There’s a little bit less formality to it, so you can almost immediately put something into practice. It’s not graded, so you’re really just there for the love of learning.”
She has already begun or finished 12 different courses. On Wednesday, she took a class called “Scotch for the Sophisticate.” She has also learned how to prune, knit, brew beer, appreciate tea and bake a macaroon. Her upcoming classes include bee keeping, native plant propagation, Japanese for travelers, African drumming, aerial dance and bicycle repair. She tried to choose at least one class from each area offered by Lifelong Learning, including arts, finance, health living, writing and recreation.
“A few of the classes that I chose completely intimidated me,” Blum said. But she looks forward to the challenge.
In Blum’s opinion, continuing education is a way to take some of the more traditional study topics with an element of fun. Some of the classes might not be as rigorously academic, like brewing beer. However, a beer-brewing class still involves chemistry and history.
When she finishes her 10 weeks of classes, Blum thinks she will have to back off a bit, but not permanently. She hopes to keep learning spontaneously by taking whatever classes interest her. Blum said even taking one class here and there can really make a difference in your life.
“Signing up for one class, and just finding the joy of it, is really a catalyst for future exploration,” she said. “Once you have your degree, you’re not going to stop learning. The world will keep changing, there will be more technology and there will be more fun activities that someone invents. You can keep the learning process going. That’s the point of lifelong learning.”