BY ALLISON MCCREADY MELUN
Learning is a lifelong endeavor. It doesn’t stop once you’ve reached a certain age or level of academic achievement. And Colorado has plenty of unique education options for almost every individual with almost any interest.
It may be that you have discovered that the 9-to-5 office job is more drudgery than dream job and you’re just itching to break away from your desk. Maybe you are out of work and looking for retraining and new opportunities. You may just want to learn something fun and different. Or you might be at the beginning, trying to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life.
If any of these situations sound like you, then read on and discover a few of the interesting courses and training programs available throughout Colorado.
Get Your Hands Dirty
Want to get outside and get your hands a little dirty in your day’s work? At Colorado Mountain College’s Steamboat and Leadville campuses, you can learn all about historic preservation and even earn a degree in a National Historic Landmark District.
You’ll get hands-on experience on real-world preservation projects while receiving expert instruction. You’ll take the techniques you’ll learn in the classroom to the restoration project at Hayden Ranch, a beautiful property spanning 35 acres and housing 16 buildings beneath Colorado’s highest mountain.
If you’re looking for an industry with growth opportunity, this is a good one. As new construction opportunities decline in this economy, more communities are focusing on preserving the historic buildings that line their streets. Colorado Mountain College says that the demand for preservation professionals will increase. For information on this program, go to coloradomtn.edu.
Another education program that will get you outdoors is the wildland fire certification offered at Colorado Firecamp in Salida (coloradofirecamp.com) and at San Juan Basin Technical College in Mancos (http://sjbtc.viadesto.com). The Colorado Firecamp primarily offers 100- and 200-level courses developed by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group in the areas of leadership, incident command and suppression skills.
By working with local (Upper Arkansas Valley), zone (Pueblo dispatch) and regional (Rocky Mountain area) training teams, Colorado Firecamp offers another option for fire chiefs, county sheriffs and training officers to advance the skill of their firefighters. And it gives those without firefighting experience or previous firefighter training a chance to get work with the wildland agencies.
The multi-class course at San Juan Basin Technical College is designed to take the student from introduction to wildland firefighting to advanced firefighting. Following the NWCG guidelines and numbering system, this prepares the student for seasonal to career firefighting.
Metal Magic
Do you love beautiful, handcrafted jewelry? Want to get your creative juices flowing? The Colorado School of Jewelry and Metal Arts in Salida (coloradoschoolofjewelryandmetalarts.com) offers classes in beginning jewelry, stone setting, enameling, anticlastic raising, granulation, gold carving, chasing and even knife-making.
The Denver School of Metal Arts (metalartschool.com) also provides metalworking courses for students of all levels.
Find New Energy
Looking to get into the burgeoning clean energy sector? There are several options for education and training in Colorado. Solar Energy International, founded in 1991 as a nonprofit educational organization and located in Carbondale and Paonia, provides solar training and renewable energy education. SEI’s Renewable Energy Education Program offers training in solar PV, wind, micro hydropower, solar hot water and natural home building. You can learn how to design, build and maintain renewable energy systems and energy-efficient, sustainable homes. For more information and course listings, go to solarenergy.org or call 970-963-8855.
Ecotech Institute in Aurora offers training for careers in renewable energy and sustainable design. Launched in April 2010, the college offers programs to give graduates the practical, hands-on skills necessary to jump into new energy companies. You can find more information on course offerings at ecotechinstitute.com or by calling 303-586-5290 or 877-326-5576.
Arapahoe Community College also offers “green” training, such as air quality management and building and home energy analysis with credit and noncredit options available. Call 303-797-5958 or go to arapahoe.edu.
ACC also offers a Solar Energy Industry Training Program that prepares entry-level installers for eligibility to take the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners Entry Level Certificate of Knowledge Exam, recognized by industry as the standard measure of basic knowledge, comprehension and application of key terms and concepts of solar electric systems operations. For more information about the new Solar Energy Industry Training Program and a schedule of classes, go to coloradotraining.com or call 303-734-3701.
The University of Colorado at Boulder also offers undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in renewable and sustainable energy. For a list of courses, go to rasei.colorado.edu.
From Assessing Sustainable Energy Technologies, which focuses on the cost fundamentals of emerging energy technologies including solar, wind, biomass, oceanic, geothermal, hydropower, fuel cell (hydrogen), nuclear and more, to Advanced Solar Design, which helps students learn to analyze and predict performance of high temperature, photovoltaic and other innovative solar systems, the school’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, a joint institute of the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, offers a wide variety for all courses the serious scholar.
In addition, CU’s Independent Learning program offers a number of short courses, workshops and seminars as part of its sustainable practices certificate program.
All Wet
Interested in water and a career that is all wet? Public safety diving classes offered at Western Colorado Community College at Mesa State College in Grand Junction (mesastate.edu) might be just the thing for you. Public Safety Diving is underwater work conducted by law enforcement, fire rescue and search and rescue and recovery dive teams. You learn to work in subsurface environments searching for evidence, searching for a body or reenacting a crime scene and possibly conducting an in-water rescue.
OM
Do you have an interest in eastern medicine and spiritual traditions? Try yoga teacher training at Gentle Touch Body Mind Spirit Connection in Denver (pyamandala.com), a 10-month, 250-hour training plus continuing education classes.
The Shoshoni Retreat Center in Rollinsville (shoshoni.org), home to the Shambhava School of Yoga, offers three-week, 200-hour teacher training. The certification program includes online home study so that you can get started right away. A registered yoga school with Yoga Alliance, Shambhava School of Yoga has been training yoga teachers for more than 20 years. And if you’re just looking for a way to get away and refresh yourself, Shoshoni Yoga Retreat is open to guests for yoga retreats and meditation retreats every day, all year-round.
If yoga’s not really your cup of tea but acupuncture is what really gets you going, check out the Colorado School of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Denver (cstcm.edu). For those who are really ambitious, the school offers a three-year, 2,850-hour master of science degree program in traditional Chinese medicine. The program gives participants a strong foundation in traditional Chinese medicine (acupuncture and related modalities), tui na (physiotherapy and therapeutic massage), internal medicine (Chinese herbal medicine), Chinese nutrition and energetic exercise and meditation with a grounding in western medicine.
War & Peace
A gunsmith is a person who repairs, modifies, designs or builds firearms. If that kind of work intrigues you, there are several schools that will help you learn the skills to have a career as a gunsmith. The Colorado School of Trades in Lakewood (schooloftrades.com) has been teaching gunsmithing skills to students since 1947. The school has a 14-month program that consists of 1,800 hours of either shop or classroom time. One category consists of basic courses, such as shop math and drill-press operation. Another is machine-shop courses, such as welding and tool bit grinding. Students also learn about gun sights, ballistic hand loading, the use of firearms and assembling triggers.
Another school that offers a gunsmithing program is Trinidad State Junior College in Colorado (trinidadstate.edu), which also started in 1947. Students, who can also take advantage of the college’s National Rifle Association Law Enforcement Instructor Development curriculum, receive two-year associate degree in a program that trains them to become professional gunsmiths. Basic and advanced courses include machine operations, gun repair, stock making, revolver smithing and competitive rifle and shotgun smithing.
On the seemingly opposite end of the spectrum from guns is the bachelor’s degree program in peace studies at Naropa University in Boulder (naropa.edu). This program explores the roots of violence and war. Students delve into the deeper meanings of conflict, peace, love, compassion, forgiveness, reconciliation and nonviolence, and they examine the theoretical and methodological aspects of conflict and resolution.
Horsing Around
Are you an animal lover? Want to work with horses? Several programs at area schools can help you get the skills you need to do just that.
A farrier is a specialist in equine hoof care, including the trimming and balancing of a horse’s hoof and the placing of shoes on the horse’s foot. A farrier combines some of a blacksmith’s skills (fabricating, adapting and adjusting metal shoes) with a little bit of veterinary medicine (knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the lower limb) to care for four-legged clients.
Butler Graduate Farrier Training in La Porte (970-221-2834), Colorado School of Trades in Lakewood, (303-233-4697), Colorado State University Farrier Apprenticeship at the Equine Sciences Department in Fort Collins, (970-491-2745), Lamar Community College, (719-336-2248) and Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs (ppcc.edu, 719-540-2347) are some of the Colorado institutions that offer certificate programs in this field.
Horse training and management programs are offered at Colorado Northwestern Community College in Craig (cncc.edu) and at Lamar Community College (lamarcc.edu).
CNCC’s program teaches students proper equitation, how horses learn, equine anatomy and physiology, equine behavior modification and other skills needed to become successful in the equine industry. In each of the three hands-on specializations, the students ride, train and manage horses. The Horsemanship and Horse Management Program currently offers one associate degree and two certificates at this time. LCC’s Horse Training and Management Program offers two associate of applied science degrees and several one-year certificates.
CHEERS
A little vino perhaps? The wine-sommelier certification at Metropolitan State College of Denver can help you develop technical and professional understanding and increased knowledge of wine throughout all areas of the wine and food service industry. Whether you work in a restaurant, hotel, wine shop or liquor store; are a wholesaler or importer; or are an individual with a passion for wine, there are certification and advanced diploma programs designed specifically for you.
The International Sommelier Guild conducts the classes at the Auraria Campus. Courses offered at Metro include Wine Fundamentals Certificate Level 1 (internationalsommelier.com), an introductory course designed to help wine enthusiasts feel comfortable and confident in the sometime confusing world of wine. The course focuses on major international grape varieties, as well as on some of the primary themes related to wine in the context of the hospitality industry. The course involves extensive tasting of representative varietal wines from around the world.
Keep On Learning
These are just few of the limitless opportunities available for student throughout Colorado. Check them out. See what program out there matches your interests, skills and talents, and take a class or enroll in a program. For high school juniors and seniors, now is the time to plan for your future. For those already working and not happy where they are, there is no time like the present to change that. Keep on learning.