Your browser is not optimized for viewing this website.

More information »

Lifelong Learning Institute at Waubonsee Community College



Course Focus

History of US Currency

$10

with Jennifer Beck

Calendar Oct 21, 2025 at 10 am, runs for 1 week

Bob Mankivsky at Kane County Coins is back to lead another LLI class! This time we will learn about the interesting history of US Currency from the early days to current. There will be samples of currency to examine and discuss. Don't miss this fascinating class on US Currency!

Full Course

United States in the Age of Increased Presidential Power

$10

with Jay Labelle

Calendar Oct 22, 2025 at 11 am, runs for 1 week

Facilitator: Carl Hays

Has the future of America changed because our political landscape is transformed by recent increases in presidential power? Guest presenter, Richard Kiefer, WCC Professor of Political Science and History, will speak about the politics of our time.

Will run

How to Read Poetry Continues

$10

with Phyllis Deerinck

Calendar Oct 23, 2025 at 1 pm, runs for 3 weeks

Is poetry, which has some reputation for being incomprehensible or even deliberately obscure, worth the trouble? If you have never read a poem that has deeply moved you or, as Emily Dickinson described it, "make you feel as if the top of your head is coming off," you may not really have experienced poetry. Poetry challenges us because it uses language differently than prose and strives to recreate experiences and emotions. Participants will learn some tactics for decoding poetry and, hopefully walk away with at least one poem that literally send chills up your spine. We will read a variety of poems from a variety of eras and traditions. Although this is a continuing class, no prior class is required.

Full Course

Let Freedom Ring

$10

with Jerre Henriksen

Calendar Oct 28, 2025 at 1 pm, runs for 1 week

How do we let freedom ring in our lives when political discord, digital technology, and information manipulation threaten our sense of personal rights. Using ideas from Timothy Snyder’s book, On Freedom, class participants will spend much of the classroom time in small discussion groups. The structure of the discussions will be centered on ideas Snyder has on how freedom functions in healthy societies. His ideas can be used as a base for how we want to structure our world to maintain our rights as people. We may know that we want to maintain personal freedom, but what does that look like? How can we best serve each other and serve our society to ensure the rights of all?

On Freedom by Timothy Snyder NOT REQUIRED

Full Course

Nobody Gets Out Alive

$10

with Richard Calabrese

Calendar Oct 29, 2025 at 1 pm, runs for 4 weeks

Class participants will develop a game plan and create strategies for coping with the fast-moving world. A world that puts emphasis on the young, because that is where the marketing action is. Never forget, this is the United States of capital marketing. The specific purpose of the class is to acknowledge that aging is not static and to give us an opportunity to share together how we have been coping with the necessary changes and challenges as we adapt. Although participants will fill out a private questionnaire, participating and sharing insights will be on a voluntary basis.

Full Course

Photovores: Their intelligence, consciousness, communication and challenges

$10

with Ruth Harmon

Calendar Nov 3, 2025 at 1 pm, runs for 3 weeks

ZOOM class.

Course participants will look at some of the research behind the study of plant communication, intelligence, consciousness and the role those processes play in maintaining our green planet. We will also look at the biases against the concept of plant intelligence and the challenges that plants must face moving forward.

Book: The Light Eaters, How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoe Schlanger REQUIRED 

Will run

Trust vs Mistrust: Who to Believe? Weeding Out the Seeds of Mistrust

$10

with Olive Poliks

Calendar Nov 4, 2025 at 10 am, runs for 1 week

Who to believe? The local newspaper, the national news channel or our own personal intuition? Famed psychologist Erik Erickson (1902-1994) argued the first stage of psychological development (infancy to age one) is “Trust vs Mistrust.” Local newspapers are notoriously biased as are the warring national TV news channels, Fox News vs MSNBC. What is the best way to have white teeth? Who to believe? Veneers vs dental crowns vs the glowing promises of your favorite toothpaste? Advertisements fall into categories of veracity, hypocrisy, duplicity and fantasy. There is virtue in hope. There is comfort in “black and white” thinking. There is assurance in the promises of a trusted brand, person or procedure. “It always worked in the past.” As lifelong learners who do we believe? Why? Hard questions generate new ways to look at the decisions we make and in whom or what we trust. Together we can learn and move forward.

Full Course

Age Like a Warrior

$10

with MaryAnn White

Calendar Nov 4, 2025 at 1 pm, runs for 2 weeks

ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, Joni Grant, will explain how to "Age Like a Warrior" by understanding the battles and battlefields you will fight as you age. The first presentation will focus on the battlefield of self-directed ageism and how to get past beliefs which stop us from exercising. The focus of the second presentation will be the physical battles we fight as we age.

Book:Train To Age: Live Fully by Joni Grant (not required)

Will run





Forgot password?
Staff Log In