Faculty and staff from Tellico Village University recently met at Chota Recreation Center to discuss new ideas and future needs for the STAYinTV program, which started in January under the direction of Cindy Solomon.
Solomon said previous experience as a college professor where she taught adult education for 26 years prepared her for her role at TVU.
TVU runs a fall semester from August through November while the spring semester is held from February through June. As of the middle of September, 260 class attendees participated in at least one class, Solomon said.
Eight coordinators assist with setting up classrooms and dividing classroom materials while providing support for instructors.
“These coordinators are what make it work,” Solomon said. “This is a program that is diverse, convenient and affordable. Different people come for different things, and we try to appeal to a different audience through each of our classes.”
Solomon said she and coordinators let participants know about the program through the social media network Nextdoor Neighbor, Channel 3 and the Village Tell-E-Gram. Available courses are also listed on TVU’s website at http://tvuniversity.wordpress.com.
“It’s a concept called lifelong learning, and we’re bringing it to Tellico Village,” Solomon said.
Susan Gross assists with the health curriculum by coordinating with the University of Tennessee to find speakers and obtain ideas for relevant topics. Gross said future topics will include sleep and balance.
“We’re educating people by connecting with their interests,” Gross said. “We’ve had an excellent response, and we’ve had people really like it. It serves lots of purposes by connecting people socially who have the same type of interests.”
Richard Gettings, who has served as both a coordinator and a teacher at TVU, said he was involved with a “lifelong learning situation” before he moved to Tellico Village from Michigan.
“I think it’s a good cause to keep their minds active,” Gettings said. “I am vice president of the Smoky Mountain Orchid Society. I had heard about a few people in the Village being interested in orchids. I thought I’ll just volunteer to have a little class. It turned out to be a good success. There turned out to be 22 people there. I hear people saying all the time they got an orchid. Then it blooms, and nobody knows what to do with it. I had a catchy title called, “My orchid bloomed! Now what?”
Gettings said he volunteered to be a coordinator when he heard about the need.
“There is sort of a side plus for us coordinators,” Gettings said. “We can take the class at no cost although they don’t cost that much to start with, and we get to sit in on any of them that we want to.”
Chris Byrkit, a TVU coordinator, said the program is a beneficial service for Tellico Village residents.
“At my age, I appreciate the fact that we go on learning,” Byrkit said. “And if we can couple that with pursuing our interests, that makes older age richer. I have eight grandchildren, and when I look at them, I think I’m no different than you. They like to do the same things and they’re frequently fascinated by the things that I do. We have time to pursue those interests now. This is a really great way of doing some of those things like photography.”
Byrkit said she’s currently coordinating a class on financial management, which takes place for two hours each Friday.
Terri Seavey said she became involved with TVU so others wouldn’t have to travel to the University of Tennessee or to Pellissippi State Community College to take classes.
“I’m a great proponent of lifelong learning,” Seavey said. “... We have so many talented and experienced people in the Village who are willing to share their knowledge. ... I just feel very strongly about lifelong learning.”
