Learning all through life

The formula goes something like this: Go to college. Learn a trade. Get a job. Get married. Retire. Live out your life in Florida.

Omniscience will arrive somewhere in the middle, right?

Not if you think like the few thousand Berkshirites who take adult education classes at area colleges. Most of them look at enlightenment as if it were food — they can't survive without it.

Take Donna Mulholland, for example.

The 56-year-old Becket resident and Marian Fathers employee has been taking classes through the Berkshire Institute for Lifetime Learning (BILL) for the last several years.

The topics she's selected have ranged from accounting to English to computer technology.

This semester? She enrolled in a calligraphy class.

"I'm adding to my knowledge base," she said. "I'm of the thinking that there's always something to learn."

Mulholland said she feels an innate desire to keep learning new things — education for her didn't end in her 20s.

"It has actually made my life better," she said.

She's not using the classes to explore a new career, although she was able incorporate a family poem into knitted gifts for her entire family this past Christmas.

Taking classes in a variety of subjects allows her to interact with and meet new people, and to keep her brain fresh.

BILL, now in its 12th year, offers a wide selection of non-credit courses

in the arts, sciences and literature for those interested in challenging themselves in an academic atmosphere. Fun classes like dancing and wine tasting are also offered.

BILL is also a part of The Learning Exchange, a consortium of lifelong learning institutes from Harvard, Dartmouth, Brandeis and the University of San Francisco.

Learning is 'exciting'

Founder and publisher of The Women's Times, Eugenie Sills, enrolled in the Berkshire Enterprises program in 1992 when she was 32. Up to that point, she had spent much of her adult life working in the film industry. She felt the urge for a change.

As part of the Lifetime Learning and workforce development program at BCC, Berkshire Enterprises helps adult students create and nurture small businesses.

It was during the 12-week program that Sills came up with the idea for a women's newsletter. She learned how to create a business plan and put the newsletter through a mock trial. Nine months after graduating, Sills was publishing her first public edition.

Today, The Women's Times prints two editions (one in Berkshire County, one in Hampshire County) and attracts a readership of more than 32,000.

"You might be a good woodworker, but it

doesn't mean you know how to be a good businessman," she said. "This program gave me a good foundation to start down that path. It helped me to realize I'm an entrepreneur."

Sills said the age-old saying that "education is often wasted on the young" holds true in some instances — adults in their 30s, 40s and 50s are often more grounded than those fresh out of high school, meaning they get their money's worth out of education more often.

" 'Lifelong learning' is a perfect phrase for what all of us are engaged in (or should be)," she said. "I always thought I would love to go back to college. Learning new things for me is exciting."

Demand may dictate courses

Bill Mulholland, brother-in-law to Donna Mulholland and BCC's dean of Lifetime Learning and workforce development, looks at adult education tracks in the county as "life enrichment programs."

"Some are retired and are just looking to add to their depth of knowledge," he said. "And some want to hone in on a single topic, or learn about becoming a paralegal."

The courses range in price from $19 to $2,000 and last six to 12 weeks. Mulholland said some of the more popular courses are bridge (the card game), mixology (bartending) and "Wines of Italy."

Foreign language, computer training and career enhancement courses are also in demand.

Mulholland said the adult presence on the campuses — more than 2,000 students a year — is a good influence on the younger students.

"They see these folks coming to learn and they think, 'Hey, there must be something to this learning thing,' " he said.

The program is always evolving, and some of the courses are dictated by student demand. If a request is good enough — like when a student proposed a class on the writers of the Berkshires — it will be made into an offering.

Annette Bernstein, 86, and her husband, Madison Cotlowitz, 87, of West Stockbridge, have been taking classes through BILL for 10 years. This semester, they've signed up for three: Headlines; a film series on Peter Sellers; and Conversations With, a class that interviews local personalities.

They said the classes offer exciting discussions and fiery debates.

"We solve the problems of the world," Bernstein said.

"It's so gratifying to be in the classroom with people of all walks of life. That's a problem for people our age: socializing. But it's so worthwhile just to hear people who are interested in learning new things."