EITC expands course offerings in Driggs - East Idaho News
Education

EITC expands course offerings in Driggs

  Published at

DRIGGS — Eastern Idaho Technical College (EITC), in partnership with Teton School District 401, is expanding its course offerings in Driggs.

The community education courses are offered on Tuesday and Thursday evenings during the month of March. This spring’s roster includes classes from fly tying and cake decorating to business writing and marketing. The expanded course offerings are reaching out to a wider segment of the Teton Valley population to include everyone from job seekers to conversational Spanish speakers.

Driggs is one of three outreach centers that EITC operates across eastern Idaho.

“It’s convenient to be able to take a class without traveling out of the valley,” said Jenny Van Winkle, Teton Valley Community Education Coordinator.

Depending on the class, meeting times range from a one night class to multi-week sessions throughout the month. Classes are held from 7:00 – 9:00 pm at Teton High School and range in price from $25 to $40.

“We are grateful that TSD 401 offers us the high school for free to use in the evenings; it helps to keep our class costs low,” Van Winkle said.

The registration deadline is four business days before each course begins, leaving plenty of time for procrastinators to sign up.

The beginner guitar class was a popular offering last fall. Sharon Gusa, who used a borrowed guitar for the class, progressed from not knowing how to hold the guitar to playing multiple chords and a few songs by the end of the session.

Gusa said, “A few weeks after the class was over, I bought a guitar, and I have been playing regularly since then. For me, it was a life enhancing experience that I am really grateful for.”

This spring, Habitat mechanic Micheal Woodruff is teaching “The Care and Feeding of Your Bicycle,” a basic bike maintenance course. He usually caps the class at 10 people but 15 are signed up and he doesn’t want to send anyone away.

He has been teaching through EITC for years, both in Idaho Falls and Teton Valley. He doesn’t get paid; he sees it as a service to the community.

“The reason I’ve always done courses through the shops that I’ve worked at, and through EITC is to give back to the community and help the program grow,” said Woodruff.

More information on the March 2017 course offerings can be found at the website eitc.edu/wft/outreach-centers. For future fall and spring sessions, Van Winkle is already looking ahead.

“We hope to grow the program each year, and I’m always looking for new class ideas and proposals from prospective instructors,” she said.

SUBMIT A CORRECTION