Community Education
CONTACT US
Community Education and Workforce Development
Phone: 541-888-7214
Email
Monday – Friday, 8am to 5pm
(Closed on Fridays during summer)
Take Classes For Fun and Personal Growth!
Southwestern offers a wide range of life-long learning and personal exploration opportunities to enrich your life. We offer a variety of community education classes at our beautiful Coos and Curry campuses, and online as well. All of our Community Classes are noncredit, and taught by highly qualified individuals from our local communities.
Winter Term classes start Monday, January 5, 2026 and are listed below.
REGISTRATION FOR WINTER TERM JOB TRAINING CLASSES OPENS MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2025 AT 8:00 AM.
To register for a class:
- You must have an active SWOCC Student ID number. If you have taken classes at Southwestern within the last year, you will have an active SWOCC Student ID number .
- If you have NOT taken a class at Southwestern within the last year, complete the Community Education & Personal Enrichment application form. This will get you an active SWOCC Student ID number. Skip this step only if you have taken classes at Southwestern within the past year.
- When you have an active SWOCC Student ID number, call or email:
- Coos: 541-888-7352, Email
- Curry: 541-813-1667, Email
CONTACT US
Community Education and Workforce Development
Phone: 541-888-7214
Email
Monday – Friday, 8am to 5pm
(Closed on Fridays during summer)
Coos Campus In-Person
The Arts
ART 0805 65 BEGINNING IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING
Students learn the core methods of Impressionist painting through guided demonstrations and supervised studio practice, focusing on light, color theory, and rapid brushwork. Instruction covers the Impressionist approach to observation, color theory, and building a finished painting from loose studies.
Instructor: Tristan Perrotti
Location: Eden 3
Cost: $30 for materials
Day: Fri 1/9/26
Time: 6:00pm-9:00pm
ART 0806 65 EXPRESSIVE PAINTING WITH LIMITED PALETTES
Students learn how to create emotionally resonant paintings using restricted color palettes, exploring complementary, split-primary, and monochrome-plus palettes. Instruction emphasizes color psychology, mood construction, and intentional simplification, with hands-on studio time for both small studies and a final project.
Instructor: Tristan Perrotti
Location: Eden 3
Cost: $30 for materials
Day: Fri 1/23/26
Time: 6:00pm-9:00pm
ART 0807 65 FAUVISM & WILD COLOR
Students explore the bold, emotionally charged color strategies of the Fauvist movement, creating paintings that reject naturalistic color in favor of expressive, high-contrast palettes and strong contour line. Workshop includes historical context, guided technique demonstrations, and a final studio project in the Fauvist style.
Instructor: Tristan Perrotti
Location: Eden 3
Cost: $30 for materials
Day: Fri 2/6/26
Time: 6:00pm-9:00pm
ART 0257 65 BEGINNING WHEEL THROWING
For beginning and intermediate potters. Beginning potters create works of art through demonstrated and supervised basic wheel throwing techniques that support exploration in a studio setting covering the process of working with clay – designing, curing, finishing and firing.
Instructor: Annie Pollard
Location: Eden 5
Cost: $129
Day: Tue
Time: 6:00pm-8:50pm
ART 0259 65 ADVANCED CERAMICS
An independent study course for pottery and clay artists, who have a good understanding of basic techniques, to gather to learn from each other, share ideas, and create new pieces. You will define your own learning goals and work towards them in a supportive environment. Because there is a wide range of skill level and technique focus among students, emphasis is placed on individual development and one-on-one attention. Course cost does not include clay. Clay is purchased as needed in class through the ceramics department.
Instructor: Ruben & Sandy Kretzschmar
Location: Eden 5
Cost: $209
Day: Mon, Wed
Time: 12:30pm-3:20pm
ART 0131 65 WILD BASKETRY: WEAVING WITH NATURE
Baskets! Not plastic. Learn wild basket-making. Identify, forage and transform invasive and indigenous plant species into handmade treasures. Turn brambles into cordage, cattails into yoga mats and seaweed and invasive ivy into baskets. In this class, basketmaking is more than craft – it’s participation in regenerative forestry. We glean inspiration from the traditional wisdom of the Coos, Ko-Kwel, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw basket-weavers, honoring the artistry that grew out of their deep relationship with this land. Both instructors are members of Basket Making Guilds.
Instructors: Shinan Barclay & Michelle Riley
Location: Eden 7
Cost: $90
Day: Mon
Time: 5:30pm-7:50pm
ART 0146 65 SCRIBBLE ART & SKETCHBOOKS
This seven-week course blends expressive scribble art with guided sketchbook adventures. Students will explore famous artists, experiment with mark-making and composition and build a personal sketchbook practice rooted in intuition, curiosity, and play.
Instructor: Shinan Barclay
Location: Eden 7
Cost: $70
Day: Thur: 1/8, 1/15, 1/22, 1/29, 2/5, 2/12, 2/19
Time: 6:00pm-7:50pm
Fitness & Recreation
PE 0509 65 ZUMBA®
Zumba® Fitness is a global brand that fuses fitness, entertainment and culture into an addictive dance-fitness class. Zumba® utilizes the principles of fitness, interval training, and resistance training to maximize caloric output, fat burning, and total body toning. It’s a way of mixing body sculpting movements with easy-to-follow dance steps. Inspired by Latin dance and music, Zumba® uses a variety of Latin styles in its routines, including cumbia, merengue, salsa, and reggaeton, as well as American styles like swing and hip hop.
Instructor: Tina Woodworth
Location: Rec Center 131
Cost: $50
Days: Tue
Time: 5:30pm-6:20pm
PE 0503 65 PILATES® EXERCISE
Pilates® is a body-conditioning routine that helps build flexibility, muscle strength, and endurance in the legs, abdominals, arms, hips, and back. It puts emphasis on spinal and pelvic alignment, breathing, and developing a strong core, as well as improving coordination and balance.
Instructor: Melissa Loudenbeck
Location: Rec Center 121
Cost: $105
Days: Tue, Thur
Time: 12:00pm-12:50pm
PE 0505 01 TURBO KICK
Turbo Kick is a combination of intense kickboxing moves, as well as a unique blend of intense interval strength and endurance training all perfectly choreographed to high-energy and motivating music. Turbo Kick requires no previous kickboxing experience or equipment.
Instructor: Melissa Loudenbeck
Location: Rec Center 121
Cost: $105
Days: Mon, Wed
Time: 5:30pm-6:20pm
PE 0525 65 POUND® FITNESS
Rock-Out while you Work-Out!! POUND® is a full-body cardio session, combining light resistance strength training with constant simulated drumming. Through continual upper body motion using lightly weighted drumsticks, you’ll turn into a calorie-torching drummer! Rock, rap, dubstep, pop and old school music fuse to create the POUND® track series. The POUND® workout fuses cardio, isometric movements, plyometrics and isometric poses with pulse-racing, sweat-inducing drumming. Drum your way to a leaner, stronger physique – all while rocking out to your favorite music!
Instructor: Melissa Loudenbeck
Location: Rec Center 121
Cost: $85
Day: Tue
Time: 5:30pm-6:30pm
PE 0507 65 YOGA BEGINNING
For skeletal alignment, flexibility, strength, balance. Safe, gentle class, keeping awareness on breath, while releasing stress and tension. Please bring your own personal yoga mat.
Instructor: Linda Laverty
Location: Rec Center 125
Cost: $75
Day: Mon
Time: 1:00pm-2:15pm
PE 0507 66 YOGA ADVANCED
For skeletal alignment, flexibility, strength, balance. Safe, gentle class, keeping awareness on breath, while releasing stress and tension. Please bring your own personal yoga mat.
Instructor: Linda Laverty
Location: Rec Center 125
Cost: $75
Day: Wed
Time: 1pm-2:15pm
PE 0244 65 LEARN TO PLAY DISC GOLF
This four-session course will teach participants basic skills for playing disc golf. Participants will be provided with three discs to practice with and keep (included in the fee), while learning how to achieve the lowest scores possible for their ability. The course will be led by Derek Tonn, a SWOCC employee and Ambassador with DGA Disc Golf in California (www.discgolf.com) since 2018.
Location: Rec Center Court
Cost: $125 – Includes $50 fee for discs
Days: Sat 1/10, 1/17 & 1/24
Day: Sat 1/31- Grassy Area in between Newmark Buildings
Time: 10:00am-12:00pm
Culinary
CRT 0101 65 “JUST DESSERTS” Flower Pot Cakes
In this hands-on class you will receive instruction on a chef-chosen menu of truly tempting desserts that will take your meal to the next level. You’ll want to add these new skills and menus to your cooking repertoire.
Instructor: Chef Alison Murphy
Location: OCCI Bakery
Cost: $89
Day: Sat 2/14/26
Time: 9:00am-12:00pm
Special Interest
G 025DB 65 REGIONAL Geology – Cape Blanco Field Trip
A lecture in the field to highlight the significant geologic features along the Oregon Coast with stops focused between Cape Blanco and Brookings. Some of the highlights are stops at: Cape Blanco, Cape Sebastian, Arch Rock, Rainbow Rock overlook, Harris Beach and more. The course consists of a field trip arranged to illustrate the geologic setting, stratigraphy and structure, topography, age and origin, significant events through geologic time, and special features unique to the region. Also offered as G145CB 01 for credit.
Instructor: Ron Metzger (rmetzger@socc.edu for inquiries about the trip)
Location: Itinerary and details in Canvas and sent via email
Cost: $60 (including transportation; participants need to bring lunch)
Date: Sat 1/17/26
Time: 7:00am-6:30pm
WR 0100 65 WRITING YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
Elements of autobiography/memoir are presented, discussed, and practiced in writing short stories from your life. Reading short excerpts from published works expands understanding of these elements. The class is a supportive and positive writing group, helping each other develop stories while learning and laughing.
Instructor: Sally Harrold
Location: Zoom
Cost: $105
Day: Tue
Time: 11:30am-1:50pm
PHL 0844 65 PLAYING WITH PHILOSOPHY
In this playful course we will play around with common idioms that include the word “play” to introduce philosophical concepts. Then we will apply those concepts to the phenomenon of play itself and discuss what the philosophy of play might mean, while we play games, play films, play music, and may even read a play. The entire field of play, beyond physical reality alone, will be the stage where we play the hunches of our emerging understanding that child’s play, like Arron Schwartz’s “sharing”, is a moral imperative that requires us to play it safe by playing fair, teaches us that turnabout is fair play, and is potentially evident when playing the devil’s advocate. It’s a community education class in horse play from which no one will want to play hooky.
Instructor: Pete Hodges
Location: Tioga 105
Cost: $75
Days: Tue (4-week course) 1/6/26,1/13/26,1/27/26 & 2/3/26
Time: 10:00am-11:50am
MUP 0105 65 COMMUNITY CHOIR
The SWOCC Community Choir provides an opportunity for singers of all levels to participate in a musically and socially engaging choral ensemble. The Community Choir will focus on providing a safe and stimulating environment for people of all backgrounds to learn, practice, and perform quality choral literature in a large group setting. Focus will be placed on healthy vocal production, musically inspiring performance, strong social connections, and effectively working with others. A wide variety of musical styles will be explored, and participants will present a concert performance at the end of each term. This is a non-auditioned ensemble, but the ability to match pitch is requested.
Instructor: Ken Graber
Location: Hales Center for Performing Arts
Cost: $30
Day: Mon
Time: 6:00pm-8:00pm
Curry Campus In-Person
Instructions on how to register for an in-person Curry Campus community class are found at the top of this page (simply scroll up). Contact us at the Curry Campus directly with any questions at 541-813-1667 or Email.
Interested in teaching a class? These classes are taught by the community, for the community. We welcome new course ideas and enthusiastic instructors! Complete this form and we’ll be in touch.
Fitness
PE 0502 99 BETTER BONES AND BALANCE®
Better Bones and Balance® is an exercise program that was developed and tested by researchers at Oregon State University. This program targets strength and balance through key exercises shown to reduce the risk of falls and fractures and is suitable for ambulatory individuals who are at beginner and intermediate exercise levels.
Instructor: Lisa Reed
Location: Langlois Lions Club
Cost: $89
Day: Mon, Fri 1/12/26-3/20/26
Time: 9:00am-10:20am
PE 0502 98 BETTER BONES AND BALANCE®
This section is for students that are new to the Better Bones and Balance® exercise program.
Instructor: Lisa Reed
Location: Langlois Lions Club
Cost: $45
Day: Mon 1/12/26-3/16/26
Time: 11:00am-12:00pm
PE 0570 99 LOW-IMPACT DANCE AEROBICS
This class uses easy-to-follow dance steps and rhythmic movements that are choreographed to upbeat music. It’s a fun way to get moving while improving your cardiovascular system, muscle strength, flexibility, balance, and boosting your overall fitness level. This is a great class for active seniors no matter your level of fitness.
Instructor: Mary Whitaker
Location: Curry Campus 138A/B
Cost: $70
Days: Tue, Thur
Time: 8:30am-9:45am
PE 0504 99 TAI CHI
This course in Tai Chi is a gentle, relaxed, non-sweat, personal exercise (translated as the “Grand Ultimate”) for any age. The ‘Yang Form’ will be taught along with ‘Chi Gwa’ (circulating breath) and ‘Silk Cocoon Chen’ (fine intertwining energy). This course is noncompetitive and will start with the basics, and then individuals will progress at their own rate.
Instructor: Deane McConnell
Location: Curry Campus 137A/B
Cost: $63
Day: Tue
Time: 10:00am-11:20am
PE 0504 98 TAI CHI
Instructor: Deane McConnell
Location: Curry Campus 137A/B
Cost: $63
Day: Tue
Time: 5:30pm-6:50pm
Special Interest
ART 0115 99 FUSED GLASS BASICS
Glass fusing is the process of joining compatible sheet glasses together then heating them in a kiln until the glass fuses or melts together. It grants you the power to create colorful, dynamic works of glass art that are completely unique. Fused glass is used to fabricate plates, tiles, bowls, jewelry, wall hangings, and other artistic creations. You only need a kiln, glass, and a few simple tools to create a finished fused glass piece. This class teaches the basics of fusing glass while creating a soap dish. We will cover an overview of the art, cutting glass, and safety while creating a design with glass to be fused then slumped into a soap dish. Please wear closed-toe shoes. Cost includes materials and supplies. Class meets on both days.
Instructor: Rosa Little
Location: Curry Campus 118
Cost: $110
Day: Fri 2/6/26
Time: 3:00pm-5:50pm
Day: Fri 3/6/26
Time: 4:00pm-4:50pm
ART 0240 99 MIXED MEDIA MASTERPIECE: PAINTING ABSTRACT FACES
Create faces that tell a story. No experience is needed for this fun class where you’ll learn to paint exciting creative faces using blind contour drawing. This 3-session workshop will take you through a step-by-step process where you’ll explore new techniques, and ideas that will help to make your art personal, expressive and uniquely your own. It starts with painting backgrounds using layers of paint, then draw faces using contour drawing, paint, collage, and other tools such as marker, pastels, and crayons. Each student will come away with more than one finished painting. Students will need several large sheets of watercolor or mixed media paper (10-12 sheets), a few different sized brushes, and a black permanent sharpie marker. Paint will be supplied.
Instructor: Mary Whitaker
Location: Curry Campus 138A/B
Cost: $75
Days: Mon 1/26/26 to 2/9/26
Time: 1:00pm – 3:50pm
ASL 0501 99 AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE
Introduces the natural, signed language of American deaf people. Includes instruction in proper sign formation, American Sign Language (ASL) grammar and vocabulary, expressive and receptive skills. Emphasis on the history of ASL, the deaf community in North America, and deaf education.
Instructor: Bj Farris
Location: Curry Campus 206
Cost: $115
Days: Tue, Thur
Time: 3:30pm-4:50pm
BA 0134 99 RETIREMENT INTELLIGENCE
This is a virtual class held via Zoom designed to help individuals plan for retirement. What’s your retirement dream? Learn how to put together a plan that will help you reach your goals. Class includes a workbook to help individuals create their own plan and a private coaching call. Pre-register by January 13.
Instructor: Jesse Coffee
Location: Virtual Zoom
Cost: $39
Days: Tue 1/20/26 & 1/27/26
Time: 6:00pm-7:30pm
DRIV 0620 99 AARP SMART DRIVER COURSE
This course offers you the opportunity to learn how to drive more efficiently and safely. The course contains up-to-date information about changes over time in ourselves, our vehicles, and our roads. The content of this course can help boost safety awareness, refresh and improve driving skills, minimize crash risk, increase confidence, prolong mobility, and maintain independence. Completion of this one-day six-hour driving refresher course can yield discounted auto insurance premiums for individuals. To register call 541-469-6822.
Instructor: Robert Pfenning
Location: Chetco Activity Center
Day: Fri 1/23/26
Time: 8:45am-4:30pm
Cost: AARP members $20, non-members $25, check or cash is payable to AARP at the class.
Pre-register by Jan. 22. Bring your AARP card and driver’s license.
DRIV 0620 98 AARP SMART DRIVER COURSE
Instructor: Robert Pfenning
Location: Chetco Activity Center
Day: Sat 1/24/26
Time: 8:45am-4:30pm
Cost: AARP members $20, non-members $25, check or cash is payable to AARP at the class.
Pre-register by Jan. 22. Bring your AARP card and driver’s license.
HE 0591 99 MEDICARE 101
In this class students will learn about the four parts of Medicare: Medicare part A, B, C, and D. They will learn about the timelines surrounding Medicare enrollment and the policies. An in-depth presentation on Medicare Advantage Plans and Medicare Supplements will be provided. Students will leave the class with the tools to make informed decisions on what type of plan best fits their own, or a family member’s needs.
Instructor: Becky Holm
Location: Curry Campus 137A/B
Cost: Free
Day: Mon 2/23/26
Time: 2:00pm-3:20pm
HE 0201 99 MEDITATION
Quantum Reiki Meditation for modern everyday living. Learn easy, enlightening meditation techniques to explore your consciousness and feel higher light energy. Meditation is a practice by which we achieve a greater sense of awareness, and relaxation, with the objective of the here and now. In this introductory course, we will explore various techniques of meditation to find the right choice for you. Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years with archeological finds dating back to 5,000 years ago. You will have a magnificent experience.
Instructor: Aranka Fisher
Location: Curry Campus 138A/B
Cost: $75
Day: Tues
Time: 3:00pm-4:20pm
HE 0201 98 MEDITATION
Instructor: Aranka Fisher
Location: Curry Campus 138A/B
Cost: $75
Day: Thur
Time: 5:30pm-6:50pm
Writing
WR 0115 99 INTRODUCTION TO GRANT WRITING
This Introduction to Grant Writing course provides a basic understanding of grant writing and the foundations of project development. We will cover how to prepare your organization to apply for grants and identify local sponsors and small grants to consider. The course is open to all but geared toward smaller non-profits.
Instructor: Alisa Green
Location: Curry Campus 109
Cost: $75
Days: Sat 2/28/26 & 3/14/26
Time: 10:00am-12:50pm
Teach A Class
Our vision at Southwestern is to lead and inspire lifelong learning. Do you have a skill, hobby or interest that you would like to share with others? Do you want to offer a course that is going to harness inspiration and give others an opportunity to learn? Does it support personal enrichment, enhance a life skill, or meet a need in our local workforce? Community Classes are taught by people in our community, for our community.
We are always looking for enthusiastic people who want to combine an interest in serving the community with the benefit of supplementing their income. Depending on the class, certification and/or formal education may not be required. The first step is filling out the Adjunct Faculty Community Education/Workforce Development Instructor application.
