Renaissance Court is located in the Chicago Cultural Center. Randolph St. Entrance is the most…read moreconvenient. Once you get past the double doors, Renaissance Court is to your right. This is one of the City of Chicago's six regional senior centers. This one is different than the other centers. If you are 55+ - you are welcome here. You have to be 60 to use the other senior centers. This one does not have some of the services the others offer, however, it seems to offer a lot more variety of classes and activities than the others. There is some info in the Chicago Dept. of Family and Support Services "Life Enrichment Programs".quarterly brochure which you can pick up at senior centers, libraries and probably some other city offices. You can also download a pdf. But the brochure only lists a sampling of the classes. At Renaissance Court you can pick up a calendar listing everything going on for the month. They also have some flyers with more info about some of the classes. Many classes are free, but some do have a fee. Some classes: chair yoga, hatha yoga, meditation & movement. Tai Chi, belly dancing, line dancing, variety of other exercise classes IMPROV, performance workshop, drawing, water color, book club and much more. You really have to pick up the calendar. On Saturday there is a Hoop Fitness class. Tried the class out for the first time. I don't remember being that good at hula hooping as a kid, so I was a bit skeptical about this. I met some ladies before the class that assured me that it is all about fun and not to worry. I probably spent more time picking up the hoop than twirling it. Instructor Andrea and rest of the class made me feel welcome and comfortable. Andrea is really nice and encouraging. Luckily, we did some other exercises with the hoop that did not include twirling it. The ladies were right - - it is great fun! On Fridays, you can get a 60 minute table massage for $30. This will be some of the best $$ you ever spend--if you can get an appointment. They can fill up quickly--Tisa is a very good massage therapist. Also, unless things have changed in the past year, you have to make the appt with the office and pay in advance. They didn't take credit cards, so I had to stop by to make and pay for the appt. My limited experience with Renaissance Court has been a good one. It would be nice to live closer and to be able to enjoy more of the activities more often. I do plan to try a few more classes and definitely to give that hula hoop another try :)

Free English lessons, bring them on! New classes with trainee teachers starting every 4 weeks so it…read morenever gets boring :)

I attended the Teaching House in Chicago during the summer of 2014 and it was wonderful. The…read moreteacher trainers where extremely thorough in their feedback and help and they continue to help you and give advice about job searching even after the program has ended. They really know what they are talking about and are very experienced. I learned amazing things from the trainers at Teaching House Chicago. If you are willing to learn and ready to work hard and prepared for it all to pay off, join the Teaching House Chicago, you won't be disappointed

If you are looking to improve your public speaking skills in a laid back and fun setting, then…read moreChicago Toastmasters would be a great club for you! This group meets on the first and third Thursday of the month from 12-1pm sharp at 30 N LaSalle St. 36th Floor in the Polysystems office. Check out the website for additional information on how to attend a meeting as a guest.

If you are an aspiring writer looking for a way to nudge yourself to the next level then The…read moreChicago Writer's loft is for you. The curriculum was developed by Jerry Cleaver and taken from his book "Immediate Fiction". Sadly, Jerry is no longer with us but the class is ably and cheerfully taught by Mary Carter. Ms. Carter has published close to a dozen novels and is a former workshop participant. The class is six weeks long. The first class is absolutely free. You pay nothing if you decide not to pursue the course. You do get a free copy of Jerry's book though. Each class goes through the basic elements of good storying writing (WOARS take the class and find out what that means). Each of the five remaining classes provides time at the end to write. The work is read and critiqued at the subsequent class. I think you'll be pleased at the jumpstart your writing projects will receive from participation. I've gotten great help from Mary on my writing projects from both in and outside of class. I'm afraid to take a workshop anywhere else for fear of rank disappointment.

From the owner: Chicago's longest-running and most successful writing workshop. Taught by USA Today bestselling…read moreauthor. Founded by Jerry Cleaver, author of best-selling writing book Immediate Fiction (St. Martin's Press). A workshop series designed to give writers of all levels the crucial skills that make every story and every writer a success. Learn everything you need to unlock your imagination and bring your ideas to life on the page, stage, or screen. "I recommend it to everyone who writes." -- Linda Lael Miller, author of eight NY Times bestsellers "The best there is." -- Michael Harvey, Emmy winner, Academy Award nominee for Best Screenplay

Midwestern Career College helps students to become successful professionals and provide them with…read moreresources that help to build their networking and job search skills. Be part of the MCC's talks

Midwestern career college is a great place. I recently had a chance to visit its campuses and learn…read moreabout its programs. It is amazing how it is the only college in Chicago that has a Surgical Technology and EEG Tech programs. The retention and graduation rates well exceed those of its competitors, including community colleges. The staff and faculty take pride in serving their students and enabling them to begin their careers in healthcare, and now in IT and business. It's definitely a great value proposition for this who thing the traditional college is not the right path for them.

I would highly recommend you take your professional development dollars elsewhere. Here is a…read moresummary of my recent experience at the Chicago GA location. I completed the 10 week part-time digital marketing course. Of the roughly 14 students in the course, a total of 5 of us launched similar complaints to the Chicago office staff. They did very little to resolve the situation and were very patronizing. CONS & one PRO: · The breadth of the content was just not there - two hours per night twice a week to cover topics ranging from SEM, SEO to content marketing and paid search was not enough; while the instructor did a nice job of providing an overview, I feel strongly that I didn't walk away an expert in any of the topics let alone one. Mobile WAS NOT covered at all. · Access to data & a client should be provided by GA. For the first two weeks, I had no connections to a customer's analytics or owned channels, and it made learning incredibly challenging. Several students in the class did not have access to analytics or owned channels throughout the course and it made learning that much more difficult. GA certainly must be well connected in the tech/start up scene, and I imagine there are plenty of small organizations, even non-profits, that GA could build relationships with to connect students. As a full-time working professional, it was hard enough to get the coursework done...let alone try to convince an organization to give you access to their google analytics or owned media. As you are probably aware, without these key insights, it would be very hard to be successful in the classroom. · Instruction - while she is no doubt incredibly talented in her own right, I feel like this course was not her priority. There were several questions that my classmates and I asked that she could not answer. I would imagine that is due to the demanding and changing landscape of the field. Feedback was given sporadically, and the fact that we don't receive feedback from our direct professor on the final project that many of us spent so much time on is astounding. I know I spent upwards of 40 hours on my final project, and the rubric provided by judges didn't justify the amount of time or effort I put into the project. · Cost - I would have been perfectly happy with the course as an intro to digital marketing course if it were at the $1,500 or even $2,000 price point. I feel strongly that the $3,995 fee is far too much for the value of the course and key learnings provided. Again, I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn - and know that you get out of a course as much as you put into it, but I wanted to bring my main concerns to your attention. Finally, a couple overall notes that I definitely think need to be addressed for the next round of students: Our final class went over by 2 hours due to the amount of presentations that were required. It's truly a shame as one of the judges had to leave at 9 pm, so several of my classmates didn't get a full review. It's outrageous and poor planning to think you could accommodate 13 ten-minute presentations into a 120 minute course. Obviously, there would need to be time for questions, set up and breaks. Again, the content of the course was just a breeze over - I definitely think there's opportunity for an in-depth overview of digital marketing, but I feel strongly that I did not get anywhere close to an in-depth overview. The most beneficial part of the course was the opportunity to learn from my peers.

I enjoyed the free class. Nice clean area, two projectors in classroom. Even for a free class I…read morelearned a lot and I am debating going back. They offer loner laptops, but they are Mac's. I had a bit of a learning curve with the laptop in addition to the class. I was informed of needing to bring my own computer by an email sent out at 8am the day of the class. I didn't notice it till I was out the door already :( Other than the communication about the laptop I did enjoy it.

I love Roosevelt University. ( I graduated in 2005, so my review is of the University during that…read morefour year period). I attended both because my dad was an alum as well as for the fact that they offered me a full academic scholarship, and I have no regrets. Even if I had actually paid to go there I would have very few complaints. The course offerings were plentiful in my departments (double major in Psychology and Liberal Studies) and they offered an Honors Program which allowed me to take some very interesting courses as well as experience social and volunteer activities. I had some excellent professors here (particularly in the English and History departments). I attended both the Schaumburg and Chicago campuses, but was mainly based at Schaumburg. I also worked for the student activities office and was a member of several organizations- student government in particular, so I was able to experience all aspects of student life at RU, even though I was a communter student. I also made many friends here who I keep in contact with to this day. I made the most of my experience by taking full advantage of what the professors had to teach me as well as by getting involved, and from 2002-2005, RU was my second home. My four years at Roosevelt were a wonderful time in my life, one that I will never forget and very often wish I could return to (the real world kinda sucks).

Roosevelt University has a number of significant issues, and I will keep this brief…read more The university places strong emphasis on social justice in its messaging, but my experience did not reflect those values in practice. Administrative and bureaucratic processes are slow to respond when students need support, yet communication becomes very frequent when something is required from you. There was also a cybersecurity incident during my time at the university, and I felt the institutional response did not adequately address the impact on students whose information was affected. In addition, policy enforcement appears inconsistent across departments, which adds to the lack of clarity in day-to-day processes. Based on my experience, I would not recommend this institution.

I took a very comprehensive PMP test prep class with Francis (Fran) Mies about a month before I…read moretook the PMP V6 test. Passed first time, no problems. The class was fantastic about prepping you with all the info you need to pass the test and for helping to understand what you need to do to succeed in applying for the test as well. Online content was a great augment to in-person training.

I took the Project Management Academy Boot Camp January 4-7 of this year, and I can't say enough…read moregreat things about this training! The Boot Camp helped me pass my PMP exam (passed on January 10th). Francis Mies is a great instructor who really knows how to break complex subjects down into understandable parts. He got us prepared for the exam by giving us test-taking tips, and focusing on subjects that the PMP asks about. Also, the materials that were given (handouts, study guides, etc.) were CRUCIAL in passing the exam. I want to thank Fran for getting me prepared for the exam. I highly recommend all aspiring PMPs to take this training!