FractalU Summer Classes start next week!
don't miss the deadline, & check out classes that are around the corner
The general deadline for FractalU classes is this Sunday, June 1st, and our first set of classes starts next week! Some instructors will accept enrollments until closer to their mid- or late-summer start dates, but many classes are already filling up, so don’t delay submitting your applications. Here’s the full course listing.
I’ve been chatting with instructors about their classes for the past couple of weeks, and I wanted to share a sampling of my conversations with all of you, because I’m inspired by how thoughtfully they’ve conceived of their courses and the enthusiasm that they bring for their subjects – most of which are nothing like classes you’ve ever taken in school. Each one is led by an expert who’s trying to share a practice, skill, or mindset that’s transformed them, with careful consideration to how students with any background can beneficially integrate it into their own lives.
On the Arts & Expression side, Mars is running Personal Styling (Mondays from June 2nd to July 14th) because she believes that “fashion has enormous potential to transform the way we feel and behave,” and wants to see more people in the world who feel good about themselves, because “that radiates outwards” to self-actualization. She believes that with “intentional and continued effort, anyone can craft a strong sense of personal style,” and will support her students in an almost systematic process of reflection, exploration, and experimentation that helps them figure out their practical needs and conceptual preferences so they can accumulate pieces that fit into their daily lives & enhance their confidence, even more so than their appearance (although that’s certainly crucial, too!).
Ulysses and Zach are offering Bardic Arts (Saturdays from June 7 to July 19), a course that “came about organically” after months of running the Merlin’s Place Open Mic. They wanted to create a space where people could workshop their stand-up sets, spoken word, music, and even “hone their storytelling skills,” because telling a good story is “a life skill that’s useful in any social context,” whether you’re at a dinner party, a conference, or even chatting with a stranger at the park. You’ll get supportive feedback, lots of practice holding other peoples’ attention, and you’ll probably be pretty entertained in the process.
Another Life Skill on offer soon is Regan’s Mission-Driven Money (Mondays from June 9 to June 30), a practical workshop that demystifies the process of fundraising led by a professional with tons of experience finding donors for all kinds of projects. Regan is a “firm believer that there’s enough money for whatever [great ideas] are out there, we just need to find it,” and wants to help this community blossom by “creating and sustaining the financial health of our community outside of our own wealth,” which means embracing the reality that “relationships trump pitches, and rejections are not personal” — an ostensible paradox that’s crucial to finding funding for your big ideas. She’ll also help you figure out to whom & how to pitch your own specific pipedream, whatever it may be.
In the Mind-Body realm of classes, Clara’s Intuitive Movement (Tuesdays June 3 to June 24) is “created to make you feel aligned and alive and in tune with your body and spirit,” a process that “strengthens our own trust in ourselves” and centers “the wisdom that we are our own medicine.” A lifelong dancer and multimodal movement artist, Clara has developed a practice that uses “different movement lineages to maximize our own well-being” that has become part of her daily routine and enables her to live in alignment with her values, and she wants to help others similarly find their own internal grounding.
If you’re more interested in “cultivating body efficiency and a calm attentive mentality” that enable “healthier ways of exerting yourself” in exercise or even daily life, then you may be drawn to Michael’s Learning Martial Architecture (Wednesdays starting June 4). After discovering that his martial arts practices helped him recover from a chronic injury because it developed his “understanding of the body’s kinetic chain and refined [his] movements without over-taxing vulnerable joints,” Michael realized that focusing on fundamental techniques that bring awareness to your own anatomical structure and leverage were beneficial to everybody; accordingly, his drop-in classes are available to martial artists and newbies alike.
There’s also a host of Writing & Literature classes starting next week — Stephen’s Rewrite Your Personal Narrative, Han’s Generative Poetry, and Crystal’s Improv Editing Lab. While the former 2 are both brilliantly crafted to enable self-discovery & finding emotional resonance through your written voice, the latter (running Wednesdays from June 4 to July 9) is the only class in this summer’s roster that focuses on the part that comes after you get words on the page: editing. Crystal believes that “practicing the muscle of getting into a flow state” makes it “painless to produce good work,” and uses an improvisational, prompt-centric format that forces students to exercise that muscle until accessing “a place of abundant creativity,” even while editing, becomes second nature. And she’ll use her intuition to point out when you’re tapping into your own, strengthening your self-trust in the process.
This is just a sampling of the classes that start next week – there’s a ton more options to stretch your brain and/or your body this summer, and we’d love to see new and familiar faces as we explore new kinds of learning together. Don’t miss out, and reach out to instructors directly if you have questions about enrollment!
~Sai