Noncredit Course Offered at North Campus Boosts Self-Esteem

Self-esteem doesn't just happen − you have to discover it. This spring, Pennsylvania College of Technology's North Campus near Wellsboro will offer a two-part course that provides participants with the opportunity to learn the methods and techniques necessary to discover their self-esteem.

"Increase Your Self-Esteem-Level I" will be offered Tuesday and Thursday evenings April 10-19. Participants will learn self-awareness, self-empowerment and how to build high self-esteem. These lessons will be taken to the next level in "Increase Your Self-Esteem-Level II," to be offered Tuesday and Thursday evenings May 7-17. In this session, participants will learn how to accomplish the 10 steps for success.

The instructor for both sessions is John Kaiser. Kaiser recently attended a seminar presented by Jack Canfield in Santa Barbara, Calif. Canfield is a nationally known self-esteem trainer and co-author of the popular "Chicken Soup" series of books. Kaiser also participated in two self-esteem workshops conducted by Canfield and Nathaniel Branden at Omega Conference Center near Rhinebeck, N.Y.

In his book, "The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem," Branden defines self-esteem as: "confidence in our ability to think, confidence in our ability to cope with the basic challenges of life, and confidence in our right to be successful and happy. To trust one's mind and to know that one is worthy of happiness is the essence of self-esteem."

"In this two-part course, participants will learn how to overcome negative thinking," said Debra A. Sanders, program support specialist for Penn College's Technology Transfer Center. "We are constantly bombarded with messages that imply we are not good enough. Friends, relatives, bosses, spouses and the advertising industry tell us on a regular basis that we should be doing something different. We need to take responsibility for ourselves and learn how to change our negative thinking.

"When we are constantly telling ourselves that we can't do things, we tend to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Participants will be able to practice mental exercises designed to reprogram negative self-talk. Affirmations and visualization techniques will be presented to help overcome or change our inner dialogue, our inner critic."

Additional noncredit offerings for spring at the North Campus include classes for basic computer skills, various Microsoft applications, AutoCAD, the American Management Association, secretarial skills, creative thinking, photography and "scrapbooking."

For more information on these and other course offerings, or to enroll, call the North Campus at (570) 724-7703 or the Technology Transfer Center at (570) 327-4775.