ME: What is your vision for NWU?

LINDA: My immediate vision is to come up with classes that people can’t find other places. We had suggestions like ‘Why don’t you offer Spanish classes or GED classes or...?", well those are a dime a dozen and you can get those anywhere so I want to give the people (not only in the church but in the community) things that they don’t easily find other places. The Life Skills class for example...I know you can find Life Skills classes other places but probably not with the same bent that we would give. And I want it to be something worth people’s while. I don’t want it to be a waste of time so I want it to contain information that changes their life. That’s why we call it ‘life-changing education.’

ME: You want people to use this and people to grow and see a change week to week, not just ahhh it’ll help you in the future.

LINDA: As odd as it is, the responses I’ve gotten back from people on evaluations of the classes, is the homework. They hate it if they don’t do it but it does change their life if they do the homework.

ME: What are some of the challenges you’ve faced with NWU?

LINDA: Hmm. Last year it was where to put everyone! We had more classes and more people than we could hold in the facility. I think the next thing is what classes to really offer....we have a lot of people who say "Oh, let’s do a class on.....this, let’s do a class on that." So which ones are the most important, which ones do people need? That would probably be my biggest decision. What are people craving or needing right now?

ME: Where do you see NWU going in the future?

LINDA: I would love to be able to get some accreditation going. So that people who are taking college courses where you’re allowed to take electives, that our courses could be certified to be one of those electives. I would love to see that. Probably the first step is in CEUs....Continuing Education Unit. If you work in a business that requires you to get so many CEUs during the year, that some of our classes could account for some of those points.

Northwest U is coming back on Monday, September 14th at 7pm! Featuring 5 classes for the Fall Semester, these Monday night classes will be only held once a year, so be sure to register for them now before you miss out. The classes offered for the Fall Semester are Leadership 1, Leadership 3, Life Skills, Financial Peace, and a brand new class, Parenting 2. And also check back here soon for a feature on Mrs. Weekley herself...