April 2025

South Coast & York County Senior Colleges present:

The Goodness Paradox with Paul Doherty and Steve Piker (Zoom)

Wednesdays  April 23 2023  -  May 28, 2023  1-2:30

Many of us might remember the title of a popular book based on an age-old question: Why do bad things happen to good people? An equally important question might be, Why are bad things done by good people? It’s a puzzling question that has been tackled by evolutionary science and psychology as mapped out in Richard Wrangham’s book The Goodness Paradox (suggested but not required), as well as by nearly every religious tradition, resulting in a number of interesting viewpoints. We will explore some of those viewpoints, and perhaps in doing so, we might gain some insight into this age-old problem, and perhaps in the process, some idea as to how we can live out this paradox in favor of the nice over the nasty in our own lives and times!

Steve Piker is an anthropologist who has done fieldwork in Thailand and the US. He has spent 44 years at Swarthmore College and has offered many courses at four of Maine's senior colleges. His career-long interests are human evolution and religion. 

Paul Doherty is an armchair theologian with experience in music, broadcasting, and ministry. He has also been teaching for several years at two Maine senior colleges, including South Coast.

Six-week class for $27

This class is a collaboration between two senior colleges. Click on one of the links below to receive your class Zoom link!

South Coast Senior College

or

York County Senior College

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Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Fresco (detail)

Lewiston Auburn Senior College

presents

Cajun, Creole and Soul Food

with Larry Canepa

Apr 29th, 2025 from 1:00 - 3:00 pm

Free In-person and Zoom Class

A vastly over-simplified way to describe the two cuisines is to deem Creole cuisine "city food" and Cajun cuisine "country food." While many of the ingredients in Cajun and Creole dishes are similar, the real difference between the two styles is the people behind these famous cuisines. Cajun and Creole are two distinct cultures, and while over the years they continue to blend, there is still a vast distinction. When it comes to cooking dishes packed full of spices and flavor, there are no two better styles of cooking than Cajun and Creole. Oftentimes, these two types of food get mixed up due to their similar origins and flavors. But they are actually both quite unique. So to ensure you know what you’re getting when you order a new dish, let’s explore a few key differences between Cajun and Creole food. As a bonus, we’ll explore the roots and traditions of soul food, too.

Chef Larry P. Canepa is a Certified Culinary Educator with over 50 years of experience, including management and operation of free-standing restaurants, hotels, and resorts. For over 30 years, Chef Larry Canepa has operated Dinner at Eight, specializing in community and private cooking classes, food and beverage demonstrations, and Food Studies seminars. Chef Canepa brings a passion for food and beverage through his ‘food-tainment’ lectures, demonstrations, and engaging presentations and provides comprehensive, engaging, and culinary education workshops and cooking demonstrations at public libraries, universities, workshops, local, county, state, and national venues and farmers' markets throughout the United States.

This hybrid class is being held in the Auburn Public Library

ZOOM participants must register to receive their Zoom link on the morning of the class.

Free Class!

Register here for the Cajun, Creole, and Soul Food class.

Lewiston Auburn Senior College

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Sunrise Senior College

present

Courage: The Heart of Leadership

with Dr. Annabel Beerel

May 8th to 15th, from 4:00 - 5:30 pm

In-person and Zoom Class

“The secret to happiness is freedom and the secret to freedom is a brave heart.” So said the great Pericles when honoring some of the dead during the Peloponnesian wars.

With the lack of leadership that seems endemic in the world today, it is more important than ever to understand the critical elements of effective leadership. Why not join Dr. Annabel Beerel as she discusses her journey and her personal hunt for courage and how, instead of finding courage, she found rampant corruption. She will discuss the information gathered and the background research that underpins her book on courage and leadership. Dr. Beerel will talk about the process of doing this research - what went into the surveys she created and what she learned in the interviews she held with twenty CEOs and senior executives. She will also discuss her interviews with independent journalists who have written about the current state we are in and how that helped form her ideas.  

In writing her book, Dr. Beerel says that Courage lies at the heart of leadership. Leaders need courage to make wise decisions, not self-interested ones. They need to be able to set aside their egos, to feel vulnerable, to face challenges, yet remain principled and hold the course. This book presents many suggestions on how to make a real difference in organizations, and explains how one can develop the courage to be an effective leader, step by step. Courage, we learn, is the foundation of happiness yet sadly, she found, it is greatly lacking in our rat-race, materialistic world. What she discusses applies to our governments as well as the leaders of the businesses and non-profits we depend on as we live our daily lives.

She will tell us about the hallmark of courageous action and how, although we have lost our sense of virtue and principles, we can find them again and cultivate them afresh to help us realize the happiness we all long for. 

Dr. Annabel Beerel is a Leadership and Change Management Executive. Annabel has worked with multinationals, educational, and non-profit organizations. She has been a Corporate Financier and Investment Banker in the City of London, where she was actively engaged in business analysis, fundraising, merger and acquisitions, and strategic planning. She founded and ran a highly successful international business in Artificial Intelligence. Annabel has held a Chair in Ethics and was an Interim Dean at Wellesley College in MA. In 2009, Annabel was the founder and President & CEO of the New England Women’s Leadership Institute, an organization that helps women advance in their careers and advises on organizational leadership capacity building.

Annabel holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Religion and Ethics, a Masters Degree in Creative Writing, a Masters Degree in Transformational Psychology, a Masters Degree in Theology, and has pursued Advanced Leadership Training at the J.F. Kennedy School of Management at Harvard University. Annabel holds an MBA with a focus on Corporate Finance and Strategic Management. She is also a qualified accountant, a certified Transpersonal leadership coach, a certified meditation instructor, and a certified spiritual counselor and grief counselor.

Two-week class - $15

This hybrid class is being held in-person at the University of Maine at Machias and on online through Zoom.

Register here for Courage: The Heart of Leadership

Recommended Reading: 

Book Title:    Courage: The Heart Of Leadership

Author:       By Annabel Beerel

ISBN::        ISBN 10 - 103260560X

Sunrise Senior College

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Depiction of Pericles at the NKUA

MSCN Spring Classes 2025

Tips for taking classes at a sister senior college:

• Be ready to provide proof of your senior college membership when registering at another senior college.

If you register for a class, write down:

• The name of the senior college.
• The title and dates of the class you are taking.
• The contact information (phone and email) for the senior college.
• Please remember that senior colleges offer classes to their members first! They will then open up available seats to the members of sister colleges.

Spring 2025 Classes

(265 offerings)

179 in-person classes

56 Zoom classes

30 hybrid (in-person+Zoom)

Many classes have closed registration, but if you look carefully, you can still find openings for upcoming classes

Acadia SC 

Spring 2025 Classes

18 Classes: 15 In-Person, 1 Zoom, 2 Hybrid

Augusta SC 

Spring 2025 Classes

25 Classes: 18 in-person, 3 Zoom, 4 Hybrid

​

Belfast SC

Spring 2025 Classes

Spring classes begin on March 24 (most are 6 weeks long). 

21 Classes: 19 in-person, 2 Zoom​

Bridgton SC

Spring 2025 Classes

7 in-person classes 

Coastal SC 

Spring 2025 Classes 

13 Classes: 5 in-person, 6 Zoom, 2 Hybrid

Registration Closed

Gold LEAF Institute 

Spring - Summer 2025 Classes

15 Classes: 12 in-person, 3 Zoom

Lewiston-Auburn SC 

Spring 2025 Classes

15 Classes: 4 in-person, 2 Zoom, 9 Hybrid

​

Midcoast SC 

Spring 2025 Classes

Spring Term 1 - Classes begin February 3

15 Classes: 12 in-person and 3 Zoom.

Spring term 2 - Classes begin April 7

8 Classes: 6 in-person, 1 Zoom, 1 Hybrid

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute 

Spring 2025 Classes

45 classes plus 17 workshops:

30 in-person classes, 10 in-person workshops

13 Zoom classes, 7 Zoom workshops

2 Hybrid classes.​​

​

Penobscot Valley SC 

Spring 2025 Classes

11 in-person classes 

​

Seniors Achieving Greater Education (SAGE) 

Spring 2025 Classes

8 Classes: 5 in-person, 3 Zoom

​

South Coast SC

Spring 2025 Classes

10 Classes: 3 in-person, 7 Zoom

​

St. John Valley SC

Spring 2025 Classes​

12 in-person classes 

​

Sunrise SC 

Spring 2025 Classes

11 Classes: 1 in-person, 10 Hybrid (Zoom)

Registration is open 

​

Western Mountains SC

Spring 2025 Classes

5 in-person classes.

​

York County Senior College 

Spring 2025 Classes

9 Classes: 4 in-person, 5 Zoom

​

Please visit the MSCN Course Catalog webpage for any updates to this list of spring classes from the network.

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Flower Beds in Holland

by Vincent van Gogh

Network Newsletters

Acadia Senior College

April 2025

Umaine at Augusta Senior College

Winter 2025

Belfast SC

February 2025

Coastal SC

February 2025

Midcoast SC

Spring 2025

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

April 2025

Penobscot Valley SC

January 2025



Tell me Everything

by Elizabeth Strout

Published by Random House 2024 $31.65

Available in Large print, Thorndike Press Maine $41.95

Reviewed by Pat Davidson Reef

Tell me Everything

by Elizabeth Strout

This haunting novel by Pulitzer prize-winning Maine author, Elizabeth Strout is a sensitive exploration into human relations and the dignity of love in its many forms.

It reveals that the average person living in Crosby, Maine, has their own hidden story dealing with love or the struggle to be respected and recognized. Many past secrets are buried in memories that are not apparent on the surface. However, these unwritten memories are integral to the fabric of their lives, affecting their community relationships and later lives.

Key characters in the story are Bob Burgess, a semi-retired 65-year-old lawyer, and Margaret, his wife, a minister married to God and her congregation. Lucy Barton, a new arrival in town, and Olive Kitteridge, a 90-year-old matriarch, are knowledgable about the history of the whole community.

As the story opens, Olive wants to meet Lucy Barton, a writer who has just moved back to Crosby from New York. Bob Burgess is a friend who knows everyone in the community. So Olive asks Bob to arrange a visit with Lucy, in the hope that Lucy will write a story about a secret in Olive’s family. 

The author has written about these characters before in different books, but you do not have to read the earlier books to understand and enjoy the current story.

Bob and Lucy take long walks in the Maine countryside and become good friends. On one of their walks, they walk down a back road, and the topic of a cold criminal case comes up as they see the house at the end of the road, which reminds them of the case. It is the house of Mathew Beach, an elderly man who once lived with his mother, Gloria Beach, in that house. Gloria had disappeared years ago. They talk about the case but without serious interest. However, the body of Gloria Beach is found near a quarry in Saco, Maine, soon after their walk. Mathew, Gloria’s son, is accused of the murder during the investigation. 

Even though the case has been cold for years, Bob gets a call from Olive Kitterridge to take the case because she thinks Mathew killed his mother. Bob says no, he really is not interested.

Then Bob gets a call from Diana Beach, Mathew’s sister, who flew in from out of state and went to elementary school with Bob many years ago. She asks Bob to take her brother’s case. Bob agrees.

It takes quite a while to find out who killed Gloria and why. But it is a great mystery. The side stories describe average small-town people who could be your neighbors with their private love experiences, losses, and struggles. This book is so well written that you get to know everyone in the story and they become your friends. You don’t want the story to end.

However, if you want to find out who killed Gloria Beach, you will have to read the story. I highly recommend this book and the writings of Elizabeth Strout. She writes with intimate description and clarity of thought.

This book comes in the large print version from the Thorndike Press of Maine. They publish large print books, which are excellent. Ask your local librarian. I did and enjoyed this book very much.