A new year is here and with it the hopes, dreams – and challenges – that come with New Year’s resolutions. With more than 1,000 classes for life or career goals, SBCC School of Extended Learning offers structure and encouragement to help students keep their resolutions.

Spring classes begin Jan. 13, with new tuition-free and fee-based options beginning each week through May 9.

“When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, you don’t have to go it alone,” said Melissa Moreno, vice president, SBCC School of Extended Learning. “We hope everyone in our community will look to Extended Learning as a partner in their success.”

The 1,063 spring classes, including some 20 new offerings, bring retirees, working professionals and others together to reach their potential in the new year.

Following are classes to boost the top 10 New Year’s resolutions:

1. Get in shape

» Health and Wellness: For Older Adults HEAL NC011 (tuition-free): Focus on the importance of exercise and nutrition in maintaining independence, safety and well being.

» Your Nutrition and the Environment HEAL NC025 (tuition-free): Learn how earth friendly foods can improve physical and emotional health, and about environmentally sustainable diets.

» (New) Naturopathic Medicine – Science and Nature Working Together HEAL NC096 (tuition-free): Learn how diet, clinical nutrition, lifestyle and state of mind influence genetic expression and cell communication, and which foods provide benefits and which foods to avoid.

» (New) A New Twist on Fitness: Foundation Training ID 23368, $78: With the accent on feeling good, Foundation Training is a simple solution that offers the means to change the way we move and correct the imbalances caused by modern habits.

» World Dance Workout ID 23131, $138: Fun, invigorating, inspiring workout to beautiful music from around the world.

» Strength and Stability for Active Seniors ID 23205, $30-$60: Intended for older adults but appropriate for anyone who wants to increase muscle tone and improve balance and mobility.

2. Eat healthier

» (New) Clean Eating: What to Eat and How to Cook It ID 23166, $56: Take control of your health with each clean bite you eat.

» Fragrant Feast: Indian Vegetarian Menu ID 23201, $79: Master tasty, authentic vegetarian dishes of India.

3. Save more, spend less

» Setting up QuickBooks for Small Business ACTV NC001 (tuition-free): Learn the basics of small-business bookkeeping using QuickBooks, financial reporting, and how to analyze and record financial transactions.

» Create a Retirement Lifestyle with Meaning and Purpose ID 23230, $42: The Baby Boomer generation is living longer during retirement. Explore opportunities to creatively begin your next chapter.

» Staging Your Home to Sell ID 23181, $12: Staged homes sell for up to 50 percent more and three times more quickly than un-staged homes? Learn how to capitalize on your chance to sell.

» Getting Started, Getting Good and Getting Your Fiction Published: For Older Adults CREO NC642 (tuition-free): Learn vital techniques to develop your individual narrative voice as a path to effective, publishable fiction.

4. Learn a new skill or hobby

Four new tuition-free classes in Creative Art for Older Adults for beginners or students with more experience:

» Basic Printmaking: For Older Adults CRAO NC165 (tuition-free): Learn the history of printmaking and skills to create, revise and assess an original print.

» Beginning Drawing, Introduction to the Human Figure CRAO NC 277 (tuition-free): Basic drawing skills are explored through practice and demonstration to make successful drawings.

» Floral Design – Florist Style CRAO NC 713 (tuition-free): Learn the design techniques and applications used by professional florists; for professionals or at-home applications.

» Clay Portraiture CRAO NC853 (tuition-free): Sculpt a portrait in clay with focus on techniques and skills needed to analyze and sculpt facial features, neck and shoulders.

5. Stress less

» Nature and Self-Healing — Beginning: For Older Adults SLFO NC003 (tuition-free): Explore self-discovery and self-healing techniques, nutrition and stress management techniques.

» How Meditation Helps – Mindfulness in Everyday Life: For Older Adults SLFO NC039 (tuition-free): Meditation can help older adult students greet the challenges and joys of aging with greater courage, acceptance and clarity. For beginners and experienced meditators.

» Get Guidance from Your Higher Self ID 23149, $35: Discover how to enter a relaxed state of trance and receive guidance from your inner wisdom team about next steps in life.

6. Read more

» Survey of Literary Classics: For Older Adults CREO NC497 (tuition-free): Take this opportunity with guidance to read, analyze, evaluate and discuss literary classics; place modern experience in a historical context and view historical events with a modern perspective.

» Modern and Classic Short Stories: For Older Adults CREO NC120 (tuition-free): Learn how to enter into a sustained close reading of texts, allowing for a fuller exploration of the art of each work.

7. Advance career and language skills

» Career Skills Institute (tuition-free): Earn a career certificate. The School of Extended Learning Career Skills Institute offers more than 100 short courses selected to provide the training needed to get a job, advance in a job and/or provide skills needed to grow a business.

Choose from these life-changing certificates: Personal Care Attendant, Research Specialist Certificate, Workplace Essentials Certificate, Career Strategist Certificate, Green Gardener and many more. All Career Skills Institute classes are tuition-free.

» Adult High School/GED/Bilingual GED (Tuition-Free): The Adult High School Diploma Program is designed for adults who want to earn a high school diploma or equivalency. This is a first step to higher education, job opportunities or new career path. Individualized and small group instruction, work at your own pace, start at any time; hours flexible, classes are free.

» English as a Second Language (tuition-free): Build English language skills to advance career and education opportunities. All levels welcome, beginner to advanced. Vocational English Certificates also available.

8. Spend quality time with family and friends

Spend quality time with your infants, toddlers and pre-school age children in the acclaimed Parenting Skills and Parent Child Workshop program. Classes include:

» Growing Times I, II and III ECEP NC160, ECEP NC164, ECEP NC165 (tuition-free): Parents and caregivers with children ages 2-3 years meet weekly to learn to develop a safe and stimulating environment with age-appropriate activities for toddlers.

» Parents and Kids in Parks ECEP NC056 (tuition-free): Meet in local parks and learn how to participate with your 2 1/2-to-5-year-old child in age-appropriate activities to enhance children’s development and strengthen parent/child relationships.

» Parent-Child Workshops ECEP NC011: The tuition-free Parent-Child Workshop program is offered in coordination with affordable co-op-like childcare with locations convenient to Goleta, Santa Barbara and Carpinteria.

Looking for an alternative to happy hour or movie binging? Try one of these social dance classes, or take a baking, singing, writing or beginning art class together.

» Ballroom for Life – Get Those Joints Moving ID 23165, $96: Experience different dances, learn the basics, improve fitness, focus, laugh, have fun.

» Dance the Salsa: First Steps ID 23100, $135: Stop watching everyone else have fun on the dance floor. Join in, in this encouraging and fun environment.

9. Get organized

» Time Management PROW NC003 (tuition-free): Explore time management strategies and tools for effectively managing expanding workloads, shifting priorities, and increasing demands.

» Project Management for Non-Project Managers PROW NC010 (tuition-free): For anyone who wants to know how to manage tasks or small projects with a structured approach to ensure success.

» Increasing Productivity PROW NC038 (tuition-free): Explore, dissect and analyze personal productivity factors to develop an individualized plan optimizing effectiveness in one’s professional and personal lives.

10. Live life to its fullest

» Body Mind Wakeup Call ID 23110, 23110, 23112, 23113, $33-$58: Find it harder to get up in the morning? Is your mind a bit fuzzy? This class is geared to awaken you to become more fully engaged in thinking, being and doing.

» Adventures in Self-Esteem: For Older Adults SLFO NC021 (tuition-free): Learn how to increase self-esteem and build more effective communication skills while regaining control and empower you to be in charge of you life.

Extended Learning classes and workshops start every week throughout the semester. Classes for older adults, while designed for those 55 and over, are open to all adult students.

Application and registration are required and can most conveniently be completed in person at the Wake Campus, 300 N. Turnpike Road, or Schott Campus, 310 W. Padre St. Registration also available online at www.sbcc.edu/ExtendedLearning.

— Juliana Minsky for SBCC School of Extended Learning.