EmpowerMind sessions available starting early next month

Walled Lake Community Education is hosting EmpowerMind, a 12-hour interactive workshop that focuses on teaching students how to accelerate learning, improve communication, and raise self-esteem.

The workshop, which will be held on Oct. 13, 20, 27 and Nov. 3 at the Walled Lake Central High School Library, is available to high school and middle school students for $95. Parents may attend with their child at no charge.

Elementary school students can choose from a single two-hour session at $25 apiece, or attending both sessions for $35. Elementary school sessions will be held on Saturday, Oct. 6 at the Central High School Library starting at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., and on Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 13-14 at the Community Education Cafe beginning at 6 p.m.

EmpowerMind was started in 1990 by lakes-area resident Kimberly Kassner.

“It’s affordable for every family,” Kassner said of the workshop. “We have scholarships available, and reductions.”

Kassner, who holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and psychology from Central Michigan University and authored the book, “You’re a Genius and I Can Prove It!,” uses the program to focus on helping students with learning problems, as well as students who are already achieving and hope to improve. The program encourages students to “think outside the rule box” and shows them how to “work with their strengths vs. focusing on their perceived weaknesses.”

“There’s a huge emotional component to learning,” Kassner said. “Not everyone gets it consciously … when they know they are bright, it makes a huge shift in learning.”

The workshops are designed to be interactive by allowing students to play games while learning memory techniques and other skills. Kassner said the workshop includes aspects of vocabulary, multiplication tables, and memorization.

“It’s pretty remarkable because all of the kids are able to do it,” she said. “There’s also an emotional component that is weaved through it.”

Kassner said students are often surprised at the workshops when they learn to memorize things they didn’t think they could.

“It’s not just memory, it’s about having a full understanding of how they learn and having a new learning system so they can learn things faster,” she said.

For more information about the workshop or to register, visit the Walled Lake Community Education website at wlcsd.org/edCenter.cfm, or call 248-956-5000.

For more information about EmpowerMind visit empowermind.com.