Sun City Center: Education
There is ample opportunity for Sun City Center residents to expand their minds, both in and out of a classroom environment.
The University of South Florida in Tampa (a metropolitan research university) has branches in St. Petersburg, Sarasota-Manatee and Lakeland. The Carnegie-designated doctoral/research university offers 45 undergraduate and degree programs and programs for the mature population.
The Senior Academy, offered at the Sarasota-Manatee branch, provides lifetime learning in a university setting. The program is designed to promote a continuous peer teaching/learning experience. It seeks to expand horizons in a stimulating academic environment through intellectual and social interaction and a sharing of group intelligence. Members of the Senior Academy are given a chance to “return to their college days” and to select fields of study. The program also gives seniors the chance to become “professors” and lead a study group.
Senior Scholars - a similar program - began in 2002 at the Lakeland Branch, and offers senior adults (50 and older) with a program that enhances their knowledge of various subjects, including an introduction to computers, intermediate computers, beginning German, music appreciation and Health and Wellness. Plans are underway to increase the course offerings. Classes for seniors are also readily available through Hillsborough Community College in the Sun City Center area.
Residents of Sun City Center also challenge themselves in a learning environment through the many clubs and organizations that exist in and near the community. Participants can brush up on their drawing and painting skills, study birds, learn to manage their investments, take a look back in time through the Historical Society or study literature and poetry.
Periodicals and reference materials are abundantly available to Sun City Center residents through the Hillsborough County Library System. The system has 25 branches and headquarter libraries in Tampa, Plant City and Temple Terrace. There are more than 14,000 items in the Sun City Center Community Association library collection - including books, audiotapes, videos, paperbacks, the second largest collection of large print books in the county, and online access to county library materials.
If something else is needed, residents have easy access to the Ruskin Branch of the Hillsborough County Library. This facility contains more than 55,000 volumes and has online access to other county library materials.
Kings Point has a private library for its residents (funded by the Condominium Association) that includes a host of hard cover and paperback books, a large collection of large print books, magazines and puzzles.
Residents can also keep abreast of what’s happening in their community, the state, country and around the world through numerous local newspapers. The News of Sun City Center, SCC Observer, The Sun, The Tampa Tribune and St. Petersburg Times are available at the libraries, through various newsstands, and home delivery.
 |
 |
|---|---|
 |
|
