Students get cooking in one of the dozens of classes offered in the Enrichment Program.
For 20 years, the Enrichment Program at DU’s University College has been serving up a smorgasbord of classes for the community that celebrates lifelong learning and showcases the best of DU—from the first-class facilities to the expert faculty and their cutting-edge research.
With more than 50 multi-week classes and one-time lectures, this fall’s offerings continue the thought-provoking and accessible programming that former DU Chancellor Dan Ritchie, former Dean of University College, Jim Davis and others had in mind two decades ago when they launched the program as a series of free lectures.
The series was so popular that Davis decided to turn it into a full-fledged program for adult learners—and the Enrichment Program was born.
“The program has always been a bridge to the community,” says Lynn Wells, the program’s director. “People know DU is here, in the middle of the city, but they don’t really know all the great things that are happening on this campus.”
Each term, Wells and her team start from scratch to create an ambitious curriculum that offers something for everyone. Classes, which are taught by faculty and industry experts, come from modified DU classes but also from current events, milestones, anniversaries of historic events—basically, Wells says, “what’s on people’s minds.”
This fall, for example, they’re offering everything from a class on the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and “Putin and His Wars” to “The Art of Paella” and “Finding Your Fun: How Play Can Save Your Life and More.” Because they plan the curriculum six months in advance, they have to be quite forward-thinking.
That was never more apparent than during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they had to pivot their entire schedule online practically overnight—and demand skyrocketed. They held a series of daily lectures in the summer of 2020 that each drew 300+ people, not only from Denver but from around the country and the world.
The program has returned to in-person classes, but about half of its curriculum is still online. They have added the R1 Lecture Series to highlight faculty research and morphed the popular daily COVID lectures into a free series called Feed Your Curiosity, which gives a taste of what the Enrichment Program has to offer: learning for anyone, anywhere, and a fun way to keep up with what’s happening at DU and around the world.
Learn more about the Enrichment Program and explore its catalog at https://universitycollege.du.edu/enrichment
