Education & Classes in Chula Vista

While the average person spends thousands of hours stuck in traffic during a lifetime, the instructors at Learn To Fly San Diego prefer to rack up that time in the sky. Each member of the certified flight team keeps track of their time off the ground, with numbers ranging between 1,500 and 36,000 hours. As the propellers turn on Cessna and Piper planes, the pilots lead passengers on training flights and sightseeing tours. Students can also work with Learn To Fly San Diego to train for certification in occupations such as commercial pilot, certified flight instructor, and chauffeur for superheroes that can't really fly.

Pottery holds a unique place in human history: from clay bowls to sterling platters, housewares are both practical and artistic, at once a means of sustenance and a medium of expression. The latter is especially clear at A Colorful Universe, a vibrant workspace that immerses visitors in a cosmos of creativity, where they're free to transform pottery items, clay, and glass into personalized pieces of art. Along with regular classes, camps, and parties, special events enhance the experience of creating with activities suited for couples on a date or college students taking a night off from studying the dean's weaknesses. No matter the event, the studio's friendly staff is always available to demonstrate new techniques and help finish the pieces in the kiln.

Norma Brinker could be called a natural. Starting at a very young age, she honed her skills painting for the fun of it, eventually earning a college degree doing what she loves best. Today, she brings a wealth of experience and a bag of ideas to her studio, Noric Art & Wellness, where she inspires amateur artists with her passion for painting. During Friday night's BYOB classes, florid brush strokes alternate with delicate sips while Norma instructs students on painting pre-made portraits of hearts, trees, and scenic blank canvases. When not teaching art classes, Norma puts her skills as a licensed massage therapist to work by doling out massages, cupping treatments, and reflexology.

As proprietor of Sew Inspired, Laura spreads her love for clothing design and assembly through creative sewing programs for children, teenagers, and adults. She starts kids out at the foundational level, encouraging them in the creation of simple projects such as crafting felt flowers or stitching smiley faces onto moms' best business suits. Teenage sewers take their learning into their own hands with self-directed sessions while tackling the more advanced concepts of sketching, patternmaking, and draping. Adults may opt to work on personal projects during unstructured open-sew studio times or hone their skills in three-week classes, during which they acquaint themselves with the sewing machine and set to work crafting A-line skirts.

Bonnie Stromer, a registered art therapist, opened Xpressive Arts Center to make art programs available for everyone in the community, animating her belief that the arts are an important form of communication. Inside the historic stone building, instructors lead an array of classes in printmaking, beadwork, and painting. Art-therapy sessions are led by a registered art therapist specializing in treating children who have behavioral problems and adults who suffer from depression; the art therapist palliates these afflictions by stoking the flames of each individual’s artistic expressivity. During the popular BYOB painting sessions, groups of painters bond and learn new techniques over wine, beer, or basically any kind of matter that starts with the letter b. A variety of parent-and-child classes, such as Mommy and Me sessions and family craft nights, helps strengthen the bond of caregivers and tots through artistic expression and paste.

Featured on Fox 5 and CBS 8, PaintNVineyard's painting classes give students of all skill levels the chance to learn how to paint under the direction of a professional artist in a state-of-the-art, fixed-location studio. Each class focuses on a specific subject that everyone in the class re-creates, such as a Tuscany hillside, a view of outer space, or an implausibility of gnus. The staff equips each workstation with acrylic paints, a tabletop easel and canvas, paintbrushes, and any other needed materials. During birthday parties and group outings, the 40-person studio whispers with the sound of brushstrokes and hushed debates about whether Monet knew he was inventing impressionism or was just nearsighted.