Education & Classes in Ocala

The University of Florida Alumni Association helps Gator fans stay in the know on university happenings and make new connections in the Gator nation. Association members can commingle at special on- or off-campus events, such as the Gator Nation tailgate before each home football game or meet up at events organized by their local chapter of the Gator Club. Membership also nets them a slew of other benefits, including discounts from both local and non-local merchants.

University Air Center dispatches its gravity-defying fleet on charter, rental, and training flights from its airborne offices located at Gainesville Regional Airport. A shiny, new Eclipse EA-500 cools its jets in the hangar bay, waiting to take its business-class passengers to their destinations at more than 400 mph, speeds once only achieved by cheetahs fired out of cannons. Trainees climb into the center's Redbird FMX simulator for ground-based training, or ride in a Cessna 172 for an actual flying experience. The aviators also tackle plane maintenance and avionics repairs as customers watch the twin big screens in the lounge or look up pilots' preferred knock-knock jokes on the complimentary computers.

Years ago, Rebecca Barborak went to a BYOB painting class and found that it combined her loves for art and red wine. She decided to start her own art school, and now brushes hush softly against canvas as students of all skill levels bring forth flowers, animals, and landscapes in painting classes in both BYOB and child-friendly varieties. Beneath the paintings that festoon the walls and cover the dozens of mysterious safes, private parties can reveal the secrets of mixing lip balm or lotion.

Tobin Wagstaff has traveled quite an interesting path: he founded a nonprofit music school, and, in a turn of events profiled on ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, hobnobbed with rock royalty Kiss. All the while, Studio Percussion has been teaching pupils to tickle the ivories, strum the guitar, drum up a storm, and sing their favorite tunes, whether they’re jazz ballads or traditional Klingon folk songs. The instructors—all of whom remain active in the industry—help to whisk their pupils into the limelight during performances at UF sporting events, city music festivals, homecoming parades, and even family jam nights, during which participants take turns reciting their ancestral lineage to music.

After years of developing their own drink-slinging skills as professional bartenders and club owners, 123 Bartending's founders, led by Bryan Caracioli, decided to pass on their knowledge through intensive bartending courses and a proprietary student handbook. The school stands adjacent to a fully functional brewpub, where professional barkeeps coach students to juggle their tools, glassware, and requests for Billy Joel songs behind a granite bar, lowly lit from miniature chandeliers and surrounded by rustic, red-toned interiors. Curriculum involves both hands-on practice and theory, spanning the history behind drinks' monikers, as well as the chemistry of traditional cocktails and modern party shots. 50-inch flat-screen TVs and a 100-inch projector dominate walls with video demonstrations and scotch distillers' home movies. A roster of bars, lounges, and clubs—all owned by or partnered with 123 Bartending's adept captains—provide job placement for the school's alumni.