Education & Classes in Saginaw

Aquatic Adventures of Michigan is the joint venture of independent dive instructors Kim D. Parker and Tom Rhoad, who, after years of working with other dive shops, yearned for a place where they could stretch their fins, teach scuba their own way, and bellow sea shanties as loudly as they liked. Today, their PADI Five Star IDC facility is fast approaching its 10-year anniversary, and has grown beyond basic PADI training programs to incorporate everything from underwater digital photography to lessons in deep diving, wreck diving, and night diving. The shop's instructors are fully certified in first aid and emergency oxygen use, and provide factory-authorized service to big-name companies such as Poseidon, Genesis Scuba, and Dive Rite.

On top of offering certified instruction in everything from open-water diving to sea-serpent domestication, the crew supplies fellow divers with quality scuba, snorkeling, and swimming equipment. They also plan exotic expeditions to the Caribbean and tropical Pacific for warm-water dives, and divers looking to stick closer to home can inquire about day trips or weekend getaways to locales such as the Great Lakes or Whitefish Point.

Great Lakes Air Ventures combines FAA-approved syllabi with a triad of aircraft and a quadrad of certified flight instructors to give nascent pilots their wings. In addition to their instructional acumen, the high-flying staff members have experience shuttling packages for UPS, serving as a jump pilot for skydiving excursions, and teaching newborn birds to flap their wings. Aerial greenhorns can grasp basic controls and acquire familiarity with aircraft during Great Lakes' sundry training programs.

After forming the San Jose Glass Artist Alliance, area artists took their creative passion one step further with the Art Glass Center of San Jose, a refracted haven where they could share their individual expertise with students. Inside the spacious, brightly lit confines, the artists instruct fledgling glassworkers on how to craft distinct pieces in the form of picture frames, coasters, and sun catchers. Following classes, students are encouraged to stay for open lab time, where they can continue working on projects while wearing their old 7th-grade-science lab coats.

With more than 20 years in business, head coach Lisa Luton-Hodges has seen her share of regional and national equestrian champions. As recently as 2011, she led the Williamston High School equestrian team all the way to a reserve state championship. Luton Training Center is the place where such journeys begin. Riders of all skill levels learn the basics of western, hunt-seat, and saddle-seat techniques amid the splendor of Michigan's rolling hills, or in the 150'x70' indoor arena for when skies are full of rain or the kind of clouds that terrify horses. The facility also offers boarding and training services.

For more than 75 years, Cranbook Academy of Art has enjoyed a reputation as one of the nation's leading independent graduate schools for art and design. Renowned graduates such as designer Florence Knoll, architect Hani Rashid, and fiber artist Nick Cave all honed their craft on the verdant 315-acre campus, where crammed lecture halls are replaced with small studios and students enjoy one-on-one mentorships with the Artists-In-Residence. Designed to inspire creativity as much as possible, the academy supplies each student with his or her own private studio space, and allows artists to design their own program of study without formal boundaries or beret-based dress codes.

The Cranbrook campus is a work of art in itself, owing the design of its original buildings to famed Finnish architect Ellel Saarinen. The academy further inspires its graduate students and the surrounding community with a museum that grew out of the eclectic personal collection of George Booth in 1930, and has grown to focus on the art, craft, design, and architecture of the 20th, 21st, and 22nd centuries.

Paula and Lester Crampton draw on more than a quarter century of equestrian experience as they oversee stables at Times Square Riding Academy where competition-ready horses and reliable learning ponies munch on their hay. The academy’s instructors pair students of all skill levels with suitable horses during lessons on the art of English riding, which focuses on hunter and jumper skills, and culminates in the ability to serve high tea while astride. Indoor and outdoor riding arenas let the equestrian experts squeeze in a lesson no matter the weather, and a heated observation room enables parents to watch their children’s class without hiring a dragon to breathe on their hands in the winter.