Education & Classes in Williamstown

Project Basho's experienced instructors cultivate creativity with a number of learning experiences for photogs of all skill levels. Start from pixel one with a three-hour primer course, such as the Digital SLR Tutorial - Basics, which imparts students with a better understanding of aperture and shutter speed to create stronger, more evocative pictures of people or department-store mannequins. Each session maintains a cap of 15 students, enabling participants to master ISO sensitivity, white balance, and focusing amid an intimate class atmosphere.

Edward Younger drew from his master's degree in education and more than 35 years of experience in the bar industry to design AAA International Bartending School's state-approved program. Since 1988, the staff of professional bartenders has helped thousands of students pour with tip-earning panache and mix an exhaustive index of cocktails that Younger updates on a monthly basis.

Philadelphia calls Madame Saito the Queen of Sushi, and it's easy to see why. Armed with formal culinary training from Le Cordon Bleu and the Ritz Escoffier in Paris and experience from apprenticeships under premier Tokyo sushi chefs, she has committed the last 26 years to spreading her love for Japanese culture and contemporary fusion cuisine. Although she leaves time in her schedule to manage Le Champignon de Tokio—her sushi restaurant with French culinary influences—and to conduct an annual sushi-making competition, Madame Saito counts education as one of her highest priorities. She regularly commits her quadrilingual tongue to demystifying the art of sushi during classes for aspiring chefs and casual students alike, teaching them how to hand roll maki and slice fish into perfectly uniform dodecahedrons.

Forgotten until the 1960s, standup paddleboarding resurfaced when Hawaiian long boarders started using paddles to better see students and monitor incoming swells. The sport has spread like wildfire due to its easy learning curve, low-impact, full-body workout, and suitability for most ages and abilities. SurfSUPnj, LLC, has ridden that wave both literally and metaphorically by inducting new riders in private, semiprivate, and telepathic lessons. SurfSUPnj's instructors are certified in water rescue, CPR, and first aid with an AED, and they possess level 2 PaddleFit certification earned through double-elimination paddleboarding games of chicken.

Like the quadruple-digit fire inside The Crefeld Glass Studio's furnace, instructor Josh Cole's enthusiasm for glassworking helps budding artists create things they could not have attempted on their own. Josh keeps his classes at four to eight students so that everyone gets both the full benefit of his master's of fine arts in glass from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and a clear view of classmates as they work the furnace. Regular pop-ins from visiting artists imbue The Crefeld Glass Studio with a collaborative vibe, and an online gallery gives students a place to proudly show off the exquisitely rounded rims of their amber-streaked vases or the short-sightedness of their delicate glass sledgehammers.

At High Performance Driving School, students unlearn everything they ever knew about speed limits. When they strap on a driver’s helmet or zip into a racing suit, they’re preparing to hit speedometer-shattering speeds by prodding the 170 horses saddled under the hoods of the official Volkswagen Jettas of the all-diesel, TDI Cup racing series. The Arrive & Ride experience plops students into the passenger seat to tear across the pavement with a professional driver. Other courses prep students with the safety and instruction necessary to plant backsides in an FIA-homologated race seat, grip the steering wheel, feather the accelerator, and feel the shudder of Pirelli racing tires as they slowly but surely carve runes into the 2.25-mile Thunderbolt track.

The High Performance Driving School staff is led by Ryan Arciero and Dennis McCormack, a pair possessing years of experience both behind the wheel and in the pit on racing teams. Dennis has been a crew chief, Indy Car team owner, and most recently, the program director for the TDI Cup. Ryan has continued his family’s 55-year legacy in motorsports by snatching titles in both lapped and off-road races, including the Score Baja series that snakes along Mexico’s Baja peninsula.