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Oakton's Men's Program

For Oakton Students: Scholarships to attend Men’s Day are available. Interested students are encouraged to contact Bea Cornelissen, Office of College Advancement (Room 1144, Des Plaines campus), 847-635-1812 to apply for a Men’s Day Scholarship.

Rites of Initiation
Malidoma Somé. Learn the path to hope, healing, and reconciliation through the powerful tools of ritual and community. Somé’s voice awakens in our hearts the recognition that each of us is born with a purpose to fulfill, and that we can do so in a deep and abiding relationship with all beings.

How to Be Married and Stay Engaged
Jim Healy. Learn to reflect more deeply and concretely on what it takes to sustain marriage. Jim Healy, founder of the Web site rootedinlove.org, draws on the latest in communication research as well as his own personal successes and failures.

Living the Authentic Life – Not the Lies
George Rounds. Take time to create an authentic life in integrity with your true self. Heal the wounds suffered as you grew into a manhood compromised by the opinions of others. Learn basic skills to be fully present in the life you say you want to have.

Coming Home: Healing Strategies for Iraq/Afghanistan War Veterans
Phil Metres. The “re-entry” process for veterans returning from war is rarely smooth. Some stress disorder and trauma cases are immediately evident, while others become manifest over time. All veterans, however, share a common need to articulate their experiences to empathic listeners—family, friends, and professionals as well.

The Wisdom Within
Alan Levin. Hitting the half-century mark causes many men to reassess the past and identify new directions for the future. Learn how to age with purpose, passion, and a healing spirit through participation in a Wisdom Years Weekend. This session offers an introduction to the weekend’s process of introspection and sharing.

Breaking the Power of Toxic Shame
John Everingham, Steve Jaffe, Alan Levin and Bill Goldberg. Shame becomes toxic when we avoid it, or respond with anger, fear, and emotional shutdown. Shame loses toxicity when we are allowed to feel it, name it, talk about it, and even joke about it. Practice these methods in an intensely personal workshop, with maximum safeguards. (Men Only, Please)

Loving Men, Respecting Women: The Future of Gender Politics
Tim Goldich. Participants will examine how society has respected women less than men, as well as how men have been loved less than women. Taking into account emotional suppression, hard and hazardous labor, battlefields, imprisonment, and other elements, it will be argued that the vast repercussions suffered by women for being less respected are fully matched by the consequences suffered by men for being less loved.

Why Can’t We Just Get Along? Healing Racial Differences
Phillip Beverly and Paul Pendler. What are the underlying variables that prevent people from engaging in sustained dialogue about racial differences? In this session we’ll talk about identifying and avoiding behaviors that prevent understanding.