Car maintenance, circus juggling, and ice cream making — they’re among classes offered at Princeton over winter break

Alison Lee is a computer science major at Princeton, but one afternoon this month, she learned about something just as cool. Downright cold, even: how to make ice cream.

Donning a Princeton sweatshirt, the Basking Ridge, N.J., junior vigorously shook a plastic bag of ice that contained another plastic bag with a mixture of heavy cream, whole milk, sugar, and vanilla extract — a method meant to lead to vanilla ice cream. Fellow student and English major Bethany Villaruz had just finished a batch of berry and Dulce de Leche and was heading to her room to put it in the freezer.

“I’m not really sure how it’s going to turn out,” confessed the junior from Fort Wayne, Ind. “But I think no matter what, my best friend who is a college-age boy will eat it anyway.”

It’s not often you’d hear students at an Ivy League university so nonchalantly talk about their class performance — or lack of it.

But that’s exactly the kind of fun, low-pressure learning environment Princeton aimed to nurture when it began two years ago its “Wintersession” — Princeton writes it as one word. For two weeks in January, before the spring semester starts, the school offers more than 500 noncredit, free, mostly one-off sessions, conceived of and taught by professors, staff members, and graduate and undergraduate students, all who are also eligible to take classes.

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There are classes on circus arts, how to make cards, and “beat your grandmother at Scrabble.” Is growing up tough? Try “Adulting 101.” For those desiring something more cerebral, there’s a class on 19th-century whaling and “To Better the World: Why Moral Clarity Matters.”

And for the more practical? “How to write emails that sound human” and “Basic Car Maintenance.”

“It’s time for learning for the sake of learning, no pressure, no competition,” said Judy Jarvis, executive director of the office of campus engagement. “You can be bad at something and still enjoy it. That’s something Princeton students don’t usually get to revel in.”

Several other local universities contacted, including Haverford and the University of Pennsylvania, do not have such a program. The private Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, which Jarvis attended, offers J-Term, which has a similar concept.

» READ MORE: J-Term courses on dogs, card tricks, murals, and more give students a break from studying, tests, stress

An advisory committee reviews session proposals ensuring safety and practicality, Jarvis said, and the vast majority get approved.

Participation in Wintersession, which concludes Sunday, is optional. This year, more than 4,400 students, staff, and faculty registered, including nearly 2,011 undergraduates — more than one-third of the student body.

Jarvis declined to release the budget but noted that Princeton pays external instructors and funds class supplies and trips — there were nearly 50 this year.

Hands-on sessions are the most popular, she said.

“People want to learn coding. They want to learn knitting. They want to learn woodworking,” she said. “Cooking is huge.”

The first year, president Christopher L. Eisgruber, a constitutional law scholar, taught “How To Fry an Egg: Simple Cooking for Fun, Friends and Yourself” from his home kitchen.

This year marked the first Wintersession where more than 90% of classes were held in person. In January 2021, with no vaccines for COVID-19 yet, classes were online. Last year, omicron hit and some classes remained virtual.

Learning how to make ice cream definitely works better in person.

“We wanted to find a cheap way to do it without an ice cream machine,” said Amin Samadi, 26, a third-year graduate student in chemical engineering who co-taught the class. “So we found the plastic bag method. That’s the churning part of the process to get it light and fluffy and ice cream consistency.”

Politics and international affairs professor James Raymond Vreeland taught a class on dog-training with the help of his mostly Doberman canine, Princess Diana.

“She’ll show us what she knows, and we’ll apply our class lessons to advance her learning right before our very eyes!” the class description on Princeton’s website promised.

Longtime Princeton mechanic Steve Lucash showed students how to take a tire off, check the oil, and jump-start the battery.

“Basically, I’ll show you what’s going on underneath the hood,” said the bearded fellow in a navy blue jumpsuit who turned the university garage into a classroom.

Sophia Koval, 24, a graduate student in molecular biology from Maryland, was among the students who crowded around the vehicle and intently watched.

“I got a car when I came to graduate school, and I want to learn how to maintain it,” she said.

Some classes are taught by outside instructors. The Trenton Circus Squad taught students how to balance spinning plates on poles, perform acrobatics, and clown around.

“It’s really nice to just be on campus in a non-stressful environment,” said Marko Petrovic, a junior public policy and international affairs major from Atlanta.

Nora Graves,18, a freshman computer science major from Wayne, tried to balance on stilts, while doing tricks with a hula hoop. Nearby, Natalie Oh, a freshman from New York City, aptly kept a few balls in the air.

Of all the circus acts, she said, “juggling seemed the most approachable.”

The day before, Oh had gone on a ski trip as part of another Wintersession event. She also took a first-aid class and another on growing flowers and vegetables. She said the program has given her opportunities she wouldn’t otherwise have.

“I’m first-generation, low-income,” she said. “Princeton paid for this.”

Lee began enrolling in Wintersession classes freshman year. She took what she thinks was a record number: nearly 30. A favorite was learning to play the ukelele.

Last year she taught a class on how to eat with chopsticks. This year, she taught a painting class and was leading a trip to Chinatown in New York City this weekend.

“I’m going to show people where to go eat dim sum,” she said.