Andree Malenoir has just celebrated her 72nd birthday. Andree has also just celebrated another milestone: On her lifelong learning journey, she has studied and completed over 50 courses with Centre of Excellence. Moreover, she has achieved distinctions in all these courses in just one year!
Andree has always had a lust for learning and has an extensive education history. However, like many, Andree admits she didn’t always do so well at school because she was a bit of a daydreamer. Speaking to Centre of Excellence, Andree said, “I have achieved far more after leaving school as I daydreamed a lot when I was there”, adding that she made up for lost time after she left through personal study and evening classes.
Andree initially trained as a pharmacy technician and went on to run her own psychotherapy and hypnoanalyst business from five different clinics, including one on Harley Street. She occasionally worked with the Incest Crisis Line. In her retirement, Andree was seeking a new challenge, as well as the opportunity to refresh her knowledge and learn new things, and was drawn to CoE for lifelong learning due to the variety of courses that “no one else seemed to offer”.
Now Andree has started her learning journey with Centre of Excellence, it seems she can’t stop! At the time of writing, Andree has studied a whopping 56 courses with 25 more in her Learning Centre, just waiting to expand this super learner’s horizons! Andree told Centre of Excellence, “The lifelong learning journey has been very rewarding — it is addictive to some extent!”
Just take a look at the list of courses Andree has already completed:
- How to Be a Super Learner
- Improve Your Memory
- Speed Reading
- ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness
- Archaeology
- Professional Decluttering
- Self-Publishing
- Poetry Writing
- Anxiety Management
- Psychology
- Victorian Age
- Law of Attraction
- Ancient Greece
- Transactional Analysis
- Crystal Healing
- Holistic Health Practitioner
- Chakra and Aura Healing
- Diet and Nutritional Advisor
- Greek Mythology
- Christianity Through the Ages
- Latin
- Mindfulness
- Meditation
- NLP Foundation Skills
- Living Your Best Life
- Ho'oponopono
- Philosophy
- Egyptology
- French
- First Aid
- Psychoanalysis
- King Arthur
- Hypnotherapy Practitioner
- Egyptian Hieroglyphs
- British Monarchy
- Feline Behaviour and Psychology
- Feline Anxiety
- Feline First Aid
- Reflexology
- Conspiracy Theories
- Roman Empire
- CBT
- Hypnotherapy Masters
- Maya and Aztec History
- Pharmacology
- Ancient Egyptian Magic
- Naturopathy
- Dealing with Depression
- Genealogy
- Egyptian Shamanism
- Biology
- Knights Templar
- Anatomy and Physiology
- Journal Therapy
- Dream Analysis & Therapy
- Geography
Andree’s course completion rate is incredible — so we had to ask for her secret to successful studying! Sharing her motivations and tactics, Andree said, “Usually, I set aside a couple of hours in the morning and my aim is to do one module a day.” Sometimes, she tackles more than one module every day so that she sticks to her goal while still enjoying days off from learning without falling behind. After all, we all need a mental rest! Andree also utilises her speed reading skills to help propel her lifelong learning forward and works from her iPad so she can study wherever she feels comfortable.
In fact, when Andree was recently taken into hospital with an unexpected heart attack in November, she was able to do some studying with the CoE app (available for iOS and Android) and “idiot-proof website”. She said, “I’m glad I did because it can be very boring doing nothing!”
So, what’s Andree’s favourite of the 56 courses she’s studied? Andree said, “I have many favourite courses; I loved the Egyptian history courses, as well as Law of Attraction.”
And how does she go about selecting subjects to study? Andree explained, “I love learning, so each course I choose is not random. It’s either a refresh of past knowledge or on a subject that I’m really interested in. I only take courses that I’m really interested in."
Andree herself says the course subjects are a “balanced mix” between courses that examine a number of different themes on what it means to be human; from our history to the way our mind functions, how we connect with the universe as a whole, and how we work, as well as our creative instinct and passions. Indeed, creativity is an important part of Andree’s lifelong learning journey.
Perhaps Andree’s creative talents went underappreciated at school — she wrote poetry from a young age — but not anymore! Her prolific poetry writing — she has written over 1000 poems — has won awards through various online poetry publishers. Andree also wrote a poem as part of her entry to the 2021 CoE Awards, in which she received the Highly Commended award in the Inspiration category.
Here is her poem:
In the future, she’d love to self-publish her own poetry anthology. Andree, whose father was an artist and mother was also a poet, said, “I didn’t find out the extent of my mother’s poetry until she’d passed on and even though we hardly ever talked about it, our work is quite often similar.”
Andree’s work tackles all aspects of life, some she says come with a trigger warning. She’s written love poetry, humorous poetry and even on the subjects of crime, child abuse, and domestic abuse and says, “I know they are hard-hitting but I feel it’s important not to ban subjects just because they are difficult.” Andree’s latest poem is titled Catfish and is based on the people who are conned out of money believing that they’ve found love online. Andree wrote over 40 poems on the subject of lockdown and enjoys seeing all the positivity online in the CoE community.
When she’s not studying or writing poetry or reading up on her interests such as the Titanic and Jack the Ripper (she grew up just down the street from the police station from which Jack the Ripper was investigated during his reign of terror), Andree can usually be found listening to Cliff Richard or dancing on her own at her local disco. She said, “We have a local club that has tribute acts and dances. Apparently, I’m known as ‘the dancer’ and I get free drinks occasionally! I think it’s meant in a complementary way…but who knows!”
In conclusion, Andree shared a message of motivation with her fellow CoE students, saying, “Believe in yourself and realise that what sometimes feels like failure is, in fact, a lesson that will help you to achieve your goal. Don’t give up! I could probably come up with some others as there are so many motivational ideas nowadays…but my brain needs a rest now!” With all that lifelong learning to do, we can hardly blame Andree! What an inspiration.
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