Dates August 8-15, 1999

Green River Community's west campus--Hawaii   by Linda Woo, Journal Reporter, South King County Journal, May 5, 1998

Green River Community College instructor Robert Brehm can't generate any interest among his stress management students for holding class in his native Nebraska.

So they're going to Hawaii.

"It can be a very magical experience when you hear the wind on those corn leaves," said Brehm, who also takes students to Greece.

GRCC offers a class on Hawaii's Big Island guaranteed to keep your stress levels in check. That is, if you do your homework.

"It's the west campus of GRCC", laughs Brehm, who also is a private therapist. "It is avacation, but it's also learing to bring vacation to life, so it's not escapisim. The goal is to take little bits of Hawaii."

Brehm, who has been offering the class for five years, said he uses Hawaii as his classroom because, "it's a popular destination where people like to go." Furthermore, a 1985 study by University of New Hampshire Professor, Dr. Murray Straus, found Hawaii and Nebraska tied as states with the least amount of stressors in areas such as infant mortality rates, alcoholism and personal bankruptcy.

Students can take the summer course for five credits but have to pick up the tab for travel and lodging as does Brehm. Class size averages about 14  and students can pay as much as $1200 each for lodging, travel, food, and class.