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House of Uhuru Course Report - December 2008
Instructors:
Corey Weidenhammer, Theresa Maria Mosquito, Ethan Resnick, and Chang Kim
Beginning Date: 11/11/08
Graduation Date: 12/16/08
This session at Uhuru was a remarkable one. Not only was the class remarkable as a whole, but each individual showed the kind of progress that any organization can only hope to give provide through its programs.
As a class, the group set a CDD record, being the first in CDD's five-year history not to have a single person drop out-- an admirable feat given the huge number of challenges ever-present in these students' lives. Also, I distinctly remember listening to everyone's presentations and thinking that, while some were obviously a little better than others, none of them really stood out to me. It wasn't until I thought back on it afterwards, that I realized that any one of these papers would have easily been chosen to be presented at graduation in any of my prior classes; it was simply the case that everyone's paper was so well-written that it was hard to distinguish them and choose the best one.
In terms of the individuals' progress, I specifically remember Jeffrey and Victoria. Jeffrey came into the class rather intimidated by the computer. He had no experience and found typing particularly hard because, when he tried to press a key, the rest of his hand would instinctively follow and he would end up pressing half of the keyboard. However, one day, when the rest of the center went to a convention, Jeffrey decided to come to class instead and Chang and I were able to give him one-on-one instruction. By the end of that class period, he was typing about 5 words a minute, and his typing only continued to improve as the class went one. Victoria, like Jeffrey, came into the class without much computer knowledge. However, she was at an additional disadvantage: her reading and writing skills were very weak. In spite of this, she worked hard throughout the entire session and was able to finish her five-hundred word paper by dictating it to her roommate. Then she presented it to the class with very minimal assistance-- no small accomplishment.
In addition to all the individual success stories that I witnessed while in the classroom, I know that these students will achieve much more in the future because of the CDD course. With their new-found computer knowledge, students this session had dreams of going to college, becoming drug counselors, or taking up a career in graphic design, all of which require the skills taught in this class. I wish them all the best.
CDD is a fantastic organization and one that I am honored to be part of, and this was an amazing session.
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