Update on SL

Hey guys!

My service learning is going pretty well, though it's not exactly what I expected. I truly enjoy being one of the computer literacy coordinators and love working with the people I help regularly. Going into this service learning project I kind of had assumed what I was going to expect: I thought that I would be working with middle-aged African Americans who are wanting to learn how to use a computer for leisure purposes and to have that back them up professionally (The reason I assumed African Americans is because of the New Orleans population and I viewed data that included drop out rates and what not.

This, by far, is not the turn out. Thus far I have 4 white students (3 of which are over the age of 70 and 1 of which is in between 60-70 years old), 3 African Americans (1 of which is in his 50s and two of which are above 65 years of age) and one Latina who is in her late 30s. Each of these individuals have their own specific reasons as to why they are taking computer literacy courses. Some are in the class to gain more knowledge on the use of internet, some are wanting to learn everything from using a mouse to navigating the internet, and others (like two of my older white ladies) use this time to interact with others, well because they don't have much to do. (They seem to not necessarily have a keen interest on ACTUALLY using a computer-- they enjoy talking to me! Haha!)

It's crazy that I assumed that I would be interacting with people who have had little to no educational background, and again, that isn't the case. 7 of the 8 students have college degrees, some including master's degrees.

I am actually really excited to continue working with them and learning why, in fact, they're participating in the classes (besides learning to use a computer). It seems to me that many of them are here to socialize with others who might have had the same learning experiences as them when younger. I don't know... I guess we'll see what happens! There's always something new at Incarnate Word Community Center!

Until next time,

J.C.

PS - This is my update for last week. I won't be doing SL this week since I'll be going out of town.

Peace.