Wednesday evenings with the Nelsons

Every Wednesday evening, CMG can count on the attendance of Victoria Nelson (mother) and Regina Nelson (daughter).

Regina, who is in her first year as a full-time HCC student, has been a participant of CMG teen programs for the past two years. She is now a student in our Wednesday evening Advanced A+ class. This summer, Regina was an instructor in our summer Child Computer Introduction and Middle School Pre-A+ programs. Within the next year, she will complete training to be a CMG Adult Program instructor. CMG is proud to be a offer employment to Regina as she achieves her academic goals.

Victoria Nelson (left) and daughter, Regina Nelson.

Her mother, Victoria, occupies herself while Regina is in class. After a day’s work as a Liberty Mutual Customer Services Representative, she studies for technical career advancement during this time period. Currently, she is preparing to take the Cisco Certified Network Administrator (CCNA) exam. Victoria is, also, a member of the Army Reserve.

For the past year Regina, Victoria, and Eugene Nelson (father/husband), have been faithful volunteers in all CMG activities. They have committed to assisting CMG with its 2008 Tech Bowl on October 25, and to the annual Christmas computer giveaway for needy families.

CMG wishes the Nelson family success in achieving all of their technical career goals.

CMG teen program graduates develop pre-A+ course

CMG is completing its first summer pre-A+ program. The intent of this 6-week program was to give an in-depth exposure to computer hardware and system software. If desired, the students can earn their A+ certification at Middleton High School or Tampa Bay Tech during their high school years.

CMG gave the opportunity for curriculum development to two of its younger instructors. Mehgan Fish-Stuhl (HCC student)and Philip Jentsch (USF student) worked for two weeks full-time to devise a challenging, educational sessions for the 11-13 year-olders. Mehgan and Philip had earned IC3 certificates at CMG several years ago and they also currently teach CMG's evening adult basic computer courses.

Course developers - Mehgan Fish-Stuhl and Philip Jentsch.

The students were tested on basic computer knowledge in the first session. Most scores had 10-15% correct answers. The end of program testing has shown the majority of the students scoring 75-95% in this challenging quiz.

Each student was given a completely equipped computer. They had to remove all software from their computer before disassembling the computer. Then each student had to reassemble their computer. After the instructor conducted final review of the reassembly, the student was permitted to take the computer home.

The students will have many opportunities for more computer training in next four years. We look forward to their participation in the CMG IC3 certification program and our annual Tech Bowl.

Greco Middle School Pre-A+ class with instructors
Mehgan Fish-Stuhl (left) and Regina Nelson (right).

From the Director

Hello again everybody,

Thanks again for taking the time to read our newsletter.

My comments will be short this month. It’s a real busy time. We’re getting ready for the back-to-school giveaway and have completed the training for the recipients at Academy Prep that will be receiving the computers. The actual giveaway will be held at our MLK site on Saturday September 27th from 10am until 2pm. We want to thank the Hobbs Family Foundation and Microsoft Corporation for providing the funds and software which made this possible. One quick reminder on the giveaway is that we still need an additional $5,000 so that we can also provide broadband Internet service to the Academy Prep families that are receiving the computers. We still have a challenge from Triad Foundation which has been partially met by Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union to provide training and Internet service for to computer recipients.

Also, a quick call for volunteers that would like to give a career presentation to a group of our students. We’re interested having professionals from the community give a presentation of what their job entails, and how technology plays an important and hopefully interesting ways. We realize that most of us did not have straight paths into our current careers, and would have share those interesting stories of how you prepared yourself for your current (and future) position(s).

See you all at Tech Bowl!

Email: rsmith@computermentors.org
Phone: (813) 236-1191

Click here for more information on the 2008 Tech Bowl