Spring Break Means New Skills for Scavo Students
Students at Scavo High School used Spring Break as an opportunity to earn certification in Microsoft Word.
Yeah, right, skeptics told Lyn Marchant when she shared her plan to offer a one–week computer literacy course at Scavo High School during Spring Break. Good luck getting teens to sign up for that.
The 15 openings were filled in less than 24 hours. A waiting list even formed. But those students will have to wait until at least summertime.
Marchant is the Communities in Schools Coordinator at Scavo and she partnered with Children & Families of Iowa to offer the crash course in Microsoft Word certification because she thought it seemed like further proof of Scavo’s pledge to be a full-service community school. When Lela Scott from CFI approached Marchant about giving this a try she was preaching to the choir.
“Big employers like Wells Fargo and Nationwide Insurance tell us they need more job applicants equipped with training like this,” said Scott. “So this certification on a student’s resume gets noticed.”
Marchant brought in Dan Geers from New Horizons Computer Learning Centers to teach the course. He is used to working with adults in intense one-day sessions but in a previous life he taught high school so he connected with this class right away.
One member of the class was Pablo Ramos. He makes for an interesting case in point. He had dropped out of East High where he was bullied and developed anxiety issues. Now he talks about ambitions to become an architect or a motivational speaker.
“East was too big,” he said. “But this environment is one where opportunities are presented to us like fruits to pick. And Dan is very good at presenting this one.”
An example of Geers’ knack for mixing just the right dash of silliness with the nuts and bolts of software formatting was his last command to the class before the final testing began: “Everyone stand face to face with someone,” he said, “and repeat after me. ‘No, I do not have a hamburger – but I do have a shake!’” Whereupon there were handshakes all around and good wishes for success on the test.
On Monday and Wednesday last week the class ran from 9:00-4:00. On Tuesday and Thursday it was 9-12. Friday was certification day when Geers tested four students at a time while the others boned up. Afterwards there was pizza. Everyone got the certificate they’d earned – plus a bonus in the form of a check for $200. The stipend that came with successful completion of the training wasn’t disclosed to the group until they’d enrolled and reported to class. So already the extra effort during Spring Break has paid off.
Rest assured there will be more fruits/opportunities to choose from given the success of this experiment. While the charter cohort was taking its final exam on Friday morning Marchant and Scott huddled to discuss plans to expand and offer this and similar trainings, not only again next year, but hopefully as soon as this summer.
Fruit at Scavo is plentiful.
