Resident of the month -> Carol Romansky

SUCCESS STORY

DATE: __5/31/07________ SITE: __Shirley Futch Plaza_____BY: _Sharlotte Giberson___


RESIDENT / PARTICIPANT NAME: _Carol Romansky_____________________________

Reason(s) participant came to the Computer Training Center (what was his/her goal?)
A couple of years ago, Carol was completely against the thought of learning to use a computer when her daughter suggested they could use email to keep in touch. Over time Carol eventually gave in and paid her first visit to the Learning Center.

Accomplishment(s) of the participant: When I started as the Computer Facilitator, Carol was anxious to get back on the computer to check her email (the Learning Center was closed for a couple of moths). I immediately noticed that Carol knew what she wanted to accomplish but wasn’t quite sure how to accomplish it. I began working with her extensively on how to send & forward email, download and print attachments. Carol also attended several of the courses I offered in the Learning Center such as MS Word, the ‘Basics’ and learning to use Google. Over the next couple of months I have had the opportunity to sit back and watch Carol navigate her way on the Internet – she often brings web addresses and/or products she wishes to research. Her confidence in what she knows about the computer/Internet became very obvious the day I heard her helping one of the other residents! She is one of the best Free Cell players – learning it on her own! – and loves to play online games such as Tetris & Literati.

Obstacles he/she had to overcome:
The biggest obstacle that Carol had to overcome was her adamancy of not wanting to learn the computer. Later her only obstacle was that the Learning Center wasn’t open enough (only 2 days a week) for computer-related tasks to become second nature. It took a little while for all the information to ‘stick’ but she’s doing fantastic now.

What difference has participation in the Computer Training Center made for him/her?
Carol looks forward to the courses offered at the Learning Center, more often than not knows each week’s schedule, and always attends. Carol has a daughter that lives in California that she able to stay very close with. They send email back & forth and Carol gets to see current pictures and videos of her grand children – something she would otherwise miss out on.