Student Success Story: Angela Stephens
By Kyle Johnson
INFO
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BITS
The Online Newsletter from Byte Back | April,
2012
Table of Contents
Student Success Story: Angela Stephens
Volunteer of The Month:Janna Sue
Byte Back’s Winter Graduation: A TrilingualCeremony
Candid Photos fromByte Back’s Winter Graduation
Partner Updates: OromoCommunity Organization
Byte Back Keeps YouInformed: Windows 8
Save the Date for ByteBack’s 6th Annual Com-munity Computer Day!
A Snap Shot of theMonth Past
Employment Opportuni-ties
Do you remember our very special student and volunteer Angela Ste-phens? If you read our
Info
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Bits December 2011
Part 2
edition, thenyou know that she was one our distinguished guest speakers at our Fall Graduation.(Click here to view the December 2011 article). Ms. Stephens came to us in early 2011 unemployed, and looking for new skills to make her more marketable. In less than a year, Ms. Ste-phens not only completed our Office Track course and IC3(Administrative Assistant) program, she was a huge asset to ByteBack through her service as a volunteer. Ms. Stephens used her newskills to help Byte Back with fundraising activities. With her assis-tance, Byte Back reached more than 2,300 current and potential fun-ders. Her efficiency really helped Byte Back in one of the busiesttimes of the year: fundraising season.Her diligence and hard work has definitely paid off. She landed a full
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time position of employment, where she will use her new skills in op-erating system fundamentals, hardware, troubleshooting, Word, Ex-cel, database fundamentals, special purpose software, presentation software, working online, and networkbasics. She is now a Resident Counselor specializing in male juvenile delinquents. She works for the D.C.Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services and her salary range is 30k – 35k a year with an additional $250dollars a month for medical expenses. During the graduation, Ms. Stephens affirmed that she too, like many of our successful students would become a ‘Byte Back Success Story.’ In addition, she made it a point to say thatshe was bound for greatness, and that she knew that she would get there with the skills she obtained fromByte Back. She made no mistake in saying so.Congratulations Ms. Angela Stephens. We will miss your smiling face around here but we wish you a success-ful future!
(Photo is courtesy of Kristian Whipple.
Volunteer Of The Month: Janna Sue
By Kyle Johnson
Born in St. Paul Minnesota, Janna Sue came into the world 2.5 months early. It is thought that because of her premature arrival she was born deaf. Janna attended the Minnesota State School for the deaf where she ex-celled in sports and continues to be a “sports fanatic”. After high school Janna decided toattend Gallaudet University for communication studies. At Gallaudet University all programsand services are specifically designed to accommodate deaf and hard of hearing students.
Janna is now a DC resident spending most of her days keeping fit and volunteering for ByteBack. Janna has been volunteering at Byte Back since the fall of 2011 as an assistant in-structor for Byte Back’s PC for Beginners and Office Track classes in American Sign Lan-guage. At first, Janna says that she was very nervous, but now enjoys every moment of volunteering her time and knowledge. Janna’s success as an assistant instructor has a lotto do with how she views her students; she believes they are all individuals that requiredifferent attention. Each student in the PC for Beginners and Office Track classes taught in ASL requires tailored attention and communication. She transitions from communicatingwith one student who is deaf and blind to another that speaks Ethiopian (not American)Sign Language. Her tenacity and dedication has helped more than 20 students better their computer skills.Janna says that being an assistant instructor has given her greater confidence and has inspired her to contin-ue to help people in the future. She believes that despite all odds, her greatest accomplishment has been get-ting over the fear of teaching. We are very proud of you Janna Sue. Thank You!
www.byteback.org |202.529.3395
Picture taken December 2011– Byte Back FallGraduation. Angela Stephens (right) with theTasiyiwa Mapondera, Byte Back Director of Pro-grams.
Janna Sue
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www.byteback.org |202.529.3395
APRIL 2012 INFO
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BITS
On April 5th, 2012
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Mayor Gray attended Byte Back’s first tri
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lingual graduation ceremony at the Luke C. Moore Acade-my. Speakers addressed attendees in English, Spanish and American Sign Language. Over 100 students and their guests attended the event to celebrate the accomplishments of the IC3 (Internet Computing Core Certification), A+ Certi-fication and Office Track (Job Readiness and Microsoft Office) students.
Mayor Gray was joined by key representatives from his administration who also made remarks including, Lisa Mallory,Director, DC Department of Employment Services; Roxana Olivas, Director, DC Office on Latino Affairs; CharlesThornton, Director, Office on Returning Citizen Affairs; Chris Tonjes, Director of Information Technology at DC Govern-ment. Students also heard from guest speaker Leah Katz Hernandez, who addressed the attendees in American SignLanguage and explained the importance of giving back to the community through public service. Rebecca Barge, Direc-tor of Education at The Family Place, delivered a speech in English and Spanish, about the value of the educational op-portunities Byte Back has provided for the community. In addition, she shared that several staff members at The FamilyPlace have taken computer classes at Byte Back and she has seen firsthand how much it has improved their skills andproductivity as employees. Office Track graduate Vanessa Hawkins impressed the audience with her creativity and pre-sented her resume in a PowerPoint presentation. Iris Gomez, student speaker, spoke of her Byte Back experience andBarbara Moore, Founder of Jubilee Housing celebrated the strong, mutual partnership between Byte Back and JubileeHousing.The icing on the cake was the special guest appearance of Mayor Vincent Gray. He delivered the keynote speech, con-gratulated students on their achievements, and then distributed graduation certificates. Mayor Gray spoke about the im-portance of computer literacy and giving all individuals an equal opportunity to succeed. One City One Hire is his latestinitiative aimed at easing the hiring process for employers by partnering with the Department of Employment Services(DOES) and putting Washington, D.C. residents back to work. Mayor Gray’s speech was especially moving and left theaudience inspired to face challenges they may encounter while seeking employment.The evening ended with a reception in the cafeteria complete with catered appetizers and plenty of room to mingle andcelebrate students and their success.
Byte Back’s Winter Graduation: Mayor Gray AttendsA Trilingual Ceremony
By: Rebecca Stewart
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www.byteback.org |202.529.3395
APRIL 2012 INFO
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BITS
Candid Photos from Byte Back’s Winter Graduation
To view more exclusive photos,click here
Instructors Young Choi, Carolyn Kraemer and Cristina Moscoso pose with students from the Office Track in Spanish class
Keynote Speaker, Mayor Vincent Gray
Leah Katz Hernandez, American Association of People with Disa-bilities, Youth Transitions Fellow
Lisa Mallory, Director,DC Department of Employment Ser-vicesCharles Thornton, Director, DCOffice on Returning Citizen Affairs
Roxana Olivas, Director, DC Officeon Latino Affairs
Young Choi, Volunteer Instructor
Barbara Moore, Jubilee HousingFounder
Chris Tonjes, Director of Information Tech-nology at DC Government
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