Growing with Technology

In today’s age, being knowledgeable about computers is a key aspect in daily life. Having the basic skills down will only help with every day tasks. Recent graduates of the OLLI Scholar program looked back at their experience in the program and their reasons for taking the class.

With Aklilu Desalegn’s children growing, he wanted to grow his basic knowledge of technology in order to help them. “My kids are grown up now so they need my help. I just wanted to have the basics, but I got a lot from this course,” he said. Gaining more than basic computer skills, Aklilu was happy with his experience and the knowledge he received.

Aklilu, along with wanting to help his children, used the program as a precursor to AutoCAD. Walking away with much more than just the basics, Aklilu was grateful for the time he spent in the program.

“I know something now, and I think something is better than nothing,” he said.

While, Aklilu used the program to help him further his career path, Rebecca Clark just wanted to expand her knowledge of computers to help her in her daily life when she found the OLLI Computer Scholar program. She was looking to update her knowledge about computers and to be more involved with what her grandchildren were doing. Unsure about computers at first, Rebecca stepped away from the program with confidence in her computer skills.

“I found out that I don’t have to be afraid, and I won’t break it. I’m very happy that I took it!”

Another recent OLLI Scholar graduate, Sally Greenstein agreed that she walked away from the program with much more than just basic computer skills. She walked away wanting to come back, not only for computers but also to take the astronomy class. Sally found it comforting “knowing that there were other silver foxes that needed to learn how to navigate the computer.”

Specific things that were taught to Sally, Aklilu and Rebecca were how to insert online pictures and use different fonts. On graduation day, Sally gave one last piece of advice to her fellow classmates: “When in doubt, right click.”