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Inna Sosnina
Kemerovo
Youth Environmental Parliament
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Microsoft Unlimited Potential Courses: A True Godsend!
Success
Ninety percent of juvenile offenders come from underserved population groups and dysfunctional family backgrounds. Many of them have never gone to school and have seen computers only on magazine pages. After taking the IDEA course in Computer Fundamentals, Inna Sosnina, a computer science teacher from Leninsk-Kuznetsky, began to hold Microsoft Unlimited Potential training courses for the young inmates of the local juvenile correctional facility.
Overview
Inna Sosnina took her first Microsoft Unlimited Potential course at the volunteer IDEA Center in Kemerovo in the summer of 2008, together with a juvenile correctional officer, two computer science teachers from juvenile correctional schools and one job seeker. One of the objectives of the course was to equip educators with all the necessary skills for providing similar training in their own schools. They were trained in methods and techniques of implementing Microsoft Unlimited Potential programs in schools and shown the best current practices of training students in basic computer skills. After completing the course, the alumni began teaching computer skills to one of the most underserved and difficult audiences: the young inmates of Leninsk-Kuznetsky and Mariyinsky Juvenile Correctional Centers.
“I believe,” says Inna Sosnina, “that Microsoft Unlimited Potential courses are a true godsend for these kids, most of whom have committed crimes and found themselves behind bars because of their foolishness or out of despair. The computer training provides them with basic Microsoft Word and PowerPoint skills which will certainly serve them well in the future. They also learn to touch type, constantly improving their skills as they go along. The training is very logically structured and introduces the trainees to all the major functions of modern IT technologies. As a professional educator, I have really appreciated the wonderful instructional materials provided for these courses. I would like to thank the IDEA Project team for giving me and my students a chance to become part of the IDEA family. We all very much hope that this partnership will continue.”
The instructors of the IDEA Center at the Kemerovo Children’s Environmental Parliament who test the alumni from the juvenile correctional centers after each Microsoft Unlimited Potential course, say that the inmates demonstrate a very high level of computer competency. The IDEA training enables these teenagers to become confident PC users and gives them reasons to hope for a quick and successful re-entry into society after release. All this would be impossible but for such dedicated and compassionate educators as Inna Sosnina, who come along these teenagers at the most difficult time of their lives and provide them with care, support and training in indispensable life skills.
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