But inside one of the school’s two computer labs, instructor Seldon Walker, 26, is walking a group of 11 young Grenadians through the CompTIA Strata curriculum. Here the students (most of them in their late teens) are learning about principles of customer service — central to any IT career a student could hope to attain.
Seldon Walker got involved, in part, to reduce the stigma that cast NEWLO as purely a remedial program.For these students, education may be a way out of poverty. The school takes at-risk youth age 16 to 25. Most are from a disadvantaged background. Though most of those currently in the IT course of study have finished high school, that’s a rarity at NEWLO. Most took to the streets at a young age; some got wrapped up with gangs on the island.
For Walker, a freelance network administrator, web designer and an online part-time undergraduate student at the University of Wales, the course is the culmination of five years of volunteer effort. Walker remembers: “The executive director wanted to start an IT department for the school. He said, ‘We can’t pay you, but we need your help.’ ”
As an alternative sentencing to jail, some first-offenders in Grenada are given the chance by the criminal court to turn their lives around at NEWLO.
“In Grenada, once you reach NEWLO, there is nowhere else you can go,” Walker explains. “You have to show people that you’ve really made a change. If you go back and get in trouble, you’re going to prison.”
Seldon Walker got involved, in part, to reduce the stigma that cast NEWLO as purely a remedial program.Students can choose a number of different technical tracks, from child-care to construction skills such as masonry and plumbing. School officials know that technical knowledge is only part of the equation. The center’s 14-week Adolescent Development Program — which all of NEWLO’s students must complete — teaches students life and literacy skills. Public speaking, math, and how to comport oneself in a work setting are all part of the core instruction as well.
Some actually live at the school while they take courses. “It gives me a lot of self-confidence. I can speak publicly now,” says John Sylvester, 19, proudly. “It’s changed me a lot.”
Complete transformations are actually commonplace at NEWLO, officials insist, with many graduates going on to successful work careers in tourism or other local service industries. Many give back to NEWLO in volunteer hours or cash donations.
The school has an annual operating budget of about $235,000. The cost of learning materials and examinations is sponsored by the Camerhogne Foundation of Grenada under the patronage of the Governor General H.E. Sir Carlyle Glean.
Right now, leaders are trying to raise $10,000 to pay their most recent computer equipment bill. “We have a relationship with a company that lets us use the computers on credit, but ultimately we have to pay for them,” says Sister Margaret Yamoah, a Catholic nun from Ghana who has served as NEWLO’s full-time executive director for the past year.
Walker hopes the new IT program will help de-stigmatize the school as merely a remedial program. A new image for the school is already taking shape. Recently, students from the neighboring St. George’s University have been knocking on the school’s door, looking for similar certification training that their school doesn’t yet offer.For its own part, CompTIA is proud to be associated with NEWLO.
“Working with NEWLO has been an exciting opportunity for CompTIA and for me personally,” said Leonard Wadewitz, CompTIA’s manager of business development in Latin America and the Caribbean. “NEWLO’s program for IT skills directly impacts the students, and CompTIA’s certifications provide the final component that makes these young people competitive on the international stage and capable to work in any IT environment in the world.”
Walker is hopeful that within the next year the program that he helped to build will be self-sustaining. He wants to go to school full-time to finish his degree. Then, he wants to start his own business “to help develop the IT sector here in Grenada. Right now, people come back to the island with degrees but there are no job opportunities. But Grenada could become the IT hub for the Caribbean. I really want to see Grenada come up to standards when it comes to IT.”
New Life Organization is one of several Latin American and Caribbean organizations funded in part by the Trust for the Americas through its Partnership in Opportunities for Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA).
