Computer Classes for Creative Minds

“One day our geography teacher entered the classroom and told us to write a paper on natural catastrophes. She told us to write it and didn’t even explain how we were supposed to write the paper. We could hear our classmates complaining, not knowing how to write the assignment, not knowing how to search for the right information or what to do with it. We felt a little bit privileged, because we knew not only how to navigate the internet, find the right information and how to write a paper, but we had also written a paper twice in Nor Luyce. And we offered to help our classmates,” two of our mentees were telling us excitedly. “We shared with our classmates all the criteria for writing a research assignment and also showed them our previous papers”.

During these three months we realized 11 group meetings (a total of 22 hours), 7 of which were computer classes and the rest were computer-related meetings. The participants gained more skills in MS Word, PPT, internet navigation, etc. and 6 mentees made and presented PPTs to other mentees of the organization on different topics such as: The Psychological effects of colors; Flags of the world; Italy; Fashion as a part of young girls’ life; Lightening, etc.

One of the mentees helped the Group Meeting Coordinator to organize a group meeting for other mentees and she put together a PPT on Armenian Genocide, which she presented to the participants.

3 mentor-mentee pairs spent about 10 hours working on computers and searching, not only the information they needed, but also creating a PPT on a topic of their choice. They prepared presentations on Healthy food; the influence of the Chocolate; Guinness World Records. This pair work helped mentors and mentees spend more time together, gain new knowledge, experience team work and, of course, have fun.

7 more mentees used their recently gained knowledge and prepared a assignments for their schools and colleges on different topics, such as: First Aid, Earthquakes, Landslides, Healthy mind in a Healthy body, Discrimination, etc.

To celebrate Women’s International Day, Nor Luyce mentees made portraits of women who were inspiring them. To make the portraits they started to collect information about their heroes. So 28 mentees researched information about different famous women, extracted the important information from their research, edited the information, collected everything on a word document, designed and printed out this information, thus using all the computer and internet skills learnt during the computer classes.

 “You know, I am taking photography classes at TUMO center. One day our teacher told us to make a PPT about a problem in Gyumri, my city, and in our entire group I was the only one who knew how to make a PPT. They were happily surprised to find out about my skills and they offered for me to take pictures and make a PPT on a problem Gyumri faces. The topic was “Domiks (containers, where people live) of Gyumri”. I took the pictures, put together my PPT and gave a presentation to not only our group members but also to other members of TUMO center” one of our mentees, Flora Mkrtchyan, said with sparkling eyes.

Along with computer classes all the mentees have taken part in 22-hours of group meetings, such as goal setting, career planning, values and interests, stress management, conflict resolution, etc. These meetings provide them with an opportunity to become more informed and intelligent, self-motivated and goal-oriented young women.

Our organization provides not only computer classes and other interesting meetings, but it also provides the mentees and mentors with an opportunity to come and use the Computer resource center and do their own job-related or school-related work on the computers. During these three months, mentors and mentees have used the computer resource center for 70 hours.

And of course, all these computer classes couldn’t have been useful if it weren’t for the mentors who are always with the mentees, motivating them to make the right use of all the resources they have access to and to share their knowledge with community members. No matter where you are, what you do, you always need a role model and a mentor to listen and support you.

Links:

• Exhibition organized by Nor Luyce mentees

“It is such a great feeling, when you share you knowledge with others. You feel the importance of your personality. You realize that all the skills and knowledge you have gained are not in vain.” one of the mentees expressed herself this way, when she made a presentation on International Genocide Day. When our organization joined the Orange the World 16-day-activity, the mentees expressed interest to speak out about the important topics concerning women. Accordingly 6 mentees used their skills learnt in Nor Luyce andpresented different topics in various organizations.

During these three months we planned to realize 7 computer classes, instead we realized 12 meetings. Every month the mentees came to the organization not only to gain new skills in computer like MS Word, Excel, Power Point, Photoshop, etc. but also to practice the learnt ones and work on their Power Point presentations.

Each of the mentees chose a topic of their interest and wrote a paper work on it, then they made a Power Point presentation on that same topic, later after taking part in Rhetorical Speech meeting, the mentees presented their presentations in front of other members of the organization and in other entities.

There were also mentees who presented the same topic at school for their classmates. This speaks to the fact that they enjoyed talking in front of a group of people and want to do more. 

“We can’t recognize our student. She used to be so indifferent towards everything, towards classes and education. Now she is as if quite another person. We see how motivated she is when she comes to school and, recently, she has organized a presentation at a geology class.”: a teacher described one of our mentee during our monitoring meeting.  This mentee doesn’t have a father and her mother doesn’t pay enough attention to her. Before joining our organization she didn’t find any meaning in life. But now she wants to go forward, get a college degree and develop her career.  

Based on evaluations we can say that Nor Luyce is the only program in Gyumri, Armenia that provides mentees with skill building trainings, career planning meetings and with computer skills.

Mentees take part in different skills building meetings that help them to become better educated, more involved in team work. During these three months the mentees took part in the following group meetings: “MS Word”, “Power Point Presentation”, “Rhetorical Speech”, “Course work” and the mentees presented their topics to other members of the organization, etc. For each mentee we spend $50 per month. We help the mentees to build skills for their future careers. In total the mentees took part in 24 hours of group meetings in these three months.

“The teacher asked me to take the initiative to organize an event dedicated to one of the famous Armenian poets. This made me to feel important and self-resilient. Thanks to Nor Luyce I acquired not only the necessary skills but also the belief in me to make a change in my life.” one of our mentees was telling her experience in Nor Luyce with enthusiasm.

Along with the computer classes 10 more girls took part in mentoring individual meetings. We provide every mentee with an individual ‘care-taker’, a close person who is more than a mentor, who is always there to listen to them and give a supporting hand.

Nor Luyce provides mentees with role models and a solid foundation to become successful young women.

Links:

• http://www.norluyce.com
• https://web.facebook.com/norluyce/