fall06

by Nichole Payne I was having a conversation with an intellectual recently. He was debating whether or not he should take time off to do community service or go straight to graduate school. He noted dispassionately, “In two hundred years, we’ll all be dead anyway.” His idea seems to be that we are in some kind of rat race to achieve our goals and make something of our lives. This idea only makes sense, though, if those achievements will be completely permanent, and I don’t believe they can be. Even if you produce a great work of literature that continues to be read hundreds of years from now, eventually the solar system will cool or the universe will wind down or collapse and all trace of your efforts will vanish. And in any case, we can’t hope for even a fraction of this sort of immortality. What my friend doesn’t understand is that change is personal, and if there is any point at all to what we do, we have to find it within our own lives. This is the reason I joined up, as did so many others, to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA. …read more

By Patricia Conrad-Wexler Attendees of the CTCNET Conference in July 2006 arrived by many modes of transport but I and my director at Young Entrepreneurs Society, Tim, drove to Washington D.C. in a Toyota Prius. It was surely an economical way for a VISTA and the director of a nonprofit to show how folks can get by on almost no income! …read more

Spring/Summer 2006 Winter 2006 Winter 2005 Fall 2004 August 2004 December 2003 October 2003 April 2003 March 2003 …read more

news PTD's Media Literacy Series, by Colleen Kelly Reflections of a Former CTC VISTA, by Molly Szymanski CTC VISTA 2.0: The Evolution of the Project's Communications, by Danielle Martin …read more

by Paul Hansen When I think about the CTC VISTA Project, this is the picture that I am playing with in my head. Look at all those nodes! Big nodes, little nodes, nodes nodes nodes. There's no mistaking it— it's a network diagram. It may well be that the cult of web 2.0 has a grip on me (everything is networking and networking is everything) but that does not mean that this is not a useful way to look at the Project and where it is heading. I think it is. …read more

add-ons advice Animate your World animation blog blogging blogs boston burrito car Cartoon Network Chipotle cms community community outreach competition conference CSS ctc vista ctcvista curriculum design digest digitalmedia digitalstorytelling drupal editorial etc firefox food food stamps FOSS free fun fundraising halloween health benefits help Hispanic Heritage internet introduction living cheaply management media media literacy medialiteracy micro credit MoLLIE moving Net Neutrality networking news newsreaders Nobel prize Nonprofit Open Source operations outreach pangea planning postcard priority area pso radio recommendations recruitment report rss RTA sage Samba san diego san francisco school social networking software ssc strategy summer tagging tamm tech tech assistance tool toolkit video VISTA vistalife VISTA Life volunteer volunteering volunteer management web-browser webdesign website websites youth youthdevelopment youth media …read more

[From the blog of Carl Seifert , September 7, 2006.] New CTC VISTAs Gariet Cowin & Carl Seifert at PSO So, details...I'm Carl Seifert. A cajun from Louisiana, now a resident of Arlington, Virginia, I got connected with a great CTC in Alexandria (literally across the street from Arlington) and started teaching adult computer literacy classes to out mainly immigrant clientele. After a while, the relationship was such that they wanted me hired on full time, but didn't have the money to pay me, soooo enter CTC AmeriCorps VISTA Project. Now, I'm going to be serving in a new capacity to increase our organization's ability to keep up with our students. During my tenure, I am charged with creating a way to not lose track of our students, some of whom lack consistent phone lines. This is in order to help with fundraising and increase our capacity to continue to serve the community even after their courses at Computer C.O.R.E …read more

[From the blog of John Miller, July 1, 2006.] John Miller (right) at Teen Summit In a few weeks, I'm heading up the web design workshop at the Intel Computer Clubhouse's Teen Summit. My task: to help 15 or so teenagers create a journalistically-slanted website covering the Summit. How to do it? What will make this website good or bad? …read more

[From the blog of Ellen-Rae Cachola, August 11, 2006.] HPP Staff: Mary, Cali, Bobby and Ellen-Rae I must say my favorite memories from the past year is meeting the most coolest people who I consider good friends! I think this project really got me closer with community and technology, helping me to see good side of technology. I know this roots reggae band called Bambu Station that say "technology is the tool for civil-lie-zation." Yet being part of community tech centers have helped me know how to use technology to serve the voices and perspectives of the oppressed/disadvantaged people. Good memories includes the orientations, conferences, blogs, sharing of knowledge, and feeling that many involved were all on the same level of caring and wanting social transformation, which fills me with inspiration still. Ellen-Rae finished her VISTA service in September '06, but continues to work with Homeless Prenatal Program in San Francisco. Read more from Ellen-Rae's CTC VISTA blog.

[From the blog of Raymond Varona, August 23, 2006.] Raymond Varona During the summer, most of our population was made up of kids whose primary language wasn't English and who had never used a computer before. As a result, the workshops were more like guided activities instead of real skill-building sessions since I have to literally show them, step-by-step, how to do every action (including opening files and browsing through folders). So I started off with an intro to Photoshop and gradually worked my content down to the point where my last workshop was on how to change fonts in different programs... …read more