Arizona
Southwest Navajo Nation Virtual Alliance
Type of Grant: TOP
Amount of Grant: $475,000
Non-Federal Support: $500,000
Date of Grant: October 1997-September 2000
Project Partners: Learning Technology Center, University of Texas at Austin, Northern Arizona University, the Navajo Nation Governmental Divisions, and the Indian Health Service.
Contact name: Dr. Kyril Calsoyas
Phone: (928) 714-9422
Email: kyril.caloyas@earthlink.com
In 1999, Seba Dalkai Boarding School in Flagstaff, Arizona, received a $475,000 TOP grant to build the Southwest Navajo Virtual Alliance (SNVA), a satellite network linking 110 chapters across 25,000 square miles of the sprawling Navajo nation. Satellite provider Starband Communications, in conjunction with the TOP grant, provides connectivity as an in kind contribution for the entire network.
In the area served by the SNVA, unemployment is chronic; 56% of the people live below the poverty level and 30% of adults have a less than a ninth grade education. Cable television and local radio stations are nonexistent and the residential phone ratio is 49 to 1. Apart from a dirt road, and very unstable cellular phone connection, the Internet in many cases is the only link to the outside world. Residents use the Internet for a wide range of reasons, from distance learning to buying truck parts. Chapter officials, like Besse Carmajo of Coppermine Chapter (population: 500), use the Internet to learn about grant programs that can help support Indian country. For example, Ms. Carmajo applied for federal grants (that she learned about online) for the rehabilitation of abandoned mines. If approved, her proposal will bring electricity to 94% of the homes in Coppermine that are currently lit with kerosene lamps.
Chapter officials also use the Internet for distance learning on governance issues such as land use, accounting and taxes. As the number of projects on the satellite network increase, its value to the region has progressively grown. Dr. Kyril Calsoyas, project director at the Seba Dalkai Boarding School, says that the arrival of connectivity is a major turning point for the residents and community leaders of the Navajo Nation.
Arizona
Literacy Volunteers of Maricopa County
Type of Grant: CTC
Amount of Grant: $180,000
Non-Federal Support: $180,000
Date of Grant: May 2000-2003.
Project Partners: Pulliam Foundation, City of Phoenix Neighborhood Block Grant, City of Phoenix Community Development Block Grant, Neighborhood Services Department City of Phoenix, Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, Microsoft and Novell.
Contact: Lynn Reed
Phone: (602) 274-3430
Email: lreed@firstinter.net
Literacy Volunteers of Maricopa County (LVMC) provides basic literacy and "English as a Second Language" instruction as well as computer skills training to residents of Maricopa County with the support of a CTC grant and matching funds from the Pulliam Foundation.
LVMC fills an important socio-economic gap in a low-income border community in central Phoenix, where almost 30% of the residents do not have a high school diploma and 35% are considered "Limited English Proficient."
The curriculum at LVMC is designed in modules that can be easily adapted to many different educational sites. Basic literacy and ESL classes are taught with the aid of software programs so that students learn more advanced computer skills as they engage in increasingly difficult lessons. Since the program's inception, LVMC has provided 30,007 hours of instruction in adult education, far exceeding their goal of 10,000 hours per year. Lynn Reed, the center's director, believes that the integration of technology in instruction has made adult instruction more economical, efficient, and has provided students with workforce as well as basic literacy skills.
Hugo Carrazco, a 38-year-old construction worker, decided to take an ESL class at LVMC when his 11-year-old daughter brought home an LVMC flyer from school. Seven weeks into the class, Mr. Carrazco, in halting English, says, "it's a good class because I'm learning computers and English at the same time." Although he has a computer at home for his son, Hugo had never used one prior to the class. "The center is testing a curriculum to teach two skills [basic literacy and computer skills] at the same time," says Ms. Reed in reference to LVMC's vision. One measure of the center's success is that Mr. Carrazco can now help his children with their schoolwork on his home computer.
