Friends mourn death of entire Jacksonville family in the Philippines
Home for the Quinio family was the brick house in a cul-de-sac on Jacksonville’s Westside, where angel statues stood sentry in the front garden and a wind chime by the front door tinkled as breezes slid down Hawks Run Lane.
It was where parents Fred and Rose were supposed to return with their children today after a trip to the Philippines, so 11-year-old Roz Niqoulle and 7-year-old Michael could get ready for school’s start next week.
Instead, extended family and friends of the foursome are left trying to comfort themselves by thinking of a different kind of homecoming for the family, whose faith in God, friends said, was ever-present in their lives.
All four Quinio family members died Wednesday in a bus crash in the Philippines after the vehicle lost its brakes and careened into a ravine about an hour north of Baguio City. That they were together in the end is some comfort to those who cry for them now.
“No one has to think about who was left behind because they’re all together,” family friend William Manubag said Thursday.
The family’s vacation was two years in the making. It was the first trip back to their native country for Rose, 35, and Fred, 45, who immigrated to the United States in 2001 with their then-1-year-old daughter.
Today, Rose’s sister Brigitte Carantes will travel to the Philippines with her father, who also lived with the family on Hawks Run Lane. The two will meet the sisters’ mother in the Philippines, where they will bury their loved ones.
Carantes, who lives near Chicago, said she found out about the accident when she called her mother after not being able to reach Rose by phone. The woman was at the wreck scene. She was sobbing.
“I was thinking, ‘Mom do you need help?’ … She said ‘Yeah, it’s about your sister. She just had an accident and they’re all gone.’”
But signs of the Quinios were everywhere at the Hawks Run Lane home Thursday. There was Michael’s drum set in his sister’s pink-and-blue-painted bedroom, where a bowl of dominoes sat in front of the computer screen. There was her iPod dock on the desk and her R.L. Stine book on the carpet.
There was Fred’s guitar near the front door, the one with a U.S. flag sticker on it that read “We Love Our Country!” There was the framed needlepoint in the master bathroom, with a red rose and the words “Fred” and “Rose” stitched into it. There were the donation envelopes from Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church on the dresser in the master bedroom, nestled behind a copy of a prayer. Part of its verse went like this:
Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord,
As we have hoped in Thee.
O Lord, hear my prayer,
And let my cry come unto Thee.
Many did cry Thursday at Baptist Medical Center downtown, where the staff held a memorial Mass for Rose and her family. She had been a nurse manager in an intensive care unit there. Colleagues eulogized her as a service-oriented woman who was passionate about patient care and the people who worked with her.
Maryann Gagni, who attended the service with Rose’s father and sister, was one of those who addressed an auditorium filled with mourners, many in scrubs and white lab coats. Gagni went to nursing school with Rose in Baguio.
“I’ve been praying. I can’t even finish my rosary,” Gagni said, short sobs leaking into the microphone. “I say ‘When I wake up Lord, I hope this is a dream.’”
After the service, Gagni shared Rose and Fred’s love story. She said they met when he was a liaison for a Philippine community where the women were immersed for a case study while they were nursing students. The couple married in 1997 and emigrated four years later, going first to Michigan, and then Maryland, before arriving in Jacksonville around 2003.
By 2006, Fred was working at a Jacksonville retirement home as a maintenance technician, doing everything from building repairs to landscaping. Taylor Manor and Villas administrator Connie Hickman said he was a usually shy but dedicated employee. Residents adored him. During parties, he’d take out his guitar and sing, or do a country karaoke act.
“He did a really good Garth Brooks,” Hickman said.
On Sunday, Fred would have marked his fourth anniversary at his job.
On Monday, Fred and Rose’s son Michael was to start second grade at Enterprise Learning Academy. The same day, their daughter was going into seventh grade at James Weldon Johnson Middle School. On Thursday, teachers there called her a conscientious and sweet student who got good grades and smiled ear to ear.
Both children went to religious education classes at their family’s church, where Roz sang in the junior choir. Michael, who went by “Mikee,” would have received the sacrament of First Communion this school year, church religious education director Sharon Tomore said.
At 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 26, the Normandy Boulevard church will hold a Novena, followed by a Mass dedicated to the Quinio family. It will conclude a nine-day rosary prayer gathering friends are holding every evening until then at the family’s home.
The same place, where on Thursday, white balloons jostled in the summer wind in the garden, symbols of the spirits that lived and loved inside that brick home. Spirits that friends and family believe now share a new kind of home.
bridget.murphy@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4161
1 CommentKathleen Madigan: Job mismatch stymies economic growth
By Kathleen Madigan
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The Federal Reserve has a dual mandate: maintain stable prices and enable the economy to reach full employment. Officials are growing more worried that they can do little to achieve the latter half of their responsibilities.
That’s because structural — not cyclical — forces are behind a substantial chunk of the current unemployment in the U.S.
That was a point made Tuesday by Narayana Kocherlakota, president of the Fed bank of Minneapolis, in a speech given in Michigan. By his count, about one-third of the joblessness comes from a mismatch between the skills needed and the workers available.
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He said from 2000 until mid-2008 there was a stable relationship between the rate of job openings in the labor market and unemployment. Since then, however, the link has broken down. If the past stable relationship still held, Kocherlakota estimated “we would have an unemployment rate of closer to 6.5%, not 9.5%.”
That works out to 4.6 million unemployed who either live in the wrong place or have the wrong skills or experience to get the jobs now becoming available.
Past Fed minutes show other officials are worried about the long-term unemployment and how skills erode the longer a person is out of work, in essence making them unemployable even when the economy picks up. That implies the natural rate of unemployment — always difficult to estimate — is probably higher than most economists and Fed researchers think.
Solving the job-skill gap is out of the Fed’s purview. As Kocherlakota said, “The Fed does not have the means to transform construction workers into manufacturing workers.”
The Fed can use monetary policy to combat cyclical forces and pump up overall demand, but monetary levers are ineffective when jobs are lost because industries become obsolete (buggy-whip makers) or are overtaken by innovation (phone operators).
Instead, whip makers and operators need retraining to find the new skills needed by growing industries. Retraining satisfies two economic requisites: businesses’ need for skilled, productive labor and consumers’ need for jobs and income.
The onus to achieve that goal falls not on the Fed but on the rest of the government. Congress and the White House could shift some of the still-unspent stimulus money into more retraining programs, especially for workers whose past jobs are never returning. They numbered 6.5 million in July, accounting for 45% of all unemployed workers.
The mismatch between jobs and skills was exacerbated by the recession, but it will not go away even when an expansion is firmly in place.
A study done by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce projects that by 2018, the U.S. economy will need 22 million new college degrees — but will fall short of that number by at least 3 million. The study also projected the economy will need at least 4.7 million new workers with professional certificates or licenses.
“At a time when every job is precious, this shortfall will mean lost economic opportunity for millions of American workers,” the study said.
That’s why action is needed now. Washington policymakers must recognize that low rates alone won’t solve the jobless problem.
Kathleen Madigan
is the primary author of the Big Picture column. This column originally appeared on Dow Jones Newswires.
For-profit education stocks plunge
By David B. Wilkerson, MarketWatch
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — The stocks of several for-profit education providers declined sharply Monday morning amid renewed worries that U.S. regulators will impose tighter regulations on student loans.
Shares of DeVry Inc.
/quotes/comstock/13*!dv/quotes/nls/dv
(DV
38.75,
-3.96,
-9.27%)
lost 8.7%; Corinthian Colleges Inc.
/quotes/comstock/15*!coco/quotes/nls/coco
(COCO
5.14,
-1.52,
-22.82%)
tumbled 23%; and Washington Post Co.
/quotes/comstock/13*!wpo/quotes/nls/wpo
(WPO
309.98,
-33.50,
-9.75%)
, the parent of Kaplan Inc., was off 12%.
ITT Educational Services Inc.
/quotes/comstock/13*!esi/quotes/nls/esi
(ESI
55.77,
-8.56,
-13.31%)
slid 13%; American Public Education Inc.
/quotes/comstock/15*!apei/quotes/nls/apei
(APEI
24.09,
-0.62,
-2.49%)
lost 1.6%; and Career Education Corp.
/quotes/comstock/15*!ceco/quotes/nls/ceco
(CECO
17.93,
-0.86,
-4.59%)
gave up 2.3%.
Earlier this month, Kaplan said possible changes in lending standards could “adversely affect” the company’s ability to retain admissions workers, financial-aid advisers and students.
Regulators have been taking a closer look at for-profit educators because of claims that the institutions have been preying on low-income students, setting them up with loans they cannot pay back.
Commercials for schools operated by these educators are frequently seen on daytime television, featuring purported testimonials from satisfied graduates.
David B. Wilkerson is a reporter for MarketWatch in Chicago.
Jacksonville woman has made custom caps for 350 celebrities, including 5 presidents
The first celebrity to get one of Fathiyyah Muhammad’s custom-made denim caps was Louis Stokes, a Democratic congressman from Ohio.
Since then she’s met and given caps to some 350 celebrities – including five presidents – in Jacksonville. The most recent big shot was Tim McGraw, who she says is absolutely dreamy.
“I tell you. If I was 50 years younger I’d give Faith [Hill, McGraw's wife] a run for her money,” Muhammad said.
McGraw is handsome, to be sure, and nice. But he’s also a country singer, and Muhammad loves country music, which plays nonstop on a radio in her office off Golfair Boulevard. How could she not like him?
Chances are, if McGraw still has that cap and were to take a close look at it, he’d see an inscription Muhammad put on it: “Only in America.”
In some ways, that might be a tidy way to sum up her own story: black female, huge country music buff, convert to Islam, tea party supporter, Obama voter, no apologies. Only in America? Spend a little time with Muhammad and she might just make you see it that way – it’s that persistence that’s led to her success getting her caps into so many famous people’s hands.
Muhammad knows some people might be surprised about her background and interests.
“I’m everything you’re not supposed to be,” she said.
The longtime conservative Republican – there’s a hat on her desk already made for Fox News host Glenn Beck, should he come to Jacksonville – voted for Barack Obama because she wanted to see history made. But if Sarah Palin had been at the top of the Republican ticket? Well then, she would’ve a different historic result.
Muhammad has met Obama and Palin, by the way. She’s given both caps that she and her husband, James, made, and then posed with them for photos.
She’s still waiting for her picture with Palin to arrive from an official photographer. When it does, it will join hundreds of others she’s collected, showing her with celebrities from George Burns to LL Cool J – all of them wearing her handmade hats.
This is not just about meeting important people, though.
Instead, she said, it’s proof to her – and her children – how great this country really is.
“It shows that the American dream is alive and obtainable. If I can take some old jeans, cut them up and make a hat, this old lady who didn’t even finish high school, imagine what you can do with an education, all the opportunities we have.”
Muhammad, 72, was known as Virgie Washington when she grew up in the Yamacraw neighborhood of Savannah.
That’s where her conservative beliefs were forged. The neighborhood was poor, but the people living there, white and black, would do anything to avoid going on relief, she said. And if they were to take help, they couldn’t wait to get off of it.
She moved to New York City at 17, without a high school degree, itching to see what was beyond Savannah. In the mid-1960s, she moved on to San Francisco (friends of hers were hippies, she said, but she most definitely was not). Her travels then took her back to New York, to Miami and on to Texas.
That’s where she met the man she would marry, at a talk to introduce people to Islam. He appealed to her, eventually, and so did the religion he spoke of.
“Everything made sense,” she said. “The universality of it – no one is superior to any other, no matter what their calling in life is.”
She converted to Islam, and James Muhammad gave Virgie the name Fathiyyah, which means successful and victorious.
For decades she has worn scarfs on her head and dressed modestly, as her religion asks. Muhammad said some have perverted its meaning: “Those terrorists, we know they’re going straight to hell. That’s not the teaching of Islam.”
In 1980, the Muhammads moved to Jacksonville to be close to her hometown. She had taken a government-offered course on tailoring, which she then taught her husband. So they opened an alterations shop they now run from the garage of their Northside home.
Within a couple of years, she decided to start making caps for celebrities, using donated pairs of jeans.
James Muhammad accompanies her on her missions, and has seen her wait hours backstage or by the back door, seen her brave Secret Service agents and police barricades.
“She’s steadfast,” he said. “I don’t know how many times we’ve been told to move here, go there, get out, and she just stands there. Sometimes the Jacksonville police just go, well, OK. I don’t know how she does it, but she does it.”
Muhammad insists she gets to most people with simple persistence, not connections. But Gary Dickinson, vice chairman of the Republican Party of Duval County, is a friend, and has helped her meet President George W. Bush and Palin.
Dickinson first noticed Muhammad years ago, angling to get close to Bill Clinton under the watchful eye of the Secret Service. She made it.
“I haven’t spoken with her yet,” he said, “but I’m sure she got in and got a hat to Barack Obama.”
She did, of course. And that’s a feat that again impressed her daughter, Kamia Snead, who was also in Metropolitan Park when the presidential candidate came to Jacksonville. She never got close to him in the overflowing park, though.
“I said, ‘Mom, you never cease to amaze me. How did you get that picture of Obama? What, I have to start hanging out with you again?’ “
Snead, 33, is a musician and actor in Jacksonville. She called her mother a self-made person: “She refused to be like anybody else. She cut her own niche. She sees the dream and she dreams herself into the next situation.”
Her parents were never wealthy, but, she said, they gave her a childhood like no other. She’s got pictures to prove it: New Edition, the Dixie Chicks, Mick Jagger, Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard and others.
“She told me you, too, can be a celebrity, you can be a star,” said Snead. “All you have to do is try. You can be anything in America. Only in America. It’s the land of dreams.”
That’s a theme that runs through Muhammad’s life: Only in America. That’s even the name of her alterations company, and she puts those words on many of her caps.
“What makes us different from other countries is that we can disagree but we don’t kill each other, we don’t bomb polling places,” Muhammad said. “What can I say? I love America.”
matt.soergel@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4082
0 CommentsFirst Coast seniors get more help to avoid scams
There was a time when Mary Lindsey’s trusting nature and fading sight led her to believe a contractor’s promise that everything was going to be fine.
“My philosophy,” she said, “used to be, ‘Three strikes and you’re out.’”
No more.
Lindsey, 66, has gone totally blind since the January 2009 fire devastated her Westside Jacksonville home. But she doesn’t need her eyes to see that things have gone horribly awry.
Where a contractor promised new replacement appliances, there is an old, cracked stove and an aging refrigerator. Where she believed there were improvements to her backyard, the old fence still stands and her pool is filled with construction debris. Where she thought she was financially stable if not comfortable, she now finds herself out more than $100,000.
And although advocates call her case extreme, they also believe that there could be more and more seniors who, like Lindsey, are falling victim to fraud and scams. Yet there have never been more resources to help seniors avoid them or get help if they do have a problem.
It’s just a matter of finding them before it’s too late.
In the last year, at least two new local programs have started up to help seniors stay safe or react to fraud and scams after they happen: One is the Consumer Protection division of ElderSource, the area’s agency on aging, as well as Seniors vs. Crime, started by the Attorney General’s Office and based in Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office substations.
ElderSource is seeing an uptick in calls about scams, said Linda Levin, its executive director.
“I’m not sure if it’s the economy, or people are more aware, being more careful, or coming out about it more in terms of being victimized,” she said.
More education and awareness could be prompting those increased calls, but the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has not noticed an increase in economic crimes against seniors, said Sgt. Robert Turner, who oversees the Economic Crimes Unit. Still, despite increased efforts to get the word out, the message doesn’t reach everyone.
“A lot of seniors are embarrassed to call the police,” he said.
For Lindsey, it was more a matter of pride. She didn’t want to ask for help reading the fine print, despite her failing vision.
“I’m from the old school,” she said. “You do what you can for yourself.”
Now, she wishes others would learn her lesson.
“People should not be scared to ask,” she said. “Don’t wait till it gets to the point where you’re going to lose everything.”
Slade Dukes, the Elder Consumer Protection fellow at Stetson University’s law school, said that’s a common problem.
“When I worked at the Attorney General’s Office, we had a hard time to get people to come forward,” he said. “They wanted to wait for their return, they didn’t want to believe they had been taken.”
And, Dukes said, once someone’s money has been taken, it’s often spent – and hard to get back.
Dukes said the economy is just one of many factors that can cause an increase in economic crimes, such as scam artists and cases of family exploitation.
For Mary Lindsey, there is now a glimmer of hope in the 18-month ordeal that left her with incomplete home repairs and facing foreclosure after she signed one too many papers at the request of a contractor.
Her daughter and son-in-law have arrived to help. And after a well-placed call to ElderSource, she is getting legal help as well as help from volunteers in the community who heard her story.
When a crew arrived to bring a new hot water heater this week, Lindsey’s face turned toward the door, suddenly alight. With them came the promise of the first hot shower in her own home (previously, she and her family had to heat water on the broken stove for baths).
“Is that the gas man?” she said. “Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord.”
deirdre.conner@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4504
0 CommentsLittle Star Center recovers its balance after scandal
Kathy Calvert held her 7-year-old daughter, Kara, in her lap and beamed as she spoke about her daughter’s success in school during the past year.
Cleaner teeth for Jacksonville’s needy children
Feet twitching as the dental assistant supervisor cleaned with a whirring brush, Christian Bogga seemed nervous in the dentist’s chair Monday.
“Oh, come on now,” Regina Blount told the child. “You said you had done this before.”
After the cleaning inside the Duval County Health Department’s Smile Express dental van, Christian was truthful but liked the result.
“It didn’t feel comfortable. It tickled me,” the 8-year-old said.
Christian was one of 40 children at Monday’s free checkup and cleaning in the Smile Express van invited to The Bridge on North Pearl Street in Springfield. Part of a program to improve the health of area families in need, its four visits since April helped 205 children keep smiling, Bridge associate director Bruce LaVant said.
“It means that we are accomplishing our goal to provide comprehensive health services without actually having a clinic here,” LaVant said. “It is not easy because of the funding and we can’t do it ourselves.”
The Bridge began in 1972 as Family Health Services to address the medical and health care needs of low-income families in Jacksonville’s inner city. Moved to Eighth and Pearl streets a decade later, the renamed Bridge campus now includes two homes next to a vegetable garden, with a family resource center in a former school next door and an education program across Eighth Street.
Along with the mobile dental clinic, the children are taken regularly to a pediatric clinic next door at Shands Jacksonville. They have the equivalent of a school nurse, Shawna Walker, who teaches healthy lifestyles and makes medical referrals at summer camp and after-school programs.
Monday morning they checked in with her before visiting the Smile Express, where Brianna Bellamy lie quietly as Blount worked some cleaner onto her teeth.
“My mouth tastes nasty,” the 9-year-old said later. “It helped clean my teeth.”
Ponytail hanging off her chair, Maya Andrews grinned a white smile after a cleaning by dental assistant supervisor Anna Green.
“My teeth can be healthy,” the 10-year-old said, wishing some of her friends would visit because “sometimes their teeth are dirty and messed up.”
The Bridge was getting regular Health Department visits until funding was cut two years ago. The same happened to the PGA Tour’s annual Christina’s Smile Children’s Dental Clinic, hence the importance of regular city dental van visits, LaVant said.
“Some of these kids have never seen a dentist before, never had oral hygiene of any type,” LaVant said. “We are basically helping to set a foundation for healthy oral hygiene.”
Area dentists have volunteered to do more intensive work, while another 32 children were helped by the Smile Express at The Bridge’s satellite program at the Southwind Villas last month. LaVant said the group hopes to get it to other satellite sites, including its TEAM UP school partners, in the fall.
For more information on The Bridge, go to www.bridgejax.com.
dan.scanlan@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4549
0 CommentsDifferent faiths cast eager or wary eyes on Jacksonville council prayers
Some non-Christian clergy in Jacksonville say they are willing and eager to give invocations at City Council meetings now that the ritual has been opened up to members of different faiths.
But when that first Hindu, Buddhist, Jew, Muslim or other minister will take to the podium is yet to be seen as the city works out the details of whom to invite and when.
And some Christians, including at least one council member, express concern the new policy could either be taken too far, validate non-Christian religions and even contribute to the city’s moral and spiritual decline.
Before, Councilman Don Redman, the council’s former chaplain and a Baptist, delivered Christian prayers to open the meetings. Council President Jack Webb squashed that practice when the city received written protests from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Anti-Defamation League.
Webb, who’s Catholic, said inviting ministers from other religions makes the process more fair to the many non-Christians represented the by council and could help relieve some of the social tensions afflicting the city.
“I think there’s a need for healing in the community,” he said, “and I think this will go a long way toward that.”
But that doesn’t mean council members and citizens attending their meetings can expect to see rabbis and imams delivering their prayers right away. In fact, the first to say a prayer under the new system will be Councilman Clay Yarborough’s own pastor, the Rev. Mac Brunson of Jacksonville’s First Baptist Church.
Brunson declined to be interviewed about the prayer he will give on Tuesday, but a blog that follows the church said Brunson recently invited the entire church, which has thousands of members, to be there when he gives Tuesday’s invocation. Yarborough, the council’s current chaplain, said he expects a higher turnout at the meeting as a result.
Yarborough said Webb’s new system includes asking council members to invite clergy, so he asked to be the first to do so.
Webb said he’s working with the city General Counsel’s Office to develop a rotation of available and willing clergy to participate.
At least two ministers contacted by The Times-Union said they’re ready to go.
“We are a city that has many faiths and it’s appropriate that our elected officials would welcome people of all faiths” to give the invocations, said Rabbi Joshua Lief, spiritual leader of Congregation Ahavath Chesed in Mandarin.
“In reality, we [in Jacksonville] have always been open and welcoming,” Lief said. “Unfortunately, council in the past [were] closed to possibility.”
Panditji Srinathan Kadambi, the priest
At Lakeside Junior High, learning to be gentlemen
Always thank a girl after a dance, even if she steps on your toes 87 times.
Teachers at Lakeside Junior High teach rules like this and other manhood training tips to male students during regular meetings of the school’s Gentlemen Gators before-school club, which recently won a national award. The Character Education Partnership in Washington gave the Clay County public school a “Promising Practices” award for the innovative club, founded by assistant principal John Green and teacher Gary Valero.
Through community donations, boys in the program have neckties, matching polo shirts and a year-end celebration including fine dining, a limousine ride and a knighthood ceremony.
Here’s more good news:
- Florida Junior Civitans raised more than $6,200 for a medical research center that sends findings and cures to medical communities around the world.
- Boy Scout Michael Green of Troop 282, a student at Fletcher High School, became an Eagle Scout, Scouting’s highest honor, by collecting more than 1,000 personal hygiene items for families served by Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry.
“We were so grateful to receive Michael’s carload of toilet paper, shaving cream, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and diapers, as we were out of most of these important hygiene items,” said executive director Vivian Southwell.
Troop Leader Tim Broadway reported that his prospective Eagle Scouts are thrilled to work with the ministry, as “they help thousands of beaches families every year.”
Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry, which is celebrating 25 years of service, sustains struggling families with food, rent, utility assistance, jobs and school supplies.
- The Eta Zeta Chapter of Kappa Delta at the University of North Florida raised $5,000 for daniel with a bowling and barbecue fund raiser. Daniel is a multi-service agency that assists more than 1,000 children, adolescents and families each day.
- More than 600 African-American students from Duval County were honored for academic excellence during Gamma Beta Boule’s 26th annual High Potential Youth Recognition Program. David Gaspard of Paxon School for Advanced Studies won the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Achievement Award and $4,000 scholarship. The runners-up were Tonya Herbert, Chloe Herring, Alphonso Wilson and Darien Williams.
- The eighth annual CSX Charity Train Ride raised more than $320,000 to benefit seven charities, with daniel receiving $25,000 for programs that benefit abused, neglected and emotionally troubled children.
- The Sulzbacher Center now has an outdoor dining area with picnic tables to serve the hundreds of hungry men, women and children from the community who come for meals. The area was created with a $10,000 grant from Publix Charities.
- Daniela Aguado, Megan Dailey, Mary Dailey, Courtney Miller and Brittany Ferrell of Clay County recently sang at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York. These children from the Jacksonville Children’s Chorus joined other select groups throughout North America to be part of a festival chorus of 190 singers.
Have good news? Send items to goodnews@jacksonville.com. You can fax them to (904) 359-4478 or mail them to The Florida Times-Union, P.O. Box 1949, Jacksonville, FL 32231
0 CommentsPC ProSchool
Ahead of I neglect this with all that may be going on, I came throughout a brand new resource in town when I had been speaking my certification test last week (or was it the week previous to?). I used to be looking on the web to get a location to take on my examination when the “PC ProSchools” link came up as a possible test web site. It turns out it can be definitely close to me (I-96 and East Beltline) and is really new (as well new for Google Maps – about a calendar year aged).
I thought I realized of most of the Microsoft exercising amenities in town and had never discovered of them. I received to my check about 15 minutes early and they were fully booked so I started asking about their packages and examining a number of their materials. I ended up having a tour of the facilities and courses by a guy named Richard Fera (who was genuinely helpful).
They had a great instruction lab (room for 50 at brand-new machines, dual projectors, dual stations inside back again from the room for much more trainers (3 trainers obtainable inside a entire category)). They had an open lab and what looked like a server area / wiring closet (which turned out being an “advanced lab” spot). Their concentrate is about the infrastructure side (i.e. the MCSE route) on acquiring the servers up and operating and all types of troubleshooting. They tend not to offer you programs for computer software progress (i.e. the MCPD route). So they had certainly not noticed on the test I had been using nevertheless it was quite clear that their testing lab got quite a tad of use.
They are a Microsoft Platinum Partner provider for education (which says a good deal about volume, graduation fee, certification fee, and placement rate (>70%)). It really is an fascinating product since they operate it model of like one thing concerning a technical trainer (i.e. giving 1 class at a time) along with a higher education (full-blown multi-year software). They provide you with an intense one-year software that is open to any high-school graduate who meets some standard criteria. The classes are either M/W or T/Th (having a handful of Fridays thrown in for test-prep and labs) from five:30-10:30, which can be pretty a bit of do the job. But within the end make sure you have your MCSE.
Add to this that additionally they do placement and also have jobs shopping for folks – positioned 48 in the lass school of 50.
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The response is really a resounding yes. It can be presently among the best expanding fields on the employment market. Suitable now may be the great time to jump in and become an IT specialist. Desktop Proschools can support you get there.
Experts predict that virtually fifty percent from the workforce in the United States will be employed in industries exactly where IT services are abundant. This can be currently evident as much firms these days rely on technology to perform more efficiently and preserve up with the fierce competitors. The IT industry can grant you the power to acquire employment exactly where you are financially rewarded and respected to your abilities, one thing we all want and deserve.
Beneath we have listed some truth concerning the IT marketplace for ones examine. This facts ought to give you an thought on how you can discover that productive vocation you have been shopping for.
Careers in IT are estimated to enhance at a amount of 36% in excess of the following 10 years
The IT field accounts for an estimated 25% on the jobs created from 2002 towards recent day
Computer-related jobs are among the top 20 best expanding professions inside United States. This amount is envisioned to boost far more than twice as quick as other occupations
It’s been reported that IT work present the highest earnings of all the 20 best rising professions.
It can be considered one of the fasted developing locations of employment within the land. This area continues to provide options to countless numbers as much in the projects produced for IT go unfilled because of the lack of qualified candidates.
The options in Facts Technological know-how are endless as this field can only increase. Just take a look at what we’ve currently witnessed so far. At a small quantity of time, it might be you reaping the positive aspects of this booming industry. With numerous community institutions and on-line courses like Desktop Pro Universities, receiving began has by no means been a lot easier.
Basically hop within the net, confer having a handful of specialists and carry the very first move towards establishing your new job.
What is Assist Table?
A Support Workplace career presents the foundation to explore other satisfying careers in laptops. You do not need earlier pc practical knowledge to start your education and learning and in just 10 quick weeks you are able to be starting your new job! If you would like a fast solution…get trained…and get operating!
Aid Table can be a necessary department at just about every company that uses computers. Today that is basically each corporation, creating Support Receptionist counter a recession evidence vocation! Assist Receptionist counter technicians respond to phone calls and e-mail messages from consumers searching for support with pc complications. Let’s say an accountant suddenly can't access payroll facts which is saved on the laptop or computer method. This accountant would get in touch with you and it can be your responsibility to troubleshoot and fix this difficulty. In responding to these inquiries, help-desk technicians should listen thoroughly towards the customer, ask queries to diagnose the nature on the trouble, after which it patiently walk the purchaser via the problem-solving steps.
Obtain the correct instruction speedily to help you to commence creating the suitable cash quicker.
Our Laptop or computer Help Table routine can carry your function experience along with your existing talents, and mix it with an education focused on certainly one of the most effective expanding occupations from the U.S. in just ten weeks. Like a Microsoft IT Academy which has a proven and thorough program we can transform you right into a highly sought right after Support Receptionist counter Specialized with market common certifications. This plan is 100% on the internet to help you to continue to work whilst in institution. And our outcomes speak for themselves.
The U.S. Dept of Education and learning National Center for Training Statistics tells us that a 4 year university observe now will take 6 several years having a 57% graduation price plus a a couple of calendar year community college/tech classes now requires 3 years with an alarming 23% graduation rate. Sad to say, the majority of us do not have that sort of time to start off creating the income we should survive. And who wants to danger individuals odds of completing the program? Our graduation costs are in excess of 80%.
Carry the earliest action toward obtaining back again on track.
Unemployment rates are hitting record high amounts and our state is struggling out of an financial recession; you can not afford to wait any longer. No matter whether you've got undoubtedly been laid off, dread the reduction of your work or just want to create a alter, a new occupation might be yours! You are able to be on your own way to the job that supplies the earnings and safety you'll need.
See for yourself by registering for an informational seminar total with schedule and tuition information. Purely click within the “Attend Career Revival” button and you will be on your way!
Computer ProSchools Graduation Achievements
Personal computer ProSchools, a Microsoft Academy, is proud to announce its first graduating type of 2008. In 2007 more than 300 IT Pros graduated from Personal computer ProSchools' Aid Desk/MCSA plan.
FOR Quick Discharge
PR Log (Press Release) – Apr 18, 2008 – Around 150 graduates and their guests filed in the Land Inn & Suites in Brookfield, WI on the cool spring evening to celebrate a six month journey to becoming an IT professional.
Last August, students in record 183 began their journey at the Brookfield Campus of Personal computer ProSchools, a Microsoft IT Academy licensed by the Wisconsin Educational Approval Board and accredited by ACCET. Observe 183 contained manufacturers, construction workers, secretaries, retail representatives and office workers. All committed to changing their lives and becoming Guide Table Analysts, Network Administrators or Pc Technicians to name just a handful of and on March 20, 2008 they were one move closer.
The Commencement ceremony began with a Welcoming Address from Campus Director Laura Polancich. Polancich, whose primary responsibility at Computer Pro Educational institutions is to provide task placement providers was proud to congratulate the more than 50 percent with the graduating category that had already secured a work from the substantial paying IT industry and made a commitment to keep on assisting individuals still searching. Up coming Vice President of Educational Companies, Kate Pelchat, presented an Executive Address and congratulated the type for their hard operate and dedication. Pelchat compared the graduates’ journey at Desktop Pro Colleges towards the CAT5 cable they had been given at their initial orientation highlighting the ups and downs and even the knots at times and shared a quote from Ernest Hemmingway that “It is good to have an end to journey in the direction of nonetheless it stands out as the journey itself that matters inside end.”
Lead Instructor Mick Brentar stood just before the school for his final lecture, so to speak. He challenged them to carry on learning always and explained how proud he is to now call them colleagues from the IT Business.
The Keynote Address was delivered by Ricardo Monteen, a Assist Desk Manager at Manpower Corporation and also a former graduate of Laptop or computer ProSchools from 1 yr ago. He chronicled his journey, sharing how different his life is now. It was a complete circle moment for everyone as Monteen explained how he had just hired four Laptop or computer Pro Universities graduates for his Aid Desk team.
The mood was large as the evening concluded with a punch and cake reception where families, graduates and faculty shared memories; all knowing that the sum of a journey is a fresh perspective of home and for all that perspective is quite different 6 months later.
Graduate Wendy Tokarz shared “Being able to graduate with my type and conquer this kind of challenging goal feels fantastic. My family and friends are so proud of me. It’s just excellent!”
At the time of this publication, much less than 1 month later, in excess of 75% of these graduates, including Tokarz have been offered IT positions and also have begun enjoying the advantages of their new careers.
Computer Pro Educational facilities an ally in improving computer system entry among those with disabilities
Last Spring, New Horizons Un-Limited (NHU) had the good fortune of meeting Laura, the Campus Director of Desktop Pro Schools’ Brookfield campus, at a Brew City HDI chapter meeting. At the meeting, NHU expressed a need to have for volunteer technicians to assist with their computer system refurbishing and guide table activities. Seeing this opportunity as a way to give again, although also supporting the job goals of her students, Laura speedily recruited students to support NHU.
Above this past 12 months, NHU has welcomed nearly a dozen Laptop or computer Pro Educational institutions students as volunteers. Although all on the student volunteers have had a solid technical foundation, numerous of them were lacking that all important specialist experience to assist them win their dream career.
What NHU provides in expertise for the students is exceeded by what they, as volunteers, have contributed to NHU's plan. They have expertly refurbished dozens of pcs, which, in turn, have been donated to dozens of individuals with disabilities that would not have otherwise been able to afford a home laptop or computer.
Just like NHU's student volunteers, the individuals that receive the refurbished computers are trying to enhance their lives as a result of technological know-how. A personal computer means additional to them than many of us could ever imagine.
To several of NHU's recipients, a pc may be the tool they must pursue their dream work and ultimately their own financial freedom.
NHU's refurbishing software is run entirely by volunteer technicians. It basically would not be possible with out the expertise and dedication of their volunteers.
NHU's most recent group of volunteers will probably be graduating from Computer Pro Educational institutions in just weeks. It is NHU's hope that the practical knowledge the students have received will assist the students reach their job goals.
NHU would like to extend a special thank you to Craig, Dan, Fred, Jim and Jonathan for their dedication to seeing that all persons, no matter their earnings, may have admittance to a home pc.
Laptop or computer ProSchools Unveils New Website
Cutting edge know-how illustrates a clear picture of this state-of-art Microsoft IT Academy. Pc ProSchools, Inc. is excited to announce its new website located at www.pcproschools.edu.
FOR Immediate Release
PR Log (Press Release) – Apr 23, 2008 – Since 1994 Desktop ProSchools has been providing IT education inside Milwaukee area. Above the many years, Personal computer ProSchools expanded operations opening campuses in Green Bay, WI and Madison, WI. In 2006 and 2007 the campuses in Grand Rapids, MI and Indianapolis, IN respectively opened. “As we grow we wish to present a consistent brand image,” explains CEO James Brent. “When you enter a Starbucks, you immediately know where that you are because of the colors and décor and their promotional items and website carry this same experience and image.”
Earlier this 12 months Laptop or computer ProSchools hired InovaOne, a full-service strategic consulting organization specializing in creative design and production, media delivery and extensive outsourcing services located in Roswell, GA, to create a whole new branding concept. In addition for the website, InovaOne designed a whole new logo, institution colors and promotional materials to present a consistent image at the five Desktop ProSchools’ campuses located throughout the Mid-West.
“The objective of our new website is to provide prospective students with the initial info so they may be excited to take the next step and routine a campus visit” shares Vice President of Marketing and Admission, Wendy Mirenda. “When we 1st started out talking to InovaOne I was impressed with how they used high-tech avenues to present their messages. Being a state-of-the art Microsoft IT Academy, I believed we will need to be performing that.” And the new website does just that! www.pcproschools.edu offers interactive videos to highlight all that Pc ProSchools has to provide. In addition, a prospective student can analyze their own IT knowledge by way of the Computer system Knowledge Assessment or sign up to visit a campus appropriate by way of the website.
Overall, the new website offers general data about Desktop ProSchools, a series of student success stories shared directly from the students themselves inside a video testimonial format, Profession Companies and IT Business Truth tabs providing insight into how Desktop ProSchools gives students that winning advantage from the fastest expanding marketplace within the US. Another added benefit stands out as the new Employers page where IT managers and employers can come across out far more and make contact with us directly to hire among our graduates.
Desktop ProSchools also switched towards .edu website address from the earlier .com address. This address is exclusive to educational institutions, requiring evidence of your respective accredited status prior to even securing the complete address. Right after achieving accreditation with ACCET last yr Computer ProSchools skilled for this educational based address line. “We’re an accredited college,” explains VP of Schooling, Kate Pelchat, “we ought to be letting the general public know that by means of the use with the .edu address.” Visitors familiar with using the original website will now purely be redirected automatically towards www.pcproschools.edu website.
For much more facts on Pc ProSchools visit www.pcproschools.edu. For much more information about InovaOne visit www.inovaone.com.
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