Re: Training Centers
cea jones. i hope you ended up emailing the man i involved in our little twitter exchange about your questions. he is a really smart man and the leader of the program at louisiana center for the blind. hope he was able to answer your questions. if you haven't emailed him, i implore you to do. he will be able to answer your questions a lot better than anyone here could do. that beeing said, i'm gonna provide my answers.
a bit of back ground first.
i am a 20 year old colledge student. i grew up in St. Louis Missouri and i go to college in Springfield Missouri. they are about 3 hours by car away from each other. my college is small, like only a few thousand students, but i like it like that. its big enough to be some what anonymous, but yet, the professors get to know you really well, and you have a nice sized group of friends. i did the high school program down at Louisiana Center back in 2010 and while extremely challenging, it was very rewarding in
the long run. i will explain most of that when answering the questions.
1. Efficiency. 6 months is a long time. I expect I've got a chunk of the starting skills. Can I expect my time will be used efficiently?
yes very much so. i only did the high school program. it is only 3 months as aposed to the adult program. the adult program includes several different things that the student one does not. including, a longer training time, and harder and loftier goals. in order to graduate, you will need to make several large meals for upwards of 10-50 people, complete a wood shop project such as a desk, chess board, or something else it doesn't really matter, and completing a travel root called a drop. all of these of course under sleep shades .
i will address sleep shades here as well, because you don't really talk about them anymore, which was kind of surprising. there are a few reasons why sleep shades are used. firstly, it level
s the playing field for all the students. so if student a is doing the same thing as student b both under sleep shades, it can be a confedence boost to all parties involved because both students see that they are being successful. second off in some situations, like mine, people's vision can change. i don't know what my vision could do. i could loose the rest of my vision, or it could stay the same. so when i used the sleep shades, it gave me the confidence that no matter what my vision will do i can be successful in spite of what what my vision does. on the flip side of that, if your vision wont change, you still will have the confidence that if you can do it with out sight, you can sure as well do it with vision.
now, people are gonna say, "oh so the nfb hates using vision. they think its a sin to look at something. after all, we are blind so we cann't use any vision at all." this is as far from the truth as it can be. i
n most cases, especiall when people don't have anytraining before going to a center, if they use there little remaining vision to do something, sometimes thats more detremental to that person's safety. him or her is just better off learning alternative techniques.
the nfb doesn't swear off vision, its being inteligetn enough to know what works for you and what makes you the most
efficient. e.g. a mixture of non-visual and if you have the vision, visual techniques.
2. On the other hand, free time. Will I have to put aside software / networking / creative aspirations, or will there be time for those?
there is leasure time to hang out with the other people in the program with you. and you can have alone time too.
3. Over-the-top scenario: someone dumps me in the middle of Ontario, and I have to find my way back to campus. Can I gain this power?
they wouldn't have you do it for graduation, if they haven't done
it them selves or have other graduates that have done it before you.
4. My only support network is immediate relatives, which is unpleasant. Will I be able to break away from this?
my personal opinion is that family is there for a reason when you need it, but it takes self-discipline and independence to know what you can handle and what you can't. and for some people, they ddon't get that confidence, until they go threw a program.
5. I don't want to move to a major city. Will I still be able to travel (mostly) independently?
your only limited by your motivation and your environment. for example, if you live in a more rural area, you don't have oprotunities like public transit, so your gonna have to be more self-advicating such as getting rides from other people such as neighbors and friends. where as if you live in a more metropolitan area, you can have lots of public transit opprotunities at your finger tips. so it depends on wh
at your looking for, and where you want to live at. there are plently of options in the middle of the spectrum as well btw.
6. Rules and restrictions. Just in general. One can learn a lot about the people they'll deal with from their rules.
the adult program treats you like adults. you do need to go to your classes of course. and you will have other obligations like meetings, and other things. but in free time, its free time. so you can basicly do what ever you want to do. with in the bounds of the law of course.
7. WSB hasn't even touched cleaning and repairs. My property is a spider/ant/mold haven. Will I learn how to correct this?
you do do repair stuff in shop class. and you handle lots of cleanings in the homeEc class. but if you have any specific questions about specific situations and what to do, i know the teachers will be more than willing to answer your questions.
8. On average, how many people are enrolled at a given time, and w
hat are the demographics like? Age, gender, education, home state, etc.
well the adult program is 18 and over, but i know that they try to get a wide variety of participants to expand everyone's exposure to different people and things.
9. (Addendum to 2) What's internet access like? I don't object to "not much", if there's, like, a Starbux I can use ~once or twice a day.
i know there are computers at the center, but things might have changed in the past few years since i went, so i'd reserve the question to some of the people. i am not sure if there is wifi at the apartments, but i'm pretty sure they wouldn't object to you bringing a router. when i was in the student program, there was a guy that brought a hot spot and we used that a bit.
10. Culture. I am highly resistant to assimilation (which has its ups and downs, IME). What's the memetic landscape typically like?
not exactly sure what you mean by
this question. please explain?
11. I need control over my life more than I need a job, but positive income would help loads. Can I expect advantages on that front?
well, it would depend on your personal aspirations. however, when the skills and confidence you get from graduating from a center can set you out among many job applicants. but you will still need to combat many stereo types and misconceptions about blindness.
12. Can I have a million dollars? (Just thought I'd check, just in case.)
while not a million dollars. the nfb does give scholarships to students. several are several thousand dollars.
hope this helped, and if you have anymore questions. please feel free to ask.
URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=166803#p166803
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