Besides trying to continue to loose weight for my trip to Cancun, which is a battle within itself, I've also started classes to further my education.
Thanks to the nonprofit organization called Community Impact, I'm taking classes that will help me get into college or any other program that will further my education and help me get a job in a higher pay grade. The program is in Columbia University and can help me get on the fast track to getting into Columbia U itself if I so choose.
It's for people in the community who need help continuing there education because of financial difficulty or any other situation. Many people get stuck because they can't afford classes to continue there education or maybe they forgot how to be a student, but this program helps people of all ages get back on there feet and back into school.
They have many other programs that help the community, like programs to help get a job, to help get financial aid for school, that help those who need food stamps or health care, programs to help the homeless, or free classes for those who need help learning English, and these are just to name a few.
Unfortunately the program isn't very organized, and this can lead to lots of confusion.
I had to call their office about 5 times before I got someone to tell me where I can take my placement test, and we didn't get our scores and class assignments until the first day of class (Yesterday) which was a trick in itself since they didn't know where to tell us to go get them in the first place.
There's also a lot of confusion about textbooks. How much they will cost, which ones you will need, and when to buy them. Plus on top of that, when we did get out class assignments, not all of them were on our schedules, because they don't have rooms available for those classes yet. I know they are having trouble with Columbia getting classrooms for many of these classes, which then trickles down to confusion for the students because much like the game of telephone, by the time the information gets to the last person, the information has changed... I know...it makes me dizzy just thinking about all this.
I wasn't the only one who was confused. Many of the other students as well as teachers all seemed to be getting different information.
But even with all the problems I've had with the program so far, I'm hoping that once all this "start of semester" confusion is settled, things will go a bit more smoothly.
It's a vital program for the community, for the college, and personally, I know in the end, it'll be worth sticking with it.
(Funny photo provided by Photobucket and directly linked)
