RELEASE NUMBER: 040819-01
DATE POSTED: AUGUST 19, 2004
Computer donation provides Iraqi students with hands-on learning
By Sgt.
1st Class Clarence Kugler
478th Civil Affairs Battalion
BAGHDAD, Iraq
(USASOC News Service, Aug. 19,
2004) — Can you imagine sitting in
a computer class and your teacher
holds up a magazine and says, “This is what your computer looks like.
You will
not have an actual computer to work with during this course because
they are
missing.”
According to the vice president of Iraq’s Foundation of
Technical Education, Dr. Moneer Hameed Al-Saadi, this was common
practice at
some technical universities after the looting of Iraqi schools last
year. But
thanks to the recent delivery of new computers by the 478th
Civil
Affairs Battalion, Miami, Fla., students will now have an opportunity
to work
on 23 new computers by late July, gaining the necessary hands-on
experience
vital to computer proficiency, what was only a dream to the students
will now
become a reality.
1st Lt. Jose Escamilla, of Pembroke Pines, Fla.,
478th CA Bn. said after the delivery, “Our delivery was the
last
step in a long chain of activity to bring the students the tools they
need to
learn. The first step was identifying the need, which was handled by
Baghdad
Central, a military component of the former Coalition Provisional
Authority. Afterward, the money was
allocated to purchase computers.”
He added, “Lieutenant Colonel Rolando Contreras of our unit
promised to make the computer delivery when the computers arrived.”
Contreras,
a citizen-Soldier from Homestead, Fla., said, “The 478th is
willing
to do whatever it can, whenever it can, for the citizens of Baghdad.”
1st Lt. Laura Ropelis of the 350th Civil Affairs
Command, Pensacola, Fla., was the action officer on the project, which
was
funded with $28,100. She consulted with Ambassador Joseph Ghougassian,
now the
deputy senior adviser at the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and
Scientific
Research. FTE was chosen because of need and the desire of the
organization to
have a teaching computer center.
FTE offers two-year technical diplomas, four-year Bachelor
of Technology degrees, and a master’s degree program. Technology
degrees may be
obtained in engineering, health, medical, agriculture, administration
and
applied art. FTE
enrolls more than
5,000 students. The first students to be able to put their hands on the
computers will be from the School of Administration. Many of these
students
will move into government jobs, according to Moneer.
The 478th’s Spc. Marlene Edior, a native of
Miami, served as security on the delivery.
“The mission was rewarding to me because I felt we were
helping open the gateways of technical knowledge to people,” Edior
said, after
the delivery.
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