Thank you for taking the time to look at my project. As a retired special education high school teacher, and current mobile application and website developer, I would like to conduct technology training classes to help young adults with disabilities learn to develop mobile applications and websites at NO COST to them. In addition, at the completion of the class they will receive a laptop loaded with all the training and development software they will need, freelance accounts with services such as Odesk & Elance, and registered developer accounts with Apple, Google and Microsoft. My target students are those who were very high functioning in high school, but due to lack of ability to access the curriculum, or their social skills, their school was not able to give them a proper preparation for their post-secondary education, they were not able to get into college to continue their education.
When I retired from teaching, I created a storefront technology training center where I conduct classes for adults on how to use mobile devices such as iPads, iPhones, Android and Windows 8 devices. Our Technology Lounge also provides website development and Home Cyber Defense Services. My hope is to be able to provide classes for teaching these special young people technology skills for a productive and successful career in the development field. The classes will meet at least twice a week and last the length of a typical semester. I would keep the classes small, no more then 3 to students at a time, so the students would get receive an abundance of individual assistance. The goal of the program if fully funded would be to have a minimum of 12 students successfully complete the program in 2015. After successful completion of the course each student would be awarded with their own laptop, Apple, Google & Microsoft developer accounts, and Odesk & Elance accounts if they have the desire to Freelance instead of make their own products. (All my students will have to be out of high school and over 18.) I will ask any young adults interested in these classes to submit an application, and they will be interviewed and selected based on their ability to successfully complete the training program. Since the classes will be offered to them for free, I will be looking for students who truly have to drive to learn the material and the interest in computer programming to make it their lifelong career.
My timeline is to have everything in place so I may begin my first class in May. I anticipate the cost of providing each student their own laptop, training & development software, accounts with freelance services, and registering them as developers to be $2,000 per student. (The students completing my program would basically be able to to start their own development business with no out of pocket expenses.) The program will start in May regardless of how much is raised, we simply will adjust the numbers of students who will be able to participate to the success of the fundraising.
Once again, thanks for your time, and I hope you can see fit to help me make this dream become a reality for these young adults.
Biography:
To give you a brief background on myself, after spending 16 years as a special education teacher on a high school campus, my first experience with an iPad in 2010 led me on a journey of discovery and professional reinvention as a mobile app developer. At present I have 20 apps in the App Store for iPhones and iPads, 6 apps in Google Play for Android Devices, and 5 Apps in the Windows Store for Windows 8 devices. Retiring from teaching at the end of school year in 2014, my wife and I decided to open the Technology Lounge in Dickinson, Texas, a technology training center, teaching classes on how to use mobile devices. Although I left teaching, I didn’t want to leave my students behind; and by staying in touch with them I have experienced of all the difficulties many of them face with their careers. This discovery inspired me to pursue this latest dream; being able to provide my former students the skills, and equipment to have careers as web application developers.
