February - Wingspan

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February 14, 2011 wingspan.lccc.wy.edu features Everyday heroes answer the call Wingspan23 Radiography program gets $337,000 grant Digital imaging equipment gives students real-life practice Photos by Kadie Floud A drop of courage: Colton Eatmon donates blood during the blood drive in the student lounge, Jan. 31. According to the American Red Cross, currently only three of every 100 people in America donate blood. By Jamille Smith Opinion Editor The Laramie County Community College radiography program moved into a new direction, with new equipment that sets it apart from any other educational institutions in the region. LCCC’s radiography program received a $337,000 grant for new radiography equipment to allow radiography students to gain more in class experience during lab times, rather than the minimal time they were receiving during clinicals. The equipment that was purchased is called direct radiography unit. According to Starla Mason, LCCC’s radiography program director, the direct radiography unit is the most up-to-date technical equipment in the field right now. The Federal Health Occupation Educational grant was written for the LCCC radiography program and was originated when U.S Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., was still alive. LCCC did not have to contribute to the grant because the grant was provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The grant was written specifically for educationally advances in the medical field, and the program most definitely fit the parameters. The old equipment was made in the 1970s and used film to process images. The new equipment is digital and processes in three seconds whereas the old equipment took 10 minutes. The radiography program had already brought its curriculum up-to-date in the classroom, but the new equipment allows the program to offer work that is also current. In class the students were learning about what they would do in the field and in clinicals, but now the students are able to apply what they have been learning in the classroom setting before working on live patients. “The advantage of having a lab on campus is allowing the students to use phantoms (manikins with human-like skeletons) and mimic real-life situations with a patient, but if they mess up, they haven’t exposed anyone,” Mason said. “We don’t want them to have their messups on real patients. It helps us to troubleshoot in the lab for real-life situations.”
24 Wingspan features February 14, 2011 wingspan.lccc.wy.edu Come Let’s Dance Education spreads to rural district in Africa’s Uganda By Josh Apodaca A&E Editor In the U.S., education is viewed as a right, but in Third World countries it’s a privilege; a privilege the majority of youth cannot attain. On Feb. 7 Wakiso Christian International Academy opened, giving students in the African country of Uganda the privilege and hope for their future. Uganda, an impoverished country on the east side of sub-Saharan Africa, receives ineffective Western aid more often than not. A non-governmental organization called Come Let’s Dance (an organization funded solely by family and friends) is based incountry out of a town called Nansana. The organization bases its aid on empowering the community and striving toward becoming self-sustainable. “The main question we asked ourselves was ‘How do we break this circle of poverty’” Julie Howard, a leader of the organization, said. “The answer has always been education, but we’ve been so focused on the survival needs of the people that we could never do much.” She explained under the government schooling system of Uganda the teachers use an aggressive fear approach. Children are beaten, often for something as silly as wearing a mismatched pair of socks or the wrong type of shoes. Also the curriculum is based on memorization of facts and answers; critical thinking is neither taught nor encouraged. Instead WCIA’s motto is to love each student individually. The property for the school was purchased by Come Let’s Dance in February 2010 in a rural village in Uganda called Wakiso. The land was nowhere close to student-ready, as the classrooms, full of manure and often flooded, had housed animal feeders and had not been maintained even to shelter animals any more. Howard said that naturally the first step was deep cleaning the property before construction or renovation could start. “It seemed impossible to transform the place into an organization. We had to clear the property, make bricks for construction and have the place clean before the real work could start,” Howard said. Local villagers were hired for construction, providing opportunities for them to earn money to support themselves and families if they had one. Despite all the work required, construction was finished in January. Some 60 students were registered, 40 from the children’s house that Come Let’s Dance works alongside and 20 from the surrounding area. Howard said many of the parents registering their children were paying themselves, which was a real step forward. WCIA will be a primary school hosting children from preschool to fourthgrade. “We don’t want to close the doors on anyone, but 100 kids is our max,” Howard said. Class sizes are aimed at one teacher to 20 children; the normal in Uganda is one teacher to 60–100 children, Howard said. The curriculum in Ugandan government schools is strictly core classes such as reading, English, math and science. WCIA, however, will include weekly music, P.E., cooking, health and nutrition and arts and crafts, teaching them life skills that are generally overlooked. “The people that we work with in Uganda have nothing, but they are more happy and satisfied with life than most people,” Howard said. She explained the organization has only enough to open and doesn’t have enough chalkboards or chairs. Come Let’s Dance hopes to expand into a secondary school that will prepare students for universities. The LCCC community can help the school in many ways: Come Let’s Dance has a website www.comeletsdance.org with links to donations, news and more information about its program and other projects. The ways in which you can help are as follows: • Desk and chair: $50; • A teacher’s salary: $200 a month or $1,200 for the school year; • Lunch for one month: $300. Best Cookies in Town (307) 638-2121 Fax (307) 772-7647 3757 E. Lincolnway Cheyenne, WY 82001 Photos by Julie Howard Trash to class: Before, the site in Uganda was used to house animals such as cattle and swine. Above, workers hired from the surrounding area rennovate the buildings. Center, registered student Stacia shows of her pipe cleaner glasses. Pat Hamil Owner 1900 E. 21st street~Cheyenne, WY. 82001 307-634-7914 ~ 1-800-451-7922 www.PotpourriFlowers.com
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February - Wingspan

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