I graduated!

So, I was taking a course to become a certified Community Health Worker; it lasted about 6 months and I completed 172 training hours out of the required 160. I also completed the 1000 volunteer hours required to receive the certification, so now all I have to do is wait for the mail to arrive with the diploma and my credential in it.

I'm actually quite happy that I finished this. The graduation was amazing; most of the ladies in the certification have never graduated from any higher education degree (some of them have not completed high school); they're, mostly, victims of intimate partner violence who have fled Mexico and entered the U.S. They are also quite older than me; between the ages of 35 and 78, so it was quite an experience to learn from these women and to help them through the certification.

During those 6 months, I provided these ladies with computer classes, since most of them did not know how to use a computer for academic purposes. After the classes, these ladies could make power point presentations and utilize resources on the internet (from certified organizations or government databases) in order to obtain information of a variety of topics. Well, I wasn't expecting any benefit from those classes since I was doing them voluntarily and quite happy to help these ladies, but they got me a wonderful wooden plaque with my name on it, thanking me for the help that I provided to them throughout the semester.

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Edna Aileen
Thank you
For your professionalism, charisma, and support throughout this certification.
"Community Health Worker Generation 2013"
University of Texas at El Paso
August 19, 2013


I was very touched and surprised that they gave me such a wonderful gift; I'm gonna be displaying it in my office alongside with my certification diploma and my bachelor's diploma.

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Here's the diploma.

It was a great class; we're also planning of setting up a local organization for community health workers to network.

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And this is us one day prior to graduation.
August 21st, 2013 at 06:38pm