Caminos Learning Center

In the late 1990s, the San Francisco Bay Area experienced a second Gold Rush. A young tech-savvy workforce streamed into the city hoping to stake its claim in dot-com history. But as thousands struck high-tech gold, many more--including the poor, the undereducated, and immigrants--were left behind.

Nowhere was this phenomenon more apparent than in San Francisco's Mission District. The historically Latino neighborhood was rapidly gentrifying as tech companies and high-paid young workers moved in, pushing out the neighborhood's longtime residents--primarily Hispanic Americans and immigrants from Mexico, Central America, and South America.

At the height of this transformation, in 1999, Sister Petra Chavez of the Catholic order Sisters of Mercy was concerned about the expanding "digital divide" that separated the tech-knowledge haves from the community's have-nots, namely poor Spanish-speaking women who were struggling to keep up working as nannies and house-cleaners and in other low-paying service jobs.

With the help of grants from foundations and donations of money and computer equipment from individuals, she founded Caminos Centro de Capacitacion/Pathways Learning Center , a nonprofit organization that teaches immigrant and low-income Latina women computer literacy.

Today Caminos occupies two buildings on Valencia Street in the heart of the Mission district. Two large classrooms have walls lined with colorful donated paintings and computer stations (some of which were among the first machines donated six years ago, now upgraded by students at the center). A third space serves as an additional classroom anda public computer repair center.

The center now trains almost 300 women per year during two semesters and a summer session, in classes ranging from basic computer use and typing to Internet literacy; software such as Microsoft Office and Photoshop; and computer repair, upgrading, and networking. Students also attend professional-development workshops covering resume- and cover letter-writing and interview skills, and participate in mock interviews with volunteers from Bay Area-based companies such as the Gap and Wells Fargo.

Tuition costs $65 per semester, which students can pay in installments if needed. The fees are waived for the estimated five percent of the center's students who are homeless or living in shelters.

"Ninety percent of our students have never touched a computer before they come here," said development director Sarah Monroy, who also teaches a Photoshop course at the center. "I saw a local news show recently about helping elderly people learn how to use the Internet, and the reporters were saying, 'Wow, there are still people in our community who don't know how to use the Internet.' But I guess I take that for granted, because I see that here all the time."

Classes are taught completely in Spanish, but the programs installed on the computers at the center, such as Microsoft Office applications and Photoshop, are all English versions. The students' textbooks include exercises that require them to use English, such as finding functions and help using a program's toolbar or the Internet, and formatting spreadsheets in Excel. Caminos also insists that students be enrolled concurrently in English classes while taking courses at the center.

"It wouldn't be enough for them to just have computer literacy--they need the English skills to get ahead," said Monroy.

Facing Challenges

Language isn't the only obstacle that Caminos students face. The majority of the women are immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaraugua, Venezuela, and other countries in Central and South America. Most have lived in the United States only two to five years before coming to Caminos. Many aspects of their cultural background may conflict with the ways of their adopted country.

"Some of us come here with the idea that we can't study, we won't grow professionally, we won't be anywhere but in the home," said Angela Perez, a student from Oaxaca, Mexico who has lived in San Francisco for three years and taken classes at Caminos for one and a half years. "But this country opens doors to men and women."

Still, family pressures prevent many women from coming to the center in the first place, as seen in decreased enrollment during the summer session. "It's harder for the students to come during the summer because school is out, and their children have nowhere to go," says Monroy. "School is childcare for our students." Once enrolled, some students struggle to complete the courses because they don't have the support of their spouses or families, Monroy explained. "They may have been told, 'You can't study, you have to care for the children, or you have to earn money.' There's often not a value placed on education for women, especially in technology."

Many women come to Caminos having completed only the equivalent of a middle school education, and self-esteem issues loom large in the introductory-level classes. But the students get over their fears quickly, says Monroy, helped by the fact that classes are conducted in their native language and that they have the support of a community of other women learners.

The instructors keep the women engaged by creating assignments that connect to their interests: In a Microsoft Word course, students visited the Palace of the Legion of Honor's Mayan art exhibit and then wrote a report using the program; in a Photoshop class, students make personalized calendars, scan and restore family photographs, and create digital photo albums of family events such as weddings and baptisms.

"I've had a number of good instructors who've really helped me," said student Perez. "That's how we're able to do it--the teachers motivate us. Each day I learn more and more, so I keep taking classes."

In fact, Monroy says, the confidence and joy in learning that students find at Caminos often inspires them to pursue higher educational goals--some go on to earn a GED, and others have gone even farther to study at community colleges or work toward a bachelor's degree.

Valuable Experience

While one of Caminos' central goals is to prepare women for the job market outside the classroom, the students are gaining valuable work experience before they complete the program, through internships at the onsite computer repair center and other organizations.

Student apprentices at Caminos Computer Services repair computers, refurbish donated systems to donate in turn to low-income students or organizations in the community, and help set up networks and new computers for local nonprofit organizations such as Mission Presbyterian Church. They also help teach computer classes to community organizations, such as the San Francisco-based Child Care Facilities Fund, and work on bookkeeping, inventory control, and customer service.

Two interns from Caminos worked during the spring 2005 semester at Global Web Creators in Daly City, a Web development firm that was started in 2000 to give Hispanic small businesses an online identity.

"I taught them some Web design and how to build Web sites with our systems," said Julio Escobar, the founder of Global Web Creators. "They had a foundation to understand what I was talking about, and with more time they would have been able to pick up a lot more." Escobar has given Caminos students tours of computer network centers, and helped with mock interviews in the professional development workshops.

And in a month-old program at the Salvation Army on Valencia Street, two Caminos participants--one student volunteer and one graduate who is now a paid employee--teach a class of 20 senior citizens about using the Internet.

"One of our social workers was taking classes at Caminos, and she told us about the program," said Gamaliel Ruiz, a senior director at the Salvation Army. Student volunteers and staff from Caminos Computer Services came in to upgrade the senior center's five computers. "They really helped us, and they gave us a reasonable price for the upgrades," said Ruiz. "What they're doing in the community is great."

Connecting with Students

Escobar says he had a natural connection to Caminos, as his own story mirrors that of many Caminos students: Born in San Francisco, his family moved back to El Salvador when he was a baby. When he returned to the United States at age 17, he quickly enrolled in courses at the now-closed Computer Learning Center, going on to eventually teach classes there.

For beginning Caminos students, many of whom haven't used a computer before enrolling in courses, gaining confidence with technology is half the battle--a fact that Caminos instructors address early on. "We have a guide for the beginners' classes in which we let them know that it takes a lot of time and practice to get comfortable with the computers," said instructor Clensi Barreno.

Making a personal connection with the students is another important part of building their confidence and trust, says Barreno. "Before and after class, the students chat for awhile, and they talk about their lives. I take note of what they say and often can relate it with the experiences that I have had," she said. "I believe they like the fact that we all have some things in common, which is why they gain trust with themselves and with the teachers. I try to keep the class a good, enjoyable environment where they can not only learn the different programs, but be able to learn from one another."

In the end, Barreno says she admires her students' willingness to overcome their fears and their tight focus on their goals despite the pressures they face outside the classroom.

"These women have many roles to play. They are students, workers, caretakers, wives, and most importantly, mothers," she said. "They want to improve their lives and their jobs, not only for themselves but also for their children. It gives me real pleasure to see them think about their future. It is never too late to learn."

The Road Ahead

For many Caminos students, their connection with the center doesn't have to end once they've completed their coursework. Some students stay on as teachers or as employees of the Caminos Computer Services Center.

Monroy says many Caminos graduates go on to work in the nonprofit sector, at such agencies as Exhale, which offers post-abortion counseling, The Salvation Army, The Mission Child Development Center, and the Healthy Families initiative in Sacramento.

"I think they see the community-based work we do here, and they're motivated to do that kind of work themselves," said Monroy. "They want to help others move up the way they were able to."

Other women are starting their own businesses. After taking classes at Caminos for just one and a half years, Liliana Bermudez has started a photograph-restoration and graphic design business using what she learned in the Photoshop course she took with Monroy. Bermudez and her business partner, who has also taken classes at Caminos, recently secured a small-business loan from ALAS, a program of the nonprofit Women's Initiative for Self-Employment that helps Latina women open their own businesses. Bermudez hopes the loan will help them buy new equipment, such as a printer that etches photos onto glass or crystal.

Bermudez helped design a logo, T-shirts, and hats for Paisano's Café in San Francisco, and she creates personalized calendars and restores photographs for people in the community. "Just yesterday a woman at the beauty salon asked, 'Can you fix this picture for me? My son is graduating from high school and I want to give him this photo so he can always remember when he was in Kindergarten,'" Bermudez said. "I gave the picture a background of pastel colors and designed a frame for it."

Bermudez says she had little exposure to technology when she came to the United States from Mexico City 13 years ago. "When I came to Caminos, it was my first time using a computer. I didn't even know how to move the mouse!"

To date, more than 1,500 graduates have completed classes at Caminos. Now the center is expanding its classroom far beyond its Valencia Street doors, with Alta Tecnología,a biweekly radio program about personal computing, technology, and the Internet, produced by Caminos students and Technology Director Bonifacio Dimas and simulcast on Spanish-language stations KIQI 1010-AM and KATD 990-AM. A possible television program for Univision is also in the works,according to Monroy.

Though the number of Latinos with computers in their homes in on the rise, Monroy says, there is still much to teach in terms of how to purchase, troubleshoot, and maintain computers. With its computer services center and media programs and the growing numbers of tech-educated women that it is sending out into the community to in turn educate their families and friends, Caminos hopes to shrink that gap.

"Caminos is so appropriately named," says Sara Paniagua, a student from Guatemala. "It has made a path that bridges where I come from and where I am now. It has given me so many opportunities."