PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR: So this is what you're going to be doing--
you have to put 100 microliters of the blue one and 200
microliters of the yellow one.
And you cannot cross contaminate.
There you go.
GERALD: My name is Gerald Kinyua,
I'm a student in the lab science program at Northern Essex
Community College, and I am 45 years old.
I came to the United States from Kenya with my family.
I love athletics--
I may not be very good at athletics but I did my best.
I also love singing.
Oh, yes.
I can sing, maybe, in Swahili if you don't mind.
[SINGING IN SWAHILI]
I actually won a green card lottery
to come and live and work in the United States.
In the United States, we have the best type of education,
so I was very happy because now I had the opportunity
to further my education.
I was doing micropipetting, and I just
filled 96 wells in two and a half minutes.
GERALD'S TEACHER: I remember talking with Gerald during your introductory
chemistry lab and we were talking about chemistry and how
excited you were about it and how much you wanted to pursue
a career in that, but that you were frustrated because you
weren't--
you didn't know how to go about doing it.
GERALD: They were going to start a new course, which
would ensure that those who go through the program
would fit into the job market very, very easily,
having acquired the skills that are required by the employers
around.
They informed me about the lab science program,
who went through it with them.
And I realized that it was a program fit for me
and slowly I started having hope.
GERALD'S WIFE: As soon as he met the staff
and he got into the program, he was very positive about it
and I could see the--
and again, him to work hard.
LAB INSTRUCTOR: So we can dump this out.
GERALD: Analytical chemistry
that involves a lot of testing and a lot of analysis
of the results that you get
LAB INSTRUCTOR: It looks good.
Exactly what we expected?
GERALD: In order to identify what would
be present in a given sample.
I really love working in the lab,
you are able to see what is happening.
It is very, very satisfying
COLLEGE PRESIDENT: One of the first meetings we
had with a group of employers, they said, we
get a lot of applicants who have bachelor's degrees, who
have master's degrees, even who have doctoral degrees,
and they know a lot of theory but they don't necessarily
know a lot of the hands-on and that's
been the concentration of the program.
GERALD: I've been in the program,
but I'm not clear about what is ATE.
PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR: The NSF, which is the National Science Foundation,
gave us the grant to Advanced Technological Education,
or ATE, to develop the curriculum
and to develop the courses for the laboratory science
program, which is a program that you completed.
With the money that we receive from this grant,
we did the curriculum development,
we bought some of the equipment, and we also
help with some of the training that you guys had and also some
of the visits to the employers.
GERALD: [SINGING IN SWAHILI]
I've built confidence slowly and now I
feel very, very comfortable in this place
and also in my career choice.
It was quite difficult to imagine that at my age,
I would be going back to school.
You tend to think that you're done with education,
but you have to look at what is best for your family.
[SINGING IN SWAHILI]
My wife and our kids, we would like to remain and live
in the United States.
Life is far much better than it was at the beginning,
so we are fitting in well.
I now am in a state of hopefulness and optimism,
so I'm ready to face the future.
[SINGING IN SWAHILI]