Empowering Children Through Access to Education March 18, 2011
Posted by jimintriglia in Community Service, Education, Harambee Kenya, Personal Interest.1 comment so far
Miss Lilian Awino
I received a letter from Lilian , a 16-year old Kenyan girl I began sponsoring last year through Harambee Kenya. George Oyeho and Carol Carper, President of Harambee Kenya, Inc,. a Colorado 501(c)(3) nonprofit, have been hard at work, along with Friends of Africa Education, building and equipping the new Uluthe St. Anton’s Mixed Secondary School for the people of the Mung’ao sublocation.
In 2009, over cups of coffee in a neighborhood Starbucks, the Harambee Student Scholarship Program was born. One of the 2009 scholarship winners was Lilian Awino, a 14 year-old aspiring journalist, who also has an interest in science and technology.
Lilian and Margaret: Practicing their Science Project
Like many children living in sub-Saharan Africa, Lilian faces serious challenges that threaten to lock her into a life of poverty. Providing access to education, along with basic living necessities, such a food, shelter, clean water, etc., can free a child like Lilian from poverty.
The need in Africa, like many other places around the World, is great, and funds are limited. This year, the organization that was providing the majority of funding for Lilian’s education could not fund her for the 2011 year.
If Lilian is to have any hope of meeting the serious challenges that she faces now and in the future, funds to enable her to continue her education must be raised.
If you would like to be a part of helping Lilian realize her dream of becoming a Journalist, please consider making a contribution toward her $150 school fee. You can make a donation to support Lilian through Harambee Kenya via PayPal. (Note: Please add a note when donating via PayPal that your donation is to benefit Lilian Awino.) You can also contact me if you would like to make a donation via cash, check or credit card. Thanks and God bless.
Investing 101: Getting Started with Stock Market Investing November 21, 2010
Posted by jimintriglia in Education, Investing, Personal Interest, Stock Market.1 comment so far
Over the years, I’ve done well investing in securities and even commodities (gold). Much of this success I owe to being a good student of a handful of wise investors, including my Mom, who has been actively investing in the market for well over fifty years. I learned much from talking with her over the years about investing and the stock market.
I recall first dipping my toe into mutual fund investing back in in early 90′s, after reading Peter Lynch’s Beating the Street. After absorbing the knowledge and wisdom contained in his book, I began investing in mutual funds. I continued reading about investment strategies and continued learning from investors who practiced Lynch’s research and investing strategies. Not surprisingly, I did very well in the years that followed. I avoided violating Rule #1, enjoyed double-digit returns on my investments, and exited the market in 1999 with my investments intact, well before the 2000 dot-com bubble burst.
After being absent as an active investor in the market, I decided it was time to take another look and see if there was any significant money to be made. In need of a bit of a refresher and eager to find a good foundational book on stock market investing, I perused Amazon.com and came upon Jason Kelly’s The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing, 2010 Edition. A five-star rating and 38 custom reviews caught my attention, so I began reading some of the reviews.
The next day, I visited my local Barnes & Noble book store, where I had the opportunity to review many books on the subject of stock market investing. I ended-up choosing Jason’s Kelly’s book, as he is among investment writers that have the ability to clearly and concisely define what can be at times a rather complex subject. His Neatest Little Guide (NLT) to Stock Market Investing is logically organized, so it will serve as a good quick-reference guide once its relegated to my bookshelf. Topics were presented to educate, inform and progress readers to the point of making their first stock purchase, an admirable undertaking for any stock market investing “how-to” book.
I found the NLG an engaging and educational read. I recommend this book for those contemplating investing in the stock market. Be sure to visit Jason Kelly’s blog to learn more about him and read about his perspectives on the market and personal finance.
Have you read Jason Kelly’s NLG to Stock Market Investing? What other books and resources would you recommend that have enabled you to profit from your investments in the market?
Camtasia vs Screenflow: Battle of the Screencasting Platforms June 11, 2010
Posted by jimintriglia in Apple Mac, Communications, Education, Screencasting.4 comments
After sorting through a dozen or so screencasting applications for the Apple Mac platform, I’ve settled on Camtasia for the Mac, with Telestream’s ScreenFlow running a close second. My principal goal was to find a screencasting application that would enable me to create scripted screencasts, in addition to “quick and dirty” narratives that I could embed in various media.
After working with ScreenFlow for several days, I found myself growing frustrated with the lack of basic tools, such as being able to add simple pointer graphics to my screencast during post-production editing. I also had difficulty editing audio tracks, and resigned myself to the fact that I would likely have to record audio separately via applications like Apple’s GarageBand or Audacity if I decided to go with ScreenFlow as my screencasting tool.
Camtasia for the Mac seemed to be a more polished application as compared to ScreenFlow, which I would expect, as the Microsoft Windows versions of Camtasia products have been in development for years. ScreenFlow appears to have a better community of users willing to help each other, even to the point of developing free add-on tools and providing feedback on community members screencasts. Camtasia for the Mac crashed several times on my MacBook Pro, something I do not expect Mac applications to do. On the positive side, my recent work was saved, so the only time I lost was in rebooting the application.
There is much discussion on the web and on Youtube as to whether Camtasia for the Mac or Screenflow is best for professional and business screencasting. Here’s one review of Camtasia from a user that uses Screenflow:
Don McAllister‘s Screencastonline is a great example of the power of educational screencasts. I’ve used several of Don’s screencasts to preview applications that are of interest to me. Last year, I previewed Don’s screencast of OmniFocus, and decided to purchase the software for my Mac and iPhone. Not only did his screencast review of OmniFocus provide enough information for me to make a purchase decision, I learned enough from the screencast to begin using the application as soon as I downloaded and installed the package. (Don uses ScreenFlow for capture and assembly edit; Final Cut Studio for final production editing.)
I’ve still got 25 days left in my Camtasia free trial evaluation, which I’ll put to good use in testing other applications that I have in mind. Screenflow offers a free trial download, but I the heavy watermarking gets in the way of evaluating finished screencasts. Telestream should consider eliminating the watermarking to better compete with Techsmith’s Camtasia, or at least make the watermark more transparent, so prospective customers can better evaluate the video capture quality.
Next month, I’ll share with you whether I decided to purchase Camtasia for the Mac or Screenflow. Please post your experience with either application, especially if you have evaluated both products.
Screencasting: A Power Tool in the Communicator’s Toolbox May 30, 2010
Posted by jimintriglia in Communications, Education, Screencasting.add a comment
Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.
Several weeks ago, I was sharing and idea with a colleague about a new web application I was developing. When we got to talking about communicating the benefits of this new application to the audience that would benefit from its use, she asked me if I could put something together that would help people get their “heads around” the idea.
God no, not another slide show presentation… or an informative article, brochure or other well-worn media tool that holds attention for 10-15 seconds before getting cast aside or clicked-through.
Unwilling to down the same old worn path again, I decided to invest a few weeks and research what some innovative people were doing to improve on communicating complex ideas. I was not disappointed with what I found.
I’ve been aware of Screencasting for quite some time now. I recognized the benefits of screencasting from the perspective of teaching, marketing and communicating complex ideas and concepts. I never engaged the approach because of the rather large investment of time, money and energy required to produce a good screencast. I much rather invest that time in developing web applications.
What I discovered as I read blog after blog on screencasting, is that the applications and technology have significantly reduced the time, money and energy involved in producing a screencast that folks will actual value. Over the next few weeks, I share the great resources that I have discovered along my screencasting journey.
If you too can’t bear to create yet another plain-Jane blog post, brochure, quick-start guide or the like, stay tuned. I’ll be posting some of the gems that I found in the last three weeks surfing the net.
Effectiveness in Winning Scholarships January 18, 2009
Posted by jimintriglia in Career Development, Education, Winning Scholarship Strategies.Tags: academics scholarships
2 comments
Process, Planning, Strategy and Knowing Oneself Key to Winning Scholarship Dollars
As a life-long learner, I have met college graduates over the course of my academic career that scoffed at the notion of using student loans as a principal means of financing a college education.
These grads would often ask me why I would choose to go into debt through a student loan when there was an abundance of free money available in the form of scholarships and grants?
I had always considered the prospect of winning scholarship as being reserved for a small percentage of students that were either geniuses, athletes, minorities or unique in some other special way that would serve to opt me out.
When I returned to college a few years ago however, I learned during the college admissions process that I automatically qualified for a $500 Pell Grant. It suddenly occurred to me that there was money available to help students finance their education.
Could I really finance most of my college education through winning scholarships and pursuing educational grants? I decided to dedicate some time and find out if what I had been told over the years was indeed true.
In researching the topic of winning scholarships, I came across several good books that addressed the subject of applying for scholarships. While these books addressed certain parts of the scholarship winning process, none of them presented any kind of a strategy, plan or process that addressed how to go about winning scholarships.
In reading about students that had won scholarships over the years, it was apparent that they had both a defined strategy and process that they used to win college scholarships. Simply applying for scholarships willy-nilly did not appear to be the strategy that these students used to win scholarships of any financial significance. There was growing evidence that a “shoot-from-the-hip” approach to winning scholarships was an excellent investment in frustration, as well as a waste of valuable time and energy for students and parents alike.
Along the lines of having a proven systematic process and strategic plan to
effectively winning scholarships, one series of books stood alone from the rest. The author, Benjamin Kaplan, financed most of his Harvard education at age 21, by winning two dozen merit-based scholarships totaling $90,000. His national acclaim and testimonials by parents and students that had used his winning scholarship approach supported his claim that many more students could finance their college education through winning scholarships.
In reviewing Kaplan’s “10 Day Scholarship Success” plan present in audio book format, his book “How to Go To College for Almost Free” and accompanying website Scholarshipcoach.com, several key requirements essential for winning scholarships were apparent. Some of the key areas that addressed an effective winning scholarship strategy include:
- Investing a significant amount of time to discover one’s career interests, unique talents and skills, before beginning the process of researching and applying for scholarships.
- Investing time to learn how to organize information needed to launch an effective winning scholarship campaign.
- Realizing that being effective in winning scholarships is a process that requires advance planning, organizational skills and a good deal of patience.
In applying Kaplan’s approach to winning scholarships, I discovered that his approach provides a systematic means for students to discover their true career interests, strengths and unique talents. The benefits alone gained by embarking on his winning scholarship journey can be greater than the actual winning of a scholarship itself, as the so much self-knowledge and career planning clarity is gained by a student during the course of using his process.
Kaplan’s personal style and his approach to winning scholarships resonates well with high school students. His strategy translates equally well for adult learners and even middle school students and parents that want to get an early start funding their college education.
For college-bound students that endeavor to minimize their college education debt by employing a winning scholarship strategy, Ben Kaplan’s winning scholarship books are a must-read.
