printable versionEnglish learners in housing and dining now being taught basic computer skills
BY SHELBY MARTIN
Classmates help one another while Dr. Ernesto Gaona (standing) and Christine Gabali, instructors in the Workplace Education Literacy program, make sure all the employees understand how a PC keyboard works.
Antonio Gutierrez Segovia, left, looks on as Christine Gabali shows David Pineda how to save a document.
Besides computer skills, Gaona teaches about diet, diabetes prevention and traditional herbal remedies.
Christine Gabali speaks English with an accent that baffles many. Born in Cairo to an Egyptian father and Greek mother, she lists Arabic, Spanish and French as her native tongues. She also is fluent in German and Italian.
It's no surprise, then, that she associates so strongly with those struggling to learn a foreign language.
Since 2003, Gabali has taught small classes of employees in the university's housing and dining operations to speak and read English through a program called Workplace Education Literacy (WEL).
Also part of her original plan, but unfunded until now, was to teach another essential skill every adult should possess.
"Did you all boot up your computers?" Gabali asked during a recent session on Feb. 8. That class consisted of a half-dozen workers wearing uniforms of blue button-up shirts and khakis, as well as groundskeepers in dark pants and work boots.
After the students hit the keystroke combo control-alt-delete as instructed, the cheerful sounds of laptops starting up gradually filled the conference room in the Galvez Module, where classes are held on Fridays at noon.
"Bravo!" Gabali said, clapping. She teaches in stiletto heels and darts around the room, reading computer screens and reaching between students. That day, she walked her students through the process of launching Microsoft Word—with instructions that drifted between Spanish and English.
"Are you missing a mouse?" she asked one student.
"The cat ate it," he answered in Spanish, prompting Gabali to reach into a cabinet at the back of the room for another mouse. She then had every student open a new document and instructed them to type "The."
"The 'T' must be capital," she told one group, pointing out the shift key. The assignment, after all, was to write a full sentence. Groundskeeper Refugio Flores typed out, "The Roble tree is healthy."
The workers also learned how to save their documents that day, and at the end of class, most gave Gabali a goodbye hug before heading back to work.
Gabali said her inspiration for the WEL program came from her time as a resident fellow in Roble Hall. While living in the dorm, Gabali said she noticed "a huge rift, a schism" between the students and staff at Stanford. On one hand, students were getting a world-class education, while on the other, many of the people cleaning their bathrooms had not even attended elementary school in their native countries.
The WEL program is "like an oasis in the middle of the desert" for the employees who participate in it, Gabali said. "They're just thirsty for knowledge."
In 2000, Gabali founded the International Alliance in Service and Education (IASE), a nonprofit organization that promotes health literacy through service learning programs in Mexico and South Africa. She started the WEL program as part of IASE in 2003.
That year, Gabali proposed launching a 10-week pilot program to Shirley Everett, senior associate vice provost for residential and dining enterprises (R&DE). Everett approved, and six classes, accommodating different learning levels, starting meeting for an hour per week to study English. The classes include a health portion taught by Dr. Ernesto Gaona, IASE's medical director, with topics that include nutrition, diabetes prevention and the use of traditional herbal remedies.
Managed by Emma Gordon, director of human resources for R&DE, the program aims to instill skills that will serve as the foundation for educational and career development. And since 2003, about 30 employees have improved their basic English skills through WEL, according to Gabali.
"Although the R&DE-WEL program is directed to a selected group of entry-level staff, we strongly believe that it can ultimately serve a broader range of university employees," Everett said.
Gabali now teaches three English classes and one for computer skills. R&DE pays for the WEL program's books and IASE's administrative expenses. R&DE also donated the six refurbished laptops for the computer class, which is supported by employee STAP (Staff Training Assistance Program) funds.
Initially, Gabali turned to corporations for sponsorship. Wells Fargo offered some funding for the program's first year but didn't renew its support. Other companies simply contributed in kind.
"Starbucks gave us half a pound of coffee," Gabali laughed.
Meanwhile, her students were getting anxious. "They kept asking, 'When will we have computers? When will we have computers?' I said, 'Bear with me on this. You want half a pound of coffee?'"
The first computer literacy class met on Jan. 11.
Gabali's goal is to acquire more computers and funding for the program so she can increase the number of classes. Just as she initially worked with students who volunteered to teach English to participants in the WEL program, Gabali hopes to get students back on board as private tutors who can earn course credit for imparting basic computer skills.
Flores said he tried taking computer classes offered off campus but found them frustrating. He recalled how he would be trying to find the letters on his keyboard when other students were several steps ahead. "They were already too advanced," Flores said.
"We've been asking for these classes for a long time," said fellow groundskeeper David Pineda Ixtla. "We're very behind."
Gabali stressed the importance of structuring her curriculum to meet the needs of her pupils. "When you're in education, you develop programs pertaining to your population, not the other way around," she said.
Gabali earned a master's degree in education from Stanford in 1973. Then after earning her doctorate in international education from the University of San Francisco, Gabali came back to Stanford and taught graduate courses in education and dance ethnology.
Gabali was married in Memorial Church and gave birth to her two children at Stanford Hospital. She was a resident fellow in Roble for 11 years, until 2006.
"I'm a Stanford graduate that never left," she said. "I'm very tenacious. I have this passion, and I know it will work. Otherwise, I wouldn't open my mouth."
Shelby Martin is an intern at the Stanford News Service.