We are very excited to announce that the Central Texas SPCA has successfully finished their pilot for Humane Education and The Dell Foundation has provided a grant to fund a cooperative program called "Software Skills through Humane Education." Thanks to the hard work of Laura Cairns, a member of the Board of Directors at the Central Texas SPCA, and the generosity of The Dell Foundation, the program is well underway. Youth volunteers from the Student Council of Old Towne Elementary School were also vital to the development of this program. The program is being led by Laura Cairns and Leslie Scantlin, a teacher at Old Towne. Also assisting with the program is Jessica Edwards, a former Board Member for the Central Texas SPCA, and Mallory Robinson, a staff member at the Central Texas SPCA shelter.
We are meeting at the beautiful Leander Library, which is right next door to the shelter. We have also begun holding sessions at the Round Rock Public Library. In each meeting, the volunteers read a story illustrating humane education topics then use Microsoft Office software to apply knowledge of humane education. Participants will learn how to operate MS Word, MS Excel, MS Power Point, and numerous other applications to help prepare them for the technological requirements of adulthood. They also learn to write recommendations for the dogs at each session which assists in their adoption. The volunteers help with grammar and punctuation. We invite you to read the recommendations written by our participants below and the success stories for the pets that followed the sessions!
We are very grateful to The Dell Foundation for their support, as well as to the Humane Education team and their participants and parents for making this a growing success!