When Mrs. Boutilier came to me junior year to ask me what I wanted to do for my capstone, I knew right away: I wanted to help people with technology. I just did not at the time know who I would help but I knew what I wanted to do. Then as senior year started, I realized the age group most in need of technological help were senior citizens. So, during September of senior year, I right away emailed the head coordinator of the Wethersfield senior center and ask her if I could do my capstone project there and help senior citizens with technology. It turned out to be something I looked forward to going every time. I was interviewed for the first time ever in my life by who ended up being my supervisor and mentor; Lisa Galipo. Even though I had never been interviewed before, I was not nervous by any chance so the interview turned out to go very well and we decided to hold one on one lessons between me and any senior citizen that needed help on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-5 PM. Lisa Galipo is honestly such an amazing human being and I have never met anyone as kind as her ever before. The senior center is supposed to close at 4 PM everyday but, she keeps it open for me until 5 PM so I can do my capstone project. I am positive not a lot of people will ever do that for me and go beyond regulations of something just to help someone out. Senior citizens showed up every week and contacted Lisa Galipo to ask her if they could have a one on one session with me for an hour. Lisa Galipo is honestly such an amazing human being and I have never met anyone as kind as her ever before. The senior center is supposed to close at 4 PM everyday but, she keeps it open for me until 5 PM so I can do my capstone project. I am positive not a lot of people will ever do that for me and go beyond regulations of something just to help me out.

​

My project is still ongoing and I honestly do not plan on stopping anytime soon. I am willing to go to and help people at the senior center anytime when I have time, even during college. So far, the project has been going fantastic and I still look forward to go there every Tuesday and Thursday. Even when I have a lot of homework and due dates coming up, I still go and I just cramp everything into my schedule afterwards. I love helping these kind senior citizens so much that somedays if I have a headache, I go there and by the end of time, the headache is completely gone and does not come back. I honestly still go because of how appreciated I am by the senior citizens and my supervisor. Often, students take for granted how much they are appreciated by people, but I absolutely do not. I am from Pakistan and I would expect not to be treated how I get treated by these senior citizens. They genuinely do not care about my race or judge me by my race, they come to learn about their technological device and have a good laugh which always turns out well! I know for a fact I could not have picked out a better capstone project to do with more passion than this simply because of the massive amount of appreciation I earn every time I go there. Even though I have not met most of the workers at the senior center, most of them know me because my clients (the senior citizens I help) go around telling others of how much I have helped them which brings in more senior citizens I have never met and it is always a refreshing and great feeling to meet a new person who is eager to learn about technology!

 

One specific moment I will forever remember is not a moment, it is a person that has taught me a lot over time. There is this senior citizen that has come to take classes with me three times and every single one of those classes have been an amazing experience. He first ever came to me when he had just gotten a new laptop from PC Richards and they sort of lied to him when he bought the brand-new windows 10 laptop he was very excited about and I exposed the truth to him. PC Richards gave my client-to-be at the time a laptop had that previously been set up on an account under an organization. They told him the laptop was brand new when he bought it but that was clearly not the truth and I showed him the account. The account on the laptop had a profile picture of an African American and PC Richards told my client-to-that the guy was Microsoft’s logo; they tried fooling MY client. So I told him to go back and get it fixed, which worked out well. After that was fixed, he was excited to take lessons with me and he has learned a lot overtime and what I like about this guy is that he likes to do it all himself. Often, my clients let me do everything and show them around instead of taking the initiative themselves, but this guy always wants to have his hand on the mouse instead of me controlling the computer. The last time he came, about two weeks ago, I experienced something I had never. So, after our third session together of great laughs throughout all sessions, he offered me $20 for my teaching him. Now, my clients have often offered me money in the past but I have always said no and never even thought about taking it, but this time it was different. He asked my supervisor, Lisa Galipo, if she will allow me to accept the $20. She said that it was between my client and me. I insisted on not taking money but then, he said this: “I will be offended if you do not take the money.” I had no choice after that… I then thought about it afterwards and realized that if someone really wants to genuinely give you the money, they will go lengths to make sure you receive the money. Such as my client who would not give up trying to give me the money since he genuinely wanted to give it to me and just was not offering it to offer it.

​

Nothing has been better than serving senior citizens and teaching them something I have never thought of teaching someone before. I feel as if I have helped them significantly in their daily lives now that they know the ins and outs of technological devices and how they are basically all similar in a way. My clients have come back to me and told me verbally how their lives have been easier and they can do online billing along with purchasing items online and communicating with their loved ones a lot easier. I have always thought of myself as a bad teacher and how much these senior citizens appreciate me, I feel as if I am good at teaching others and explaining things to them. When I first started teaching to senior citizens, my supervisor was impressed with my skills (which I never knew I had) and she told me to become a teacher. I have never wanted to become a teacher because I have never seen myself as being able to explain things to people properly.

​

When I first started going to the Wethersfield senior center, I did not know how I would be accepted by the people there regarding my race. But all those thoughts went away after the first session. The head coordinator and the clients there treated me very well and respected me a lot. How much they appreciated me basically replaced any irrelevant thoughts I had of me being disregarded by those people. Also, I was not too confident in explaining how to do tasks on technological devices when I first started and then as I gained confidence due to compliments, I realized that I was decent and now I even help my classmates that I do not even know on a personal level yet I confidentially help them. This capstone project has taught me to help people more since that is one thing I have personally lacked my entire life since I had never been exposed to interacting with people too much prior to my capstone project.