WEBVTT

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PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR: So this is 
what you're going to be doing--

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you have to put 100 microliters
of the blue one and 200

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microliters of the yellow one.

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And you cannot
cross contaminate.

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There you go.

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GERALD: My
name is Gerald Kinyua,

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I'm a student in the lab science
program at Northern Essex

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Community College,
and I am 45 years old.

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I came to the United States
from Kenya with my family.

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I love athletics--

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I may not be very good at
athletics but I did my best.

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I also love singing.

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Oh, yes.

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I can sing, maybe, in
Swahili if you don't mind.

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[SINGING IN SWAHILI]

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I actually won a
green card lottery

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to come and live and work
in the United States.

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In the United States, we have
the best type of education,

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so I was very happy because
now I had the opportunity

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to further my education.

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I was doing
micropipetting, and I just

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filled 96 wells in two
and a half minutes.

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GERALD'S TEACHER: I remember talking 
with Gerald during your introductory

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chemistry lab and we were
talking about chemistry and how

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excited you were about it and
how much you wanted to pursue

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a career in that, but that you
were frustrated because you

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weren't--

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you didn't know how
to go about doing it.

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GERALD: They were going
to start a new course, which

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would ensure that those
who go through the program

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would fit into the job
market very, very easily,

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having acquired the skills that
are required by the employers

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around.

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They informed me about
the lab science program,

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who went through it with them.

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And I realized that it
was a program fit for me

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and slowly I
started having hope.

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GERALD'S WIFE: As soon
as he met the staff

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and he got into the program,
he was very positive about it

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and I could see the--

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and again, him to work hard.

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LAB INSTRUCTOR: So we
can dump this out.

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GERALD:
Analytical chemistry

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that involves a lot of
testing and a lot of analysis

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of the results that you get

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LAB INSTRUCTOR: It looks good.

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Exactly what we expected?

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GERALD: In order
to identify what would

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be present in a given sample.

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I really love
working in the lab,

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you are able to see
what is happening.

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It is very, very satisfying

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COLLEGE PRESIDENT: One of the
first meetings we

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had with a group of
employers, they said, we

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get a lot of applicants who
have bachelor's degrees, who

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have master's degrees, even
who have doctoral degrees,

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and they know a lot of theory
but they don't necessarily

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know a lot of the
hands-on and that's

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been the concentration
of the program.

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GERALD: I've
been in the program,

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but I'm not clear
about what is ATE.

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PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR: The NSF, which
is the National Science Foundation,

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gave us the grant to Advanced
Technological Education,

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or ATE, to develop
the curriculum

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and to develop the courses
for the laboratory science

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program, which is a
program that you completed.

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With the money that we
receive from this grant,

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we did the curriculum
development,

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we bought some of the
equipment, and we also

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help with some of the training
that you guys had and also some

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of the visits to the employers.

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GERALD:
[SINGING IN SWAHILI]

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I've built confidence
slowly and now I

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feel very, very
comfortable in this place

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and also in my career choice.

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It was quite difficult to
imagine that at my age,

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I would be going back to school.

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You tend to think that
you're done with education,

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but you have to look at what
is best for your family.

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[SINGING IN SWAHILI]

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My wife and our kids, we
would like to remain and live

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in the United States.

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Life is far much better than
it was at the beginning,

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so we are fitting in well.

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I now am in a state of
hopefulness and optimism,

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so I'm ready to face the future.

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[SINGING IN SWAHILI]