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Cristina Connections: We talked to David Sullivan, Director of Pan Educational Institute in Independence, Missouri so that our readers could learn about the work of this dynamic organization.

David Sullivan

Pan Educational Institute (PEI) is a not for profit organization that has been operating for over the past 25 years in the Metropolitan Kansas City area. It was founded by Joan Williams, a creative and innovative individual in program development.

Our main purpose is to identify and facilitate access to selective educational and training opportunities for schools, not for profit organizations and governmental agencies that serve special and at risk populations. We also provide technology to special programs for at risk youth and their families, vocational rehabilitation clients as well as teachers who work with at risk kids. Our whole focus is to be a real professional support service agency.

The area where we operate can be thought of kind of like a lake in which you throw a pebble. The big wave, the circle around where the pebble is, is the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. A lot of what we do is local across eight counties in Kansas and Missouri. We try to make these connections in several different ways:

We develop and deliver educational technology and curriculum to those who are most at risk. The most at risk populations tend to be individuals who are disabled, students attending alternative schools, and also youth and families that are affected by substance abuse as well as HIV Aids, sexually transmitted diseases, and teenage pregnancy. We do our work by establishing partnerships, collaborations and strategic alliances.

Our partnership with National Cristina Foundation is one of the bases for us to be able to do our work of providing technology support. Without this kind of partnership, specifically with Cristina, we would be unable to accomplish all the things that we hope to do in this area.

Sentence To The Arts Program
Students of schools or residential facilities run by the juvenile authorities participate in this program. Upwards of 150 kids are matched with art related folks or with artists themselves to further their capabilities. Through the governors association we learned that in the next ten years one-third of all new jobs will be art related and our youth -- especially our at risk youth -- can gain a positive outlet as well as skill development in the arts arena. This has been quite successful. The artists are wonderful people who really understand kids. The artists connect them back to the community. They keep that positive adult role model always around and that's making a big difference of reducing recidivism rates in our area as well as increasing a kid's motivation for staying in school.

Student Tech Academy

Ricardo and students

Student Tech Academy offers a twenty-hour basic computer repair and troubleshooting course. This is where the young men and women are able to really delve into information about computers. They learn about the history of the PC. They learn about all the different components and they're able to identify them: the drives, the motherboards, RAM, the processors. It's real important with our youngsters to give them hands-on learning. They get to take the technology apart, and then to put it back together. They learn where all the pieces go and learn to troubleshoot configurations issues as well as system issues. They also learn how to put on new modems, CD ROMs, and set up a printer. They learn important basic things.

This is where the Cristina Foundation comes in. We want to expose the students to computer technology so they can acquire a foundation for skills to enable them to be marketable. Giving kids the skills isn't a good thing unless you can give them the opportunity to do something with them.

Getting computers into our organization has made such a great impact in our training program. It's an equity issue and it's where computers that we have received through the National Cristina Foundation make it possible for computers to be donated to our trainees. We have gotten more than 1000 computers from them for our various programs.

Students start by refurbishing the computers in a class and then they take them home. We think it's important to get those computers back into the home. They have talked about the digital divide for years. In partnership with Cristina, Pan Educational Institute is able to really start impacting that digital divide to those folks in need. Our folks tend not to have those kinds of access or funds to get to the computers. Now they have it in homes and their brothers or their sisters as well as their Mom and Dad and other family members all have access. We think that's an equity issue in the computer repair program.

This is what we have found out from the young people as well as the teachers and the adults who have worked with the kids in the computer repair and troubleshooting class. They love the fact that they're learning something new. They're learning new terminology. They're learning new skill sets. They also are learning things quite frankly that other people and other friends haven't learned. And we all like to know something somebody else doesn't. It's important for our young folks to think they're smart because more often than not they have been told they're not smart.

Many of the kids we work with and their families have been drop-outs or push-outs of schools. If you have a skill set where you can repair computers or you can do some networking, people will hire you even if you don't have a college degree or associate degree and maybe not even a high school diploma. We want our kids to have that kind of opportunity for the job market success that will help them also maintain their interest in continuing that formal education. We don't think you can do without formal education and still get your foot in the door. Technology allows a lot of our at risk families a foot in the door where they're usually shut out. And that is you know a part of the equity. The kids just love the program. They refer their brothers and sisters. We have more requests than we can handle.

Jackson County Combat Office

Satisfied users

Partnering with the Kansas City, Jackson County Combat Office, we provide computer skills to youth under the jurisdiction of the Jackson County Family Court. We offer six classes a year and the only reason we're limited is by the funds it takes to do the training itself. Those students also get to take a donated computer home.

PEI's philosophy is that it isn't just good to gather products or computers and get them out--we want to be teaching people how to use the technology and expand their capabilities. That is our focus. It is not just the hardware itself. It's the training that goes along with it.

A high school student who went through one of our computer repair troubleshooting classes kept working with us after he was graduated from High School, and he did a wonderful job. Then he began thinking college didn't sound too bad. Right now he is in one of the community junior colleges and he is doing very well. He got three A's and one B. Pan Ed provided him with about $300 worth of scholarship monies for books and tuition to help offset his costs. He still works with us part time and now his brother, who is in high school, is going through the program.

Similarly we work with a group of children who have been abused and now live in a group home called the Leatherwoods Home. A letter we received from their Director told us that, after going through our program, one of the young men was so impressed with his increased skills that his grade cards have jumped from D's and F's to B's and C's. They never thought they would see this happening.

We have heard this over and over in our anecdotal information from the kids and their teachers. PEI is able to serve 60 to 70 kids in special programs at any one time of the year. The need is far greater than these numbers--300 easily. We wish we could do more.