Past Projects of the Founders
Kenya
In 2012 founding member John Cartwright and his family traveled to Kenya for five weeks to volunteer at an abandoned infant care center, preschool, and community education center serving three neighborhoods in Kenya. John supplied a computer lab with an uninterruptable power supply, local area network (LAN), 3G wide area network (WAN) gateway, server, and classmate P.C.’s with adaptive learning software. Preschoolers were very engaged with the new computers which supplemented their classroom learning and enabled them to have a better chance at passing the kindergarten entry test required of all students prior to acceptance into kindergarten. John’s son and co-founder of Just Learning Opportunities took the lead on installing insulation in the baby room so that babies were kept cooler in the summer months and condensation would not form on the ceiling during cold nights. John’s daughters helped care for the infants and toddlers, then recommended and implemented changes in the infant care center to improve sanitation practices and reduce illness. In addition, they presented a first aid for choking seminar.
Sharon, John’s wife, developed and presented a Food Handler’s Safety Manual and seminar to the kitchen staff. She implemented numerous procedures to ensure that the 200 meals served daily were safe for infants, children, and guests.
In 2013, John and Sharon traveled again to the abandoned infant care center, preschool, and community education center in Kenya to follow-up on the work done the previous year. During this two-week trip John helped local elementary schools set up computer labs then deployed the Waterford Early Learning program in these labs. In addition, he worked extensively with the principal, the electric company and the electrician to supply power to one of the schools. Sharon assisted the preschool teacher in mathematics and English language instruction of 15 native Swahili speakers.
Hatai
John and his family also spent two weeks in Haiti at a school serving at-risk children in kindergarten through grade 4. At this location John worked with the staff on computer lab training. His son John helped where needed, finding rope and learning from YouTube how to make it into netting to create soccer goals for the students to use during recess. His daughters helped in the classrooms, and his wife, Sharon, presented a Food Handler’s Safety Manual and seminar to the kitchen staff at this school.
Nepal
In 2014, John and his wife Sharon volunteered at a school in Kathmandu, Nepal, serving students in preschool through grade 10. While there, John coached a team from Intel on installing laptops with adaptive learning software into the school’s new computer lab. Due to the lack of electrical power in Kathmandu, this school had intermittent electricity. John designed, sourced, and negotiated the best price for a solar electricity system for the school, so that they could have uninterrupted power. This not only allowed for continuous and maximum use of the new computer lab, but also enabled students to attend a lighted school during the winter months when school begins before sunrise and electricity was not always available. Sharon created and taught a four-lesson electricity unit to 32 sixth graders and 90 eight graders, while modeling best instructional practices to four science teachers. She designed and taught a poetry lesson on imagery to 90 third graders. All students were English Language Learners. Sharon created and taught a lesson planning workshop to twenty fifth through tenth grade teachers, enabling each teacher to leave the workshop with one thorough and complete lesson plan. In addition, she trained Nepalese teachers in individualized reading assessments and provided ongoing coaching.
Through this volunteer work John came to love the people he worked with and served, and found the work very rewarding. It drove home the importance of education in opening up opportunities for students, their families, and their communities. From these past experiences, John was inspited to create Just Learning Opportunities Inc.