A Voice from Behind the Page
BY JONATHAN GILBERT, QUEEN CREEK, USA - About six years ago, I was looking for a curriculum in a school that would help me excel in my goals – Graphics, Video, Web Design. I began attending a school in Tempe, AZ that boasted of such a program. After five weeks of attending, it became apparent to me that something was not right with this school. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I knew there were red flags that kept manifesting themselves while I was attending. After a Labor Day weekend of camping in the pines of Flagstaff, AZ and reflecting on what I should do about my current schooling, I walked onto the Mesa Community College campus. I visited the Media Arts Department and got my first experience with Cyndi Greening. The semester had already started at MCC, yet after explaining my situation and dreams with Cyndi, she immediately rescued me from the “cookie-cutter” school I was attending, explaining her previous experiences with employers who’ve avoided graduates from the school I was currently attending. Within one day, I dropped out of that school and began attending Cyndi’s Photoshop 101 class. It didn’t take long for me to notice that Cyndi’s curriculum of classes was continually pushing the edge with advanced technologies. She was always on the bleeding edge with her courses that I attended, and I knew I had made the right choice in switching schools.
I’ve since graduated from MCC and am currently enjoying self-employment providing IT services for small businesses. Many projects we get from our clients involve developing for the internet. The experience I gained from attending MCC and specifically Cyndi’s classes, I can attribute to the successes I’m enjoying today. Cyndi not only helped educate me in specific media software applications, she also helped me believe in myself as a developer and entrepreneur.
From that first moment I met Cyndi until now, I’ve always felt her heart-felt, sincere motivations in helping others truly fulfill their dreams. It is no surprise to me that she would be involved in such great a cause in assisting Jabbes with his aspirations. I’ve had the good fortune of being able to stay in contact with Cyndi along the years and if there is one thing I know about her – she is ALWAYS involved in some great work somewhere. I can barely keep up with her. One day she’ll be in Utah covering the Sundance Festival, the next day in Colorado, next back at Mesa, and now she’s heading to Zambia. What an amazing journey. I don’t think Jabbes had this in mind when he was recounting the steps of his own journey thus far. But that’s what one gets when they lean on the support of Cyndi Greening.
This past weekend, we had the privilege of meeting Jabbes and the crew that is involved with helping his filming to become a success. What a great site to see - a group of young, talented individuals, preparing for a true journey of a lifetime. They look young, fresh, and the talents they possess are about to shine from the skills they’ve learned from Cyndi. I’m excited to see the growth these professionals will obtain from such a remarkable experience. I’m also looking forward to seeing the good they will do among our brothers and sisters of a nation across the seas.
So far, our job with this project has been to provide the technical implementations of www.filmzambia.com as well as design and configure the weblogs contained on the site. We hope those who will visit the site will have a pleasurable experience with it and that our contributions, small as they seem, will also be worthy in some way of those who will be working tirelessly in filming, producing, and marketing the enlightenment of this great human race we are all a part of. May the prayers of Jabbes be answered, and may God bless all involved.