Dear Friends, My name is Donald, I live in Las Vegas Nevada and I am losing my eyesight due to a genetic disorder called Choroideremia which was passed down to me by my Maternal Grandfather. Currently I am happily employed at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino working as an Application Serivce Representitive in their Employment Center where I have been since May of 2007. I was able to find this job after attending a special vocational program paid for by the State of Nevada through the DETR Bureau of Services to the Blind and Visually Impaired that was taught by the National Statler Center for Careers in Hospitality which was held at the Blind Center of Nevada. During the program I was able to meet many guest speakers from MGM Mirage and gained some very valuable network connections in the company which helped me to attain employment here. I wanted to let you know while I appreciate the Bureau & State for allowing me the opprotunity to attend this vocational program which allowed me to find employment that there are that i have experienced many problems since graduating from the program. I was employed in 2006 by the Blind Center of Nevada to help them develop their Ebay program in order to help employ local blind people. This program went from making a couple thousand dollars a month to make well over 50,000.00 a month since I resigned to attend the vocational training program being held there. I found out about the flagship program from my employers at the Blind Center and attended a presentation there being held by the National Statler Center there. My employers at the Blind Center were interested in my attending the program as the larger business in the area had more to offer employees than they did. While in the process of signing up for the program I was forced to change my Vocational Rehab counselor as she was unable to fully focus on the needs I had regarding the vocational training program. Her name was Gayle Lee and she was going through a deep depression which she attributed to the treatment she received by her colleagues at the Bureau. She and other blind workers at the Bureau have said that many of the sighted coworkers do not treat them very well and she had hoped to do great things while being employed there. The Statler Team made a lot of promises which they did not keep. I, the other students and the recruiters who I work with at MGM recall them very clearly. I was told many months ago by the Director of Statler that I and my fellow students have misinterpreted what they told us and that I would receive no further assistance from Statler because of this. My representative at the Bureau of Services to the Blind Morey Povich fully supports the Statler Centers and not me. The following are statements/promises made by teachers during our classes that were not kept: Mary Ellen said in my initial interview back in Nov 2006, that Statler had an 88% success rate of placing their graduates in jobs. Mary Ellen Mest never mentioned cost of the program or price. and did not ask me how I would pay for the program. We found out it was $9 to 10,000 price per student. Mary Ellen and Jeff Hirschfelt tod us the first week or two that some students were usually hired during their "internship" / "externship" program during prior classes, and others were hired in 4 to 6 months. They never mentioned 9 months to a year until after graduation and we met with Mary Ellen Mest and Dan O'Brien in the conference room at the Blind Center. Then they changed their tune and said they had told us that " we said it would take a sighted person 4 to 6 months to find a job, and that it would take a visually impaired person 9 months to a year to find employment." Dan O'Brien was not in our class when Mary Ellen and Jeff made their initial statement so how does he know.
LI Aqit Ali National Statler Technologist told us in the computer class that as soon as we were hired he would fly back to LV and visit us at our job site to provide us with whatever adaptive equipment we needed on loan until the State of NV DETR Bureau of Services to the Blind could purchase and install the correct adaptive equipment that we needed. Mary Ellen, Rene Diflavio, Jeff and Dan all said the same thing at different times during out 10 week course. They also told us that we would be trained on Opera and Fidelio. We were only briefly trained on one because not everyone was at the same level of computer expertise. Not everyone could type the required 30 words per minute. They also told us we would have some training with PBX systems. They mentioned how they had a system in place at Statler headquarters in Buffalo NY to train folks on PBX systems. Then Dan O'Brien told us in the post-graduation meeting at the BC, that there was only one guy they knew who could put in adaptive equipment on the Meridian PBX board phone system that Stations used. Dan O'Brien also told the students on numerous occasions that if any of them had any convictions in the past, the Statler team of Lawyers could help then get around any problems in being hired. Statler considered any job that dealt with the public as being a "hospitality" job. I didn't consider the LV Speedway, Pink Jeep Tours, Dollar Car Rental hospitality jobs. By their definition I could be working in a AM-PM store. Currently I am the only National Statler Center Nevada Extension Graduate who is employed in the Hospitality Industry. Two of my fellow classmates have been employed by the Blind Center of Nevada in the Ebay program there which I helped to create. Even now as I have been at MGM since May of '07 I have not received training to do my job non-visually and what is left of my sight is dwindling at an alarming rate. When I began work, the Statler Team recommended Magic with Speech and Text to Speech software that also magnified the screen if needed. This did not work with the existing MGM software platform I use in my job, so after many months the Bureau purchased for me Window Eyes which I have not been trained to use because the Bureau's Technology specialist finds my work environment too distracting and a lot of what I do I would need a sighted Technology Specialist present to explain to how I have to jump from one platform to another in order to do my job. Please Tell Us Your Thoughts about what Stater Promised You and how You were Treated After Graduation.
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Dear Friends,
My name is Donald, I live in Las Vegas Nevada and I am losing my eyesight due to a genetic disorder called Choroideremia which was passed down to me by my Maternal Grandfather.
Currently I am happily employed at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino working as an Application Serivce Representitive in their Employment Center where I have been since May of 2007.
I was able to find this job after attending a special vocational program paid for by the State of Nevada through the DETR Bureau of Services to the Blind and Visually Impaired that was taught by the National Statler Center for Careers in Hospitality which was held at the Blind Center of Nevada.
During the program I was able to meet many guest speakers from MGM Mirage and gained some very valuable network connections in the company which helped me to attain employment here.
I wanted to let you know while I appreciate the Bureau & State for allowing me the opprotunity to attend this vocational program which allowed me to find employment that there are that i have experienced many problems since graduating from the program.
I was employed in 2006 by the Blind Center of Nevada to help them develop their Ebay program in order to help employ local blind people. This program went from making a couple thousand dollars a month to make well over 50,000.00 a month since I resigned to attend the vocational training program being held there. I found out about the flagship program from my employers at the Blind Center and attended a presentation there being held by the National Statler Center there. My employers at the Blind Center were interested in my attending the program as the larger business in the area had more to offer employees than they did.
While in the process of signing up for the program I was forced to change my Vocational Rehab counselor as she was unable to fully focus on the needs I had regarding the vocational training program. Her name was Gayle Lee and she was going through a deep depression which she attributed to the treatment she received by her colleagues at the Bureau. She and other blind workers at the Bureau have said that many of the sighted coworkers do not treat them very well and she had hoped to do great things while being employed there.
The Statler Team made a lot of promises which they did not keep. I, the other students and the recruiters who I work with at MGM recall them very clearly. I was told many months ago by the Director of Statler that I and my fellow students have misinterpreted what they told us and that I would receive no further assistance from Statler because of this. My representative at the Bureau of Services to the Blind Morey Povich fully supports the Statler Centers and not me.
The following are statements/promises made by teachers during our classes that were not kept:
Mary Ellen said in my initial interview back in Nov 2006, that Statler had an 88% success rate of placing their graduates in jobs.
Mary Ellen Mest never mentioned cost of the program or price. and did not ask me how I would pay for the program. We found out it was $9 to 10,000 price per student.
Mary Ellen and Jeff Hirschfelt tod us the first week or two that some students were usually hired during their "internship" / "externship" program during prior classes, and others were hired in 4 to 6 months. They never mentioned 9 months to a year until after graduation and we met with Mary Ellen Mest and Dan O'Brien in the conference room at the Blind Center. Then they changed their tune and said they had told us that " we said it would take a sighted person 4 to 6 months to find a job, and that it would take a visually impaired person 9 months to a year to find employment." Dan O'Brien was not in our class when Mary Ellen and Jeff made their initial statement so how does he know.
LI Aqit Ali National Statler Technologist told us in the computer class that as soon as we were hired he would fly back to LV and visit us at our job site to provide us with whatever adaptive equipment we needed on loan until the State of NV DETR Bureau of Services to the Blind could purchase and install the correct adaptive equipment that we needed. Mary Ellen, Rene Diflavio, Jeff and Dan all said the same thing at different times during out 10 week course.
They also told us that we would be trained on Opera and Fidelio. We were only briefly trained on one because not everyone was at the same level of computer expertise. Not everyone could type the required 30 words per minute.
They also told us we would have some training with PBX systems. They mentioned how they had a system in place at Statler headquarters in Buffalo NY to train folks on PBX systems. Then Dan O'Brien told us in the post-graduation meeting at the BC, that there was only one guy they knew who could put in adaptive equipment on the Meridian PBX board phone system that Stations used.
Dan O'Brien also told the students on numerous occasions that if any of them had any convictions in the past, the Statler team of Lawyers could help then get around any problems in being hired.
Statler considered any job that dealt with the public as being a "hospitality" job. I didn't consider the LV Speedway, Pink Jeep Tours, Dollar Car Rental hospitality jobs. By their definition I could be working in a AM-PM store.
Currently I am the only National Statler Center Nevada Extension Graduate who is employed in the Hospitality Industry. Two of my fellow classmates have been employed by the Blind Center of Nevada in the Ebay program there which I helped to create.
Even now as I have been at MGM since May of '07 I have not received training to do my job non-visually and what is left of my sight is dwindling at an alarming rate.
When I began work, the Statler Team recommended Magic with Speech and Text to Speech software that also magnified the screen if needed. This did not work with the existing MGM software platform I use in my job, so after many months the Bureau purchased for me Window Eyes which I have not been trained to use because the Bureau's Technology specialist finds my work environment too distracting and a lot of what I do I would need a sighted Technology Specialist present to explain to how I have to jump from one platform to another in order to do my job.
Please Tell Us Your Thoughts about what Stater Promised You and how You were Treated After Graduation.
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