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Learn More About Elizabeth's Experience:

ESL/ESOL When I was just 19, I taught classes for the American Red Cross in Central America. The experience was wonderful, but I did learn that my studies in the school room had not prepared me as I would have wished for living life in a different language. Since that summer, I have done some translation work and enjoyed challenging my brain to recall those days. I have also been an English tutor through two literacy programs and have had the opportunity to work with students from different countries. Because of my early experience, I can relate to my student's frustration with speaking, reading, and writing American English on a day to day basis. I was a diligent student in class, but there are some things you can only learn from speaking one on one with a person born to a language. I look forward to helping people who speak another language become comfortable with English. general computer The first lesson to learn about computers is that they are "simpletons." Computers only do what you tell them to do. So, if you can train yourself, you can learn how to use computers. I first started working with computers in college, when they had to be sealed in a climate controlled room and they took up the square footage of a small home! Then, during graduate school, I became the campus expert regarding online research. Back in 1989, I was the only "girl geek" hanging around the computer warehouse on Saturday mornings to scavage parts for my newist project. I have been using computers as a vital part of my various jobs for 20 years now, and have always been the one teaching others new applications or how to upgrade their systems. For over two years, I was employed doing what I enjoyed--going into people's work places or homes and figuring out whay their computers were "acting funny" or teaching folks how to use software crucial to achieving important goals. That job was one of the most rewarding jobs I have had. Whether you keep hearing others speak about the cool things they can do with their computers and wonder if you could do that too or your boss is really on your case to get up to speed on the new software, just ask for help. You CAN be trained! law I graduated from the College of Law, West Virginia University in 1985. Honors and acheivements in law school included: senior editor, Law Review; graduated in the top ten; Order of the Coif; and the Patrick Duffy Prize for Scholarship and Leadership. I served as personal judicial law clerk to Judge James Sprouse on the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and to Justice Darrell McGraw on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. I practiced law for more than a decade in Washington, DC and remain licensed to practice there.