Thanks to her ICT skills, Kseniya Mukhina, an alumna of the Nizhny Novgorod special education boarding school for the blind and visually impaired, remains highly successful in her current pursuits and optimistic about her future.

After taking Spreadsheet Fundamentals in the summer of 2009, Pyotr Logachyov successfully passed qualifying examinations improving his professional qualification.

Leonid Mikhailov responded to the online ad inviting volunteer helpers to work at the IDEA Center in Omsk. Leonid suffers from vision loss but it didn’t prevent him from completing an IDEA training course and becoming a competent PC user who now assists new IDEA trainees with their practical assignments.

A. M. Gorky regional library in Perm received an official letter of appreciation from the local Employment Center. In this letter the Center’s director Anatoly Samarin expressed his appreciation to the staff team of the library’s IDEA Center for their efforts in providing digital literacy training for the Center’s clients, emphasizing the professional excellence of IDEA instructors and reviewing the results of the three-year partnership.

After completing Computer Fundamentals, Marina Dyomshina, a nurse of a local clinic in Tyumen, began to apply her new competence in her work and study. Recently she landed a new and interesting job and is now certain of her job security.

Since completing her computer training in 2006, Galina Parygina, one of the first IDEA alumni, has become a certified public accountant and now works with the Chita regional society for people with disabilities. She recalls her IDEA training with warmth and appreciation. Computer skills training proved to be a powerful stimulus for continuing her education and then landing a good job.

After completing Internet and World Wide Web Fundamentals, Tatyana Smolina, a piano teacher in a music school in Chelyabinsk, used her new e-mail and web search skills to improve her teaching materials and techniques and, ultimately, successfully passed her qualifying certification, proving her professional competence and keeping her job.

As the result of her participation in training events at the IDEA Center in Izhevsk, Elena Motova, a librarian of N.K. Krupskaya central municipal library in Sarapul, the Udmurt Republic, not only received a promotion but also organized e-skills training courses for beginner users in her own library, recently graduating the first group of alumni.

After participating in the Basic Business Plans seminar offered by the IDEA Center in Ulyanovsk, Emma Semagina developed and successfully defended her own business plan, received a municipal grant and started her own company.

Victoria Ten, a teacher of English, moved to Kaliningrad from Kazakhstan. After taking Internet and World Wide Web Fundamentals at the Kaliningrad IDEA Center, she used her new skills to find information about Zonta International, a global organization of executives and professionals working together to advance the status of women worldwide through service and advocacy. Her enthusiasm and strong proactive position soon propelled Victoria to the position of the vice-president of Zonta International in Kaliningrad, and now she is getting ready to attend Zonta International Convention 2010 in San Antonio, TX (USA).

Nadezhda Buyanova from Chelyabinsk has been able to keep her job despite the layoffs in her company thanks to the knowledge and skills she acquired at the IDEA Center.

After completing the IDEA course in Computer Fundamentals, Irina Samsonova, a young librarian of Sakhalin regional library, got not only a raise but an offer of a better position with the same library.

Lyudmila Gortinskaya who is raising an autistic child has completed Microsoft Unlimited Potential courses in Computer Fundamentals and Internet and World Wide Web Fundamentals at the IDEA Center in Chelyabinsk. Her new e-skills have already helped her and her son Vladislav regain self-confidence, find helpful information on physical and social rehabilitation, make new friends and overcome loneliness and isolation.

After completing the Microsoft Unlimited Potential course in Computer Fundamentals at the IDEA Center in Vladimir, Albina Evgrafova was promoted to the position of a department head by her supervisors in Rospechat, the Russian state printing agency. The alumna believes that, to a large degree, she owes this promotion to computer knowledge and skills gained during the IDEA training.

Taking a Microsoft Unlimited Potential computer literacy course and attending seminars at the Cheboksary IDEA Center helped Elena Lomova face the challenges of working with electronic resources and make her business more productive and efficient.

After many years of working at Trusovsky bread factory, Nurslu Amirova from Astrakhan had to leave her job due to illness and consequent disability. It was a major blow to her as a single mother. However the training at her local IDEA Center enabled Nurslu Amirova to post her résumé online and find suitable employment.

Eighteen months ago the Udmurt republican library for the blind launched a special educational and recreational computer center for children and young people with disabilities. The Computer Center’s mission is to foster successful ICT-based adaptation, socialization and rehabilitation of people with disabilities in the mainstream society. The Computer Center for people with disabilities was opened thanks to the knowledge and skills that the librarians received during their training at the IDEA Center.

Dinara Khusainova from Astrakhan put the computer skills acquired at the IDEA Center to practical use in her work with a local construction company and thus was able to increase her income.

After taking the IDEA course in Computer Fundamentals at the IDEA Center of the Far East academic library in Khabarovsk, Evgeny Beketov not only acquired helpful skills that would stand him well in life but also found ways to bring in some extra income before finding permanent employment.

Thanks to the knowledge and skills acquired during the IDEA course in Computer Fundamentals, Engelina Badeyeva from Irkutsk was able to find a new job after her old position was downsized.

For more than ten years Irina Kokorina, the head librarian of Sakhalin regional academic library, has been the driving force behind the library’s White Crow Club for poets, writers, artists and all creative art lovers. She has long wanted to self-publish some of the club members’ work, but didn’t have adequate knowledge and skills to get started. Thanks to the Microsoft Unlimited Potential course in Computer Fundamentals, she finally acquired basic computer skills and began to produce small booklets of club members’ contributions. She formats and illustrates every booklet herself and by now has already issued more than twenty-five poetry and prose collections.

Using knowledge and skills she had acquired during the IDEA course in Computer Fundamentals, Tamara Sokolovskaya, a librarian with the Children’s Reading Center in Khabarovsk, has greatly increased the efficiency of her work and began making more money.

In 2009 Marina Chepurnykh, along with several other job seekers from Perm, took several Microsoft Unlimited Potential courses at the local IDEA Center. Thanks to her newly acquired computer proficiency, she has been able to amend her income by publishing articles and materials online.

In October 2009, Tatyana Volodina, a retiree from Ulan Ude, completed courses in Computer Fundamentals and Word Processing Fundamentals at the IDEA Center of National Library of the Buryat Republic. Even though it’s only been a few short weeks since the completion of the training, the alumna has already begun to notice positive changes in her life.

In the spring of 2009, Viktor Tzubrovich, one of the most active IDEA alumni in Tomsk, pleasantly surprised his fellow Presentation Fundamentals trainees, instructors and users of A.S. Pushkin regional library in Tomsk with his masterfully developed multimedia presentation on outer space.

Vladimir Manich graduated from the special education boarding school for the blind and visually impaired in Vladivostok and now works there teaching history. After completing the IDEA course in Internet and World Wide Web Fundamentals, he successfully applies his new knowledge and skills in his work and personal life.

As many other senior citizens, Larisa Shorits from Tomsk is full of energy and desire to play an active role in her local community. During the IDEA training she learned to use the Internet and key MS Office applications and immediately applied her new knowledge and skills in her work with “Treasure,” a regional non-profit organization.

Valentina Ushkalova, an active and energetic retiree from Tyumen, completed IDEA training in 2008 and now uses her knowledge and skills for writing books and teaching at Tomsk State University

After completing a computer training course at the IDEA Center in Irkutsk, Irina Komarova quickly put her new knowledge and skills to practical use by developing a short promotional video about the university where she works and posting it on the school’s website. This initiative was justly appreciated by the university’s administration.

After completing several IDEA courses, artists Yuriy and Nelly Smirnyagin from Kaliningrad established contacts with art galleries in Poland and France and, as a result, were asked to exhibit in Gdansk, Poland. Their personal art exhibition opened there on November 3, 2009.