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Delta Education Center gets Soldiers closer to goals
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA, Iraq – Thirty-two Soldiers took advantage of the first Functional Academic Skills Training Class on FOB Delta since it’s start Feb. 16.
The FAST Class focuses on arithmetic reasoning, word knowledge and paragraph comprehension which combine for the general technical score of the Armed Forces Classification Test.
Soldiers who boost their scores will have more career opportunities, said Master Sgt. Quintine Wert, Education Center noncommissioned officer-in-charge.
One student, Spc. Saul Martinez, gunner, Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 20th Field Artillery Regiment, 41st Fires Bde., said his math skills were already strong and commended his instructor for teaching vocabulary and comprehension in a practical way.
“It’s not boring and dull,” he said of FAST Class English instructor Chief Petty Officer Ryan Hamilton’s teaching skills. “He helps out a lot, puts it in perspective.”
Hamilton, of Bend, Ore., said he noticed many students didn’t recognize words when they read them in test questions, so he read a lot of words aloud and used them in sentences.
“It gets them to remember how they’d heard it before,” said Hamilton, an electronic warfare instructor.
Soldiers also benefited from another dedicated teacher.
“I usually show them more than one way to solve a problem,” said Staff Sgt. Danielle Kuehn, 41st Fires Brigade ammunitions noncommissioned officer. The Ganado, Texas resident taught the math portion of the class.
“She should really be a teacher,” said Spc. Phongeune Sourivanh, combat engineer, 515th Engineer Company and Orange County, Calif. resident. “We worked out every problem on the board, and she took her personal time to help us at night.”
All the instructors are volunteers, but they must have a bachelor’s degree and be certified through Central Texas College to teach the class said Wert of Richmond, Va. The students took several GT score predictor tests throughout the course and the final predictor test showed increases ranging from two to 21 points.
“I’d recommend it to everyone,” said Martinez. “It’s really good for someone who’s been out of school for a while.”
The FAST Class lasts four hours a day, five days a week, for three weeks, with two classes offered daily. For more information, or information on civilian education opportunities, visit the education center in Building 12 on the former Salvadoran compound.
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