Full Transcript
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so State Services actually play a huge part in everything that I’m doing.
Speaker 3:
Don’t be afraid, get out there, meet people, be friendly. Nobody is judging you.
Speaker 2:
Think big, look at what do you love to do, what do you enjoy doing, and then how can you turn that into getting paid.
Speaker 4:
I use my braille this way, I just JAWS.
Speaker 5:
Put on your cape and grab your gladiator shield and go get them, tiger.
Speaker 6:
Don’t limit yourself.
Jeff Thompson:
Career Expo 2019, such a great opportunity for transition aged students to meet up with professionals from a wide variety of professions. It was an opportunity for students transitioning from high school to college to workplace to ask questions from nearly 25 professionals. What is their job like, what tools do they use, and to receive encouragement about the possibilities that they too can achieve their dreams get the career that they want.
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson, and I’m at the Career Expo in Roseau Minnesota, sponsored by State Services For The Blind, and I’ve got someone here with me. Lisa Larges, who are you doing?
Lisa Larges:
I’m doing great.
Jeff Thompson:
Can you tell our listeners what you do?
Lisa Larges:
Yeah, so I work as the outreach coordinator at State Services For The Blind, but today I’m actually here with my second job, which is as an associate pastor at a little church in south Minneapolis. I know some folks are interested in going into careers in the ministry, or working in a church, or in a congregation of some sort. I’m here to share a little bit about that experience, and that’s what brings me here today.
Jeff Thompson:
So what did bring you here today, cane or guide dog?
Lisa Larges:
Cane brought me here today. Good question, and I also brought me with me, I’m a braille reader, so I brought some maps of the holy land, and then I also brought me with just two books that I just discovered that I really love, that I would recommend to anybody who’s heading off to college or school of any sort. One is Format Your Word Documents with JAWS and NBDA. Which really sounds like a page-turner, I know. It’s about how to create your documents so they comply to the standards that universities and colleges and even high schools now are looking for, and it’s really useful to have.
Jeff Thompson:
Where can someone find that book?
Lisa Larges:
You know, it’s available from National Braille Press, is where I found it. It’s worth checking out.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s quite important, especially in college and in the workplace.
Lisa Larges:
Yeah, exactly. It’s the kind of stuff I wish I had known. When I was coming up, I did it all of course on a manual typewriter, and it was really hard, but knowing how to create headings and margins and set things up right so that a professor won’t just like say, “Oh, I’m not even going to look at this,” or whatever, it’s really important. It’s also important for creating resumes and stuff like that, to have something that looks nice and it’s put together. That’s one contribution I’m making.
Jeff Thompson:
What’s the other book?
Lisa Larges:
The other book is about how to work with Google Docs, because that’s more and more important too, and something I don’t know a lot about. It’s also from National Braille Press. It goes through Google Doc spreadsheets and their word processing documents, and the great thing about Google Docs is you can work on it, work on a document in realtime with other people. They could be working on one paragraph and you’re doing something else somewhere else in the document, and you both have it open at the same time, and stuff like that. It’s really a useful tool. I’m glad to be learning about how to use it.
Jeff Thompson:
On a daily basis, whether you’re at your ministry job or if State Services For The Blind, what tools do you utilize on a daily basis?
Lisa Larges:
That’s a really good question. I do use my phone a lot, iPhone with voiceover. I keep all kinds of documents on there and do my mail, and also use it to get around, navigation. I use JAWS, I’ve been a JAWS user for a long time. Then I also use this thing called the Optacon. I don’t know, Jeff, if you remember the Optacon, but it’s a little thing that converts whatever the camera sees into a vibrating array. It will make the shape of the print letter S and then the next print letter T, whatever, on your finger. I use that to check formatting or to see how something’s laid out, or anyway, that’s another funny tool that I use a lot.
Jeff Thompson:
You were trying to date me, weren’t you?
Lisa Larges:
I was trying to, like… And you’re like, “No, I’ve never even heard of that, because I was never around way back then.”
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, no, I heard about it, but it was one of those tools that I would say it was kind of mainstream back then, and then times changed a little bit.
Lisa Larges:
Right, yeah. Yeah, no, I still find some uses for it. So that’s kind of funny.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, that’s the purpose of asking these questions, is sometimes people are using a tool that one may not have thought of.
Lisa Larges:
Yeah, and then, I mean a lot of my job as a pastor and at State Services is networking. To me, developing a lot of those soft skills has been really important, and it’s taken me a while to learn him. Even just being confident walking through a room and shaking hands with people, or introducing myself to somebody. Even at my church sometimes, there are people whose voices I don’t recognize, so I just have to say, “Hey, could you just remind me, I’m not recognizing your voice.” Sometimes it’s a newcomer or whatever. So anyway, learning those soft skills has been really important too.
Jeff Thompson:
I think it’s really great what State Services For The Blind and some of the other entities around the city here are doing with Blind and Socially Savvy.
Lisa Larges:
Right, exactly. That kind of stuff is really important, and it will take you a long way. Having that kind of confidence, being able to introduce yourself to people. Those first impressions make a huge difference. I’d recommend that young adults or whatever take those classes, do reading about it, practice, put yourself in situations where you feel just a little bit uncomfortable. It’s really good to develop.
Jeff Thompson:
Because I know the STP program, which is a transition age group, Blind Incorporated and Duluth are all being, not introduced, but to continue with the Socially Savvy group.
Lisa Larges:
Yep. I think that’s fantastic.
Jeff Thompson:
What advice would you give a transition age student if they were asking about the opportunities they would have in their future?
Lisa Larges:
One of the things I love about being here, like I walked around the room and talked to everybody about all the different things people are doing. My advice is don’t limit yourself. Who knows what you’ll end up doing. Get a breadth of experience, challenge yourself to try new things. You just don’t know what’s out there, so the more you open yourself up to new experiences, being curious, the more you’re going to have a life that’s satisfying and fun and interesting and you’re going to develop diverse skillsets and it’s really going to serve you well. Be curious, get a lot of experience, that’s my advice.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, thank you very much, Lisa. Thanks for being here and sharing all your advice and knowledge with all the people who are attending. It’s getting busier here.
Lisa Larges:
It is getting busy. Nice to talk to you, Jeff.
Jeff Thompson:
Be sure to contact your State Services For The Blind, your voc rehab, and find out what they can do for you. Live, work, read, succeed. A big shout out goes out to Chee Chau for his beautiful music, and you can follow Chee Chau on Twitter @LCheeChau. Enable the Blind Abilities skill on your Amazon device just by saying, “Enable Blind Abilities.”
Jeff Thompson:
For more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com , on Twitter @BlindAbilities. Download our app from the app store, Blind Abilities, that’s two words, or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com.
Thanks for listening.
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