Retired Tool Dealer/Mortgage Banker Becomes Celebrated Computer Tutor at ACC

(April 6, 2007 – Littleton, Colo.) The numerous hours 59 year-old retiree Alan Franklin has volunteered toward helping fellow Arapahoe Community College students increase their computer proficiency is something for which College’s Computer faculty members Leo Diede and Ida Lynn Gedde are very grateful. “He has shown an outstanding commitment to helping others learn at our open computer labs and our Computer Information Systems ‘FLEX’ (flexibly open to students) classroom,” says Diede.

Franklin has taken classes at ACC for about two and a half years because he wanted to become more “computer literate.” Although that was his intention at the start, he found himself becoming more and more fascinated with each class that he took. As things started to become like second nature to him, Franklin began to answer questions from other students who would regularly find him in the computer lab, and he says, “It evolved from there.” 

Franklin, who worked in Mortgage banking for 17 years, and then went on to work as a “tool dealer” for 14 more, started college with the mind frame that he would only take an evening class to help himself understand the “virtual world” a little better. Two and a half years later Franklin has taken a slew of computer-applications classes, but he is still interested in learning as much as he can and wants to earn his A+ certification. Franklin says the computer is like “a big toy” to him. 

According to Diede, Franklin is viewed as an “unsung hero for everyone at ACC.” Franklin began his tenure answering a multitude of “how-to” computer questions he received from fellow students shortly after starting College. Diede says that Franklin has been known to assist individual students repeatedly without any compensation. While Franklin doesn’t claim to be an expert in the computer field, he is well read when it comes to the Information Technology discipline due to the many long hours that he has spent helping himself understand computers better.

According to Franklin, his initial time spent in the lab, when he was challenged by the “virtual world” was pleasant due to the help he received from some of the open computer lab staff, like ACC Media Specialist Craig Ferguson, who paid special attention to him to ease him through his struggles.

Franklin looks at the computer tutoring that he does as an opportunity to “give back something” to the open lab staff that helped him so much. Franklin says, “Learning about computers is just like any other fun hobby that someone takes on, like collecting stamps or antiques.” He just happens to really enjoy what he is doing, and at the same time has been able help others attain their goals. Last Summer, upon learning about Franklin’s good work as a volunteer, Debra Goldberg, ACC’s Coordinator of Tutorial Services was so impressed with Franklin that she hired him to be an official ACC tutor.

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