World of Opportunity GED graduate in the news

[Anne Nonniemouse <ShopMathEdu@AOL.COM>]

Dear ARN Folks:

Time, place, and conditions can create interesting collaborations and 
experiences.  I hope you will all enjoy this piece in the Birmingham News.

Warmest greetings to one and all,

Steve Orel

(article below)

p.s.:  One inaccuracy among others in this article, is that the educational 
program at the manufacturing plant did not end at all.  The hours changed.

<A HREF="http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/?Feb2001/11-hero11.html";>Click 
here: From God to GED, radio preacher passes tests</A> 

The website is:
http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/?Feb2001/11-hero11.html

>From God to GED, radio preacher passes tests 
02/11/01
BENJAMIN NIOLET
News staff writer 

Jerry Davis Sr. was too young to remember much about his first job. 

He does have hazy recollections of being picked up and set on the back of a 
truck so he could pick roots out of dirt. 

Davis has spent most of his 56 years working at least two jobs, sometimes as 
many as four. His dirty, scarred hands tell of a lifetime of manual labor 
that had little call for social studies or algebra. 

But after a half century of blue collar work, Davis sweated through 
worksheets and compositions and equations. He earned his high-school 
equivalency diploma. 
Steve Orel helps run World of Opportunity, the free program where Davis 
studied for the test. The program has already helped people get their 
high-school equivalencies, but they were still teenagers, and it's much 
easier to take the test when the school lessons are fresh. Davis passed the 
test even though he hadn't been inside a classroom in more than four decades. 

Davis was born in Birmingham and spent his childhood in Cahaba Heights. His 
daddy drank, and as the oldest child, Davis had to help his mother support 
the family. 

School fell by the wayside. He left the seventh grade for the Army in 1961. 
He tried to get to Vietnam via the Special Forces, but his trigger finger 
wasn't 100 percent on account of his falling through a plate-glass window. He 
spent his time in the infantry and as an engineer, mainly in Germany. 

Davis' first wife was dying with a brain tumor and her family was looking to 
take his son away, so Davis got a hardship discharge in 1966. 

Whenever Davis felt lost, he pored over his Bible, though most of the words 
didn't make much sense to him. But the ones he could understand guided him 
through important choices. In fact, it was a Bible passage that encouraged 
him to become a radio preacher, a ministry Davis has continued for more than 
10 years, lately on WURL, 760 on your AM dial. 

Reading is even tougher for Davis because small print puts him to sleep - a 
symptom of his narcolepsy. 

Davis went to work for Miller Wire, near Gate City, 20 years ago. The company 
had a continuing education program for its employees. When that program 
ended, the Be an Apostle of Christ Foundation, an arm of the Salesian Order 
of Catholic Brothers, picked it up, offering a free GED and vocational 
program. 

Davis spent three years studying for the test, relearning four-decade-old 
lessons. 

He still struggles with the big words in the Bible, but they aren't as 
intimidating as they used to be, he said. 

© The Birmingham News. Used with permission.

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