Tenderloin Spotlight: Kaith Kenerly

My name is Kait and I have been assisting in the Tech Lab for about a month and a half now. I am a junior communication studies major at the University of San Francisco and became involved with the Tech Lab through my service learning class called the Ethnography of Communication. For the class, we complete reflection assignments of our service work at the lab as well as write two term papers. Myself, and my fellow classmates are also assisting Alex and Jake with their TenderVoice project which involves interviewing local Tenderloin organizations and archiving the audio online so that the information is available people who live in the area. We have been contacting potential organizations that we could interview as well as working on our audio recording and editing skills. I am also currently working on my first paper for my class, which is an interpretive ethnography of the communication used within the lab. To gather research and support for my paper, I have been acting as a participant observer within the computer labs and classrooms. I write field notes after my service of what I observed during the day that was relevant to my paper topic (which is how does the staff communicates order within the Tech Lab). I have also been interviewing a view of the guests and staff members here at the Lab. I will be using all the research I’ve been gathering as support for my paper. Just last week, a classmate and I started teaching a class here at the lab called Intermediate Word. I really enjoyed teaching the class because the students in the class were very nice and social and ready to learn. Many of the students had taken the class before, but they keep signing up for the class to practice and improve their skills, which I really respect. I’ve really enjoyed my time here at the Tech Lab. The staff is extremely friendly and dedicated and the guests who visit the Lab are a joy to be around. I love the environment of the Tech Lab and am glad that a resource like this Lab is well ran and available in this accessibly available in the Tenderloin. I hope to continually be involved with this organization in the future.