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Liann Brown

Professor Jan Rieman

English 1103

September 13, 2010

High-Tech

As I roam through the buildings of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, I ask

myself, “How exactly did I get here?” Reading and analyzing Deborah Brandt’s “Sponsors of

Literacy” essay made me want to associate how my success so far connects with my literacy

ability and my sponsors as well. Did my literacy skills begin to excel in my early years or my

latter ones? Who were the individuals in my life that I could actually call my “sponsors?” Was

the information that I gained from them significant and useful? What new challenges did I

overcome because of my literacy? All of these inquiries came into consideration as I carefully

examined the history of my literacy.

My literacy expansion began at a very young age. As soon as I was able to make my way

to the computer desktop at my house, that became my new place of residence. I can remember

sitting and staring at the computer for hours in elementary school, as if I was praying to it. My

mother was a career and technical education teacher and director for Charlotte Mecklenburg

Schools at the time, so I’m not surprised with my absolute amazement of technology at that time.

It was just natural for me to be around all types of technological devices. The newest software

and applications would be on our at-home computer that most adolescents weren’t even aware

about. I remember one day my mother brought home a palm pilot from her job and I almost

fainted. I brought the palm-pilot to my class the next day and boasted about “my” new device,

while the other kids didn’t even own a cell phone, or even a pager. I was always awed by “cool”
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things with buttons even though I had no clue what their function was. My mother always

allowed me to play games on the computer. Some were educational. Some were not. Even if

they did have some type of educational purpose, I didn’t think of them as learning tools. I just

saw them as a source of fun and excitement. I remember consistently playing Disney games on

the internet. The games that I remember the most usually dealt with Mickey Mouse yelling out

numbers and the letters of the alphabet. It didn’t matter that I was learning something new. Back

then, I thought that anything that had Mickey Mouse in it was exhilarating. As I think about my

access to literacy, I compare myself to Raymond Branch, one of the persons cited in “Sponsors

of Literacy.” He also was surrounded by computers and software as a young child. His father’s

occupation was responsible for this wonderful exposure, just like my mother’s career was

responsible for my exposure. Therefore, he became heavily interested and involved with them. It

is extremely hard to fight your surrounding environment. You are truly a sponge to the habitat in

which you are raised in. You instantly suck everything in. My environment was filled with all

different kinds of the new and updated technology. Therefore, you can define my literacy as

being “high-tech.”

Technology didn’t just work on its own to help me excel though. There were key

individuals who played a key role in enhancing my learning ability. As a younger child, my

primary sponsor was my mother. She exposed me to computers, which in turn helped me learn

how to read and write through technology and learning based games and exercises. One of my

favorite games to play as a child was the typing game. A letter of the alphabet would float down

in a bubble towards the bottom of the screen, and you had to type that letter on the keyboard

before it disappeared off of your monitor. As I matured though, I started to venture off on my

own. My mother’s background with computers and technology inspired me to take interest in the
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business and technological field of study. I took matters into my own hands. I would go on the

internet and research new updates on businesses and firms to increase my knowledge in that

specific area. Therefore, I also consider myself a primary sponsor for my literacy because my

inquisitiveness influenced me to gain a lot of new information that I thought would be helpful in

my future. By doing this, I somehow fell in love with money. Money, money, and more money!

That’s all I thought about. I would always save the money I earned and be careful and limited

with my spending. This is relative to what Deborah discussed in her essay. She elaborated on the

topic on how people use their sponsors for self development. This is exactly what I did. My

mother encouraged me to pursue certain aspects of my life that I thought would help me in the

future, so I conducted research on my own. I took my mother’s skills and knowledge and applied

them to my own separate and personal life.

Some other people that I consider sponsors of my literacy are my business and

technology teachers and advisors throughout high school. I took numerous amounts of business,

marketing, and accounting classes. I joined and participated in school clubs, such as Future

Business Leaders of America and DECA. These clubs combined technology and business skills

to increase my literacy. They also added methods of business concepts and persuasion techniques

to my literacy. I had to read and write lengthy papers on a consistent basis, coming up with

business, marketing, and distribution plans. These classes and clubs also helped me increase my

problem solving and speech skills. They made my literacy more well rounded, not just focusing

simply on reading and writing. I recall participating in a Future Business Leader’s competition

just this past year. My team had to combine all of these skills to enable us to write a competitive

paper and make an intriguing presentation about the topic at hand. While participating in this

club, I didn’t even realize all of the new literacy skills that I had acquired, until the day came
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when they announced that my team had won first place! That is when I came to realize and know

that I had actually attained a great amount of skills by participating in FBLA, considering two

years before, my team didn’t even place in the competitions. These sponsors were truly helpful

and influential. All of the literacy skills they passed down to me helped me get accepted into

many different universities, helped me get in the business honors program at UNCC, allowed me

to win many competitions and awards, and allowed me to participate in many life changing

experiences that have increased my knowledge and my thirst for it as well.

I am truly grateful for the literacy’s that I have acquired and the individuals who assisted

with that task. The technology that I was exposed to helped me conquer challenges in my life

that I considered difficult and tedious. One of those challenges was actually sitting down and

reading a book. I absolutely despised reading in my younger days, especially on topics that had

no connection to my personal life or goals. Technology eventually came to my rescue though.

Now, I am able to read books online through many different sources, such as e-books. My

literacy through technology made a pet peeve of mines a fairly easy and more enjoyable task. I

am honestly satisfied with my technological literacy and my sponsors, as well.

Overall, my process of gaining new literacy skills was a great one filled with wonderful

opportunities and learning experiences. I learned through computers and technology, something

that I consider intriguing. I breathed, ate, and slept technology. This is a path that I don’t regret

because computers are becoming a way of life, and I have the upper hand on some people, which

hopefully will secure a successful future for me.

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Works Cited

Brandt, Deborah. “Sponsors of Literacy.” Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Eds. Wardle
And Downs. Boston: Bedford, 2011. 406-26. Print.