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Terri Ouellette from Arizona ABC 15 interviewed GetSetUp’s Guide, Marge on Sonoran Living on May 12, 2020 about the “FREE online classes for seniors, taught by seniors.”

Guides on GetSetUp are reskilled educators over 50 who teach their peers how to use tools to stay connected, stay safe, pay bills online, deliver groceries and prescriptions directly to their door and so much more.

GetSetup knows that learning NEVER stops. Thus Marge, even as a Guide continues to learn new tech skills and tools that she then goes on to train others on. As a Guide, Marge uses her teaching skills, honed over years of teaching classes at university, mingled with her tech-savviness to provide abundant knowledge in a patient and self-paced environment as she guides her peers through their queries and woes. Right away you note that Marge loves talking to people and her classes are changing lives as she opens up tools and new worlds for adult learns. GetSetUp doesn’t just show learners how to use a tool. It teaches them by applying the hands-on practice of these skills while in the class. This allows learners to have questions answered on the spot, which means that learners leave the class truly knowing how to manage the tool they are learning.

Marge was one of the talented teaching Guides in our first GetSetUp training Academies. Prior to joining GetSetUp Marge had been an educator for decades teaching computer programming and web design. When she retired she sought out meaningful work with a flexible schedule. This search led her to find GetSetUp, where her skills as a former educator and knowledge of computer programming created the perfect synergy to create an all-star Guide.

“I am often asked by people in my age group how they can learn to use their computer, tablet, or phone more effectively. GetSetUp fills that niche,” she said. Marge and her fellow Guides are teaching these tools with adaptations specific to each learner's device and software.

Marge has taken full advantage of opportunities to help her peers using her educational skills, and she has made a difference for hundreds of students over the years.

As a Guide, she has an opportunity to teach many classes but the Introduction to Medicare class offered by GetSetUp is “the class I enjoy teaching the most,” she informed me. “There is a lot of good information in that class.” It’s the class she told me she wished she had before she turned 65 since it can save seniors hassle, stress, and money!

Marge is one of GetSetUp’s many Guides teaching a variety of classes from how to find language learning apps, to how to sign up for Social Security and work with Shopify.

Her patience, empathy, and support have helped students around the world learn essential tools and now she is focused on helping fellow seniors feel confident in new skills. She was one of the many Guides that stepped forward to increase their teaching to assure that seniors had access to essential classes during COVID-19, which GetSetup started to offer for free. This outreach initiative was to ensure that the older community had the essential skills to stay safe and still connect to loved ones via Zoom, have food and prescriptions delivered to the door, and continue to stay active.

With Older Americans Month being the month of May it’s essential to address the needs of older Americans and celebrate the work of those unsung heroes, sometimes behind a screen, helping to ensure the health and well-being of the older community. Rather than just doing things for them Marge, and the GetSetUp Guide team is teaching these seniors how to join the technology bandwagon and be active empowered consumers of the modern era.