George Flores and Dania Carrasco, participants in UNM's Student Services notetaking program, said their jobs are fulfilling and flexible.
Shelly Anzara, coordinator of Reading/Notetaking Services, said Student Services created the program, which provides notetakers for disabled students, about four years ago to work in conjunction with UNM's reading program. She said students must have a documented disability to receive the service.
"We don't just give services to people that don't feel like taking notes or don't want to read textbooks," she said.
She said students who request the service can be tested on campus or referred to a testing center.
"We have students with all kinds of disabilities," she said. "There are some that are totally blind and then there are others that just have mild dyslexia."
Anzara said the majority of UNM notetakers are students taking classes at the University, but some are retired professors and community members.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Flores became a notetaker in 1998 after retiring from his job with the Department of Labor.
"After I retired, I decided I still wanted to do something," he said. "I didn't want to just hang around the house, and also my son was going to UNM."
Flores said the coordinator of notetaking services at the time was reluctant to hire him because he wasn't a student, but decided to give him a shot.
"So I tried it and I enjoyed it and I've been doing it ever since," Flores said.
Flores said that one aspect that keeps him interested in the job is that Student Services allows him to decide what classes he wants for notetaking. Flores, a 1970 graduate of UNM with a degree in history, said he enjoys taking notes for anthropology, history, political science and humanities classes.
He said another perk of the job is having access to Johnson Gym, where he works out three times a week.
Carrasco, a notetaker and student from Chile, is pursuing a master's degree in art education. She said she also likes choosing the classes she takes notes for.
"Right now, I'm taking notes for a history class, North American history class, sociology of New Mexico, and they all sort of come together with the class that I'm taking for my master, so it's a lot of fun," she said.
She added that the freedom to choose classes might lead to a shortage of notetakers in other subjects, such as chemistry and science classes. She said that she would take notes for those classes, but that she has little college background in math and science.
Flores said he once took notes for a biochemistry class, and though he tried to do a good job he could hardly follow what was going on.
"It was drudgery," he said.
Good handwriting and a minimum 2.5 GPA are required of notetakers, Anzara said.
"We hire approximately 100 people to give services to those students," she said. "Probably 5 percent of our notetakers are on-call," she said.
Flores and Carrasco were both voluntary notetakers at one time - Carrasco in her undergraduate days in Chile and Flores when he was a UNM student in the 1960s.
They both said their clients appreciate their work.
"They're very nice and they're very grateful because you're taking notes for them and it's fun, actually," Carrasco said.
The University also offers the UNM reading program, in which people read text onto a tape for students with disabilities.
