From: Phil deHaan (dehp@calvin.edu)
Date: Mon Jun 23 2003 - 10:46:26 EDT
June 23, 2003 == MEDIA ADVISORY
Calvin College has discovered it takes more than one college department to build a bridge across the digital divide.
Project Connect, an effort by Calvin's computer science department, is entering its third summer of teaching computer skills to adults who normally have no access to computers. For the first year, however, many of those adults will be parents of children in Calvin's Pathways to Possibilities program, a partnership with churches that encourages young people to continue their educations beyond high school.
This year's version of Project Connect is an appealing match-up for both Calvin departments.
It will allow the computer science department to reach a wider audience with needed technological savvy. Without basic computer skills, said computer science professor David Laverell, people on the wrong side of the digital divide "will get left behind big time * A lot of companies in town won't let you apply for a job in person. You have to fill out an application on the internet. If you can't do it, you don't get the job."
Project Connect will also allow Pathways to incorporate parents into its program.
"It helps us to support the parents as partners in their children's education. We don't want to sidestep parents," said Rhae Ann Booker, Calvin's director of pre-college programs. "We're hoping that, especially in this computer generation, we can keep parents abreast of the growing technology that's out there."
Project Connect will offer one group of sessions on Mondays, June 23 through July 28 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Calvin College science building. Fred Ferwerda, a computer science professor with 30 years of experience working at IBM, will teach classes in computer basics, word processing, creating spreadsheets and using the Internet.
Another group of sessions, also taught by Ferwerda and geared to a Spanish-speaking audience, will be held on Thursdays, June 19 through July 31 (omitting July 3). Those sessions, also running from 7 to 8:30 p.m., will provide Spanish translation.
At the conclusion of the program, participants who can't afford a computer will be given a four-year-old, fully-equipped Compaq from Calvin's computer science department. The program costs $20, which will be used to provide software for the students.
All 15 of the churches in Holland, Muskegon and Grand Rapids that partner with Pathways have been invited to participate in Project Connect. In its first two summers of existence, the program worked with smaller classes drawn from area neighborhood associations.
Success stories have already emerged from the computer training gained in those early classes, Laverell said: "People said they could do the job they had better, and some people got promotions."
For more information about Project Connect, contact Rhae-Ann Booker in the Calvin College Office of Pre-College Programs at (616) 526-6749 or by e-mailing rbooker@calvin.edu
~written by media relations staff writer Myrna Anderson
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