InformationWeek

August 14, 2000

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High School Students Learn IT From The Experts

Internship program gives inner-city teens hands-on training at tech companies

By Peter Ruber

More on interns:

Cisco Job Program Hooks Up Students With Training (7/3/00)

InternetWeek Reading, Writing And Data Mining (7/31/00)v

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hen Ade Swinger, 17, started his summer internship at ClickRadio.com Inc. in June, he was given work he could be proud of. There would be no paper shuffling or coffee fetching for Swinger, who had just completed his junior year at Paul Robeson High School in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.

Swinger's work at ClickRadio.com would include network maintenance, content creation, audio-file compression, and database input.

His interest in technology started at age 13, when he began repairing computers. Lately, Swinger has spent his spare time teaching himself Perl and C++ programming, and he's fascinated by the Internet. "I never realized how powerful the Internet can be as a selling tool," he says.

Swinger is among 25 students from three inner-city New York high schools participating in the Interactive Internship program developed by a nonprofit organization called Making Opportunities for Upgrading Schools & Education, or Mouse, and Randy Schoenfeld, CEO of Redwood Partners, a New York company that builds management teams for emerging companies.

Ade Swinger Photo by Catrina Genovese The companies that participate in the program--many of which are Internet businesses--are demonstrating that business isn't always about reaching profitability goals or getting rich from an initial public offering. The 11 boys and 14 girls selected late last year for the program--15 of whom are African American and 10 of whom are Hispanic--have been provided with training, summer jobs, and mentoring from some of Silicon Alley's leading technology companies. Internship participants include America's Baby, ClickRadio.com, Digital Mafia Interactive, Ericsson Cyberlab NY, E-Steel, Flower.com, Kozmo.com, <kpe>, StarMedia, 24/7, Upoc.com, Urban Box Office, and USA Networks.

Schoenfeld says his involvement in the program is personal. As an underprivileged kid in Brooklyn 20 years ago, he says, "I desperately hoped someone would give me a break. I got that break and made the most of it. Now it's time to give other young people a break."

Inner-city school systems throughout the country face an enormous crisis, Schoenfeld says. They lack the resources to prepare students who have an aptitude for technology for IT careers--which is unfortunate for both the students and the companies that would benefit from employing them. "Without some kind of remedial action to close the knowledge gap, the future socioeconomic impact on minority communities will cascade upward and affect the very companies whose business processes are driven by technology," he says.

In New York, there isn't a single line item in the Board of Education budget to buy computers or to provide basic computer skills for students, says Joanne Wilson, Mouse chairwoman of the board.

Mouse was co-founded in 1997 by Sarah Holloway, an Internet consultant and Web producer, and Andrew Rasiej, CEO of the Digital Club Network, a music Webcast company. Its first project was to rally companies to help wire 38 New York City schools with $5 million of donated computer equipment. Soon after, Web portal company AltaVista Co. donated $750,000 to equip all 14 schools in Central Harlem's District 5--one of the poorest in the city--with computers. Volunteers from Bowne & Co. Inc., a financial and legal information services company, installed the 450 computers, then networked the district's schools. Bowne's systems administrators continue to support District 5's network through E-mail, telephone, and on-site troubleshooting.

"We're not educators, but we have a goal to support education by continuing to link New York's tech industry with schools, children, and communities," says Holloway, who serves as Mouse's executive director.

Mouse depends heavily on the growing number of companies that contribute money, equipment, training, and technical support. The organization is run like a tight-fisted business with only 12 employees, but it spawns and coordinates a number of diverse projects through an army of more than 1,500 volunteers. Last year, Mouse raised $1.2 million in operating capital.

For the internship program, 30 students starting their junior year were selected out of 300 applicants from three inner-city schools: Paul Robeson High, George Washington High School near Gramercy Park in Manhattan, and the Young Women's Leadership Academy in East Harlem. Applicants were chosen based on essays they wrote about why they wanted to pursue careers in IT.

"We wanted students who were really committed," says Schoenfeld, who first reduced the applicant list by half and then interviewed the remaining 150 students, before narrowing the list to 30.