San Jose Rotarians build digital bridges

By Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga Rotary International News

9 August 2005

California's Silicon Valley is universally associated with the high-tech boom that brought immense wealth to many enterprising individuals, and computers and the Internet into millions of U.S. homes.

It is, however, much less widely known that a digital divide runs through the valley, separating families that cruise along the information superhighway and those that have fallen by the wayside.

Prompted by concerns that children from Silicon Valley homes without computers and Internet access were lagging behind their more fortunate colleagues, the Rotary Club of San Jose initiated Digital Bridges to give computers to graduating students at area schools.

The effort was the brainchild of Ruben Barrales, a member of the club whose business, political, and volunteer interests exposed him to the worlds on both sides of the digital divide.

"Ruben saw the need for us in Rotary to bridge that gap and to start with schools that served [communities] with a lot of poverty and language problems," says David Heagerty, a club member and past district governor.

According to Heagerty, Barrales brought to the project valuable contacts and experience as an elected county official and an executive at Silicon Valley civic organizations that promote quality education for children from poor Latino families.

Until 2001, when he took up an appointment as a senior White House staff, Barrales served as a link between the San Jose Rotary club and high-tech firms that donate or offer subsidized computers and software programs to Digital Bridges.

So far, the project is working with the Washington Elementary and Downtown College Preparatory schools, both serving students from low-income families in the San Jose Unified School District.

"Our club decided to do something with Washington Elementary School because it serves a very diverse community. Students there speak about 25 languages," says Heagerty. "Also, we had worked closely with the school for 20 years to provide medical care for families without medical insurance."

Downtown College Preparatory, the only charter high school in San Jose, was founded to prepare underachieving students for college. Eighty-nine percent of seniors in the pioneer class of 2004 enrolled at four-year colleges, including Ivy League universities.

According to Jennifer Andaluz, the school's principal and one of its founders, although students have access to a state-of-the-art computer lab at the school, only 20 percent of them have computers at home.

"Obviously, students who have more tools and resources at their disposal tend to perform better," says Andaluz. "A program like Digital Bridges offers our students the opportunity to own their first computer."

Digital Bridges has given out laptop computers to 50 graduating seniors at Downtown College Preparatory in the two years it has worked with the school.

"[The Rotarians] believe in our mission," says Andaluz. "They feel we fulfill a critical need in the community."

Rotarians have held fundraisers and donated computers and money to get the project off the ground and keep it going.

"The club contributes a modest amount of money, about $3,000 a year, to refurbish computers," explains Heagerty. "Initially we were able to obtain 30 computers from a computer recycling center. Members contributed about 20 laptops. And we have done some fundraising."