As a community service sub-group, we have met and communicated over email for the past few months about the type of activities we as an organization can sponsor.
The first event we've proposed - hopefully, one of many - will be to develop a program for local area high school students that will help stimulate an interest in technology. The first such event is coming into fruition. If interested, please mark the following details in your calendars.
Date: Saturday, May 20, 2005
Time: 10am - 1pm
Place: Columbia University, Earl Hall Auditorium (117th and Broadway)
The high school participants hail from the South Bronx, one of the most economically-challenged areas in all of New York. The students are all active participants with Morris Academy Mentors, a two-year old mentoring effort consisting of close to 25 mentors and 40 students. The school itself is called Morris Academy for Collaborative Studies, and is a public high school located inside Bronx's historic Morris High School campus. More information on the program can be found on www.morrisacademymentors.org and www.morrisacademymentors.blogspot.com.
The following points outlines some of the high level goals of the program:
ÔÉò Introduce the students to professionals that are truly passionate about technology and what they do for a living
 Plant into the students’ minds that technology and education are keys to crossing and shrinking the digital divide between socio-economic groups
ÔÉò Expose students to career paths in technology field while guiding them to focus on their academic studies and post-secondary education
ÔÉò Highlight to students the practical applications of math and science, in addition to the other related subjects
In addition to participation from NextNY and Morris Academy Mentors, the agenda will also include a demonstration from Morris Robotics, the high school's competitive robotics team that has won several awards and competitions sponsored by a robotics league championed by famed inventor Dean Kamen (think "Segway").
We Are Thinking (please edit with any suggestions)
Topic #1: General discussion on technology in everyday life:
ÔÉò Begin session with a short presentation by the students on how they use technology in their everyday lives. Students will be chosen in advance of the event, and will be asked to prepare 2-3 slides to accompany the presentation
ÔÉò Q&A with the students, for example:
- Survey how many of them are on MySpace, Xanga, IM, music ringtones
- Survey their consumption of media between the various channels (online, email, video games, TV, radio, print) and then show them how they compare to the general population
Topic #2: Suggestions for main speaker topics (either in the form of a keynote or a panel discussion) include:
1) The use of the Internet to build communities and enable collaboration
2) The role of science and technology for the current high school generation
3) The path to a career in technology (panel discussion to highlight the diversity of paths and careers in engineering and technology)
4) Panel discussion on “Why am I passionate about technology?”
The discussion topic, once chosen, will be communicated with the students. In advance of the event, each student will be required to come up with 2-3 questions for Q&A with the main speakers.
Topic #3: Break-out sessions:
Depending on schedule, we can either have break-out sessions contemporaneously – 4 at once, whereby the students would gravitate towards their own interests – or sequentially. The topics listed below are fairly broad topics, and can be left to our collective imaginations.
1) Technology in Entertainment
2) Technology in Communications
3) Technology in Education
4) Technology in Business
It's an open book in terms of how and what gets discussed.
General themes:
1. Interactivity with young people is encouraged. It would be best if this event did not have the look and feel of a lecture room.
2. The entire program will be capped at 3 hours (by virtue of the rental rate on the room).
Questions:
1. In case powerpoint slides are in order, does anyone have ready access to a projector? *Mica can provide a projector*
2. Do we want any media coverage?
3. Should we prepare take-home materials for the students?
Community Service mentors and contact:
Andrew (Andrew@ideafurnace.com)
Michael Cichowski (mcichows@gmail.com)
Samara Finn (SFinn@mahercomm.com)
Kristin Hart (kristin.hart@gmail.com)
Darren Herman (darren@iga-partners.com)
Gabe Morris (gabemorris@gmail.com)
Mica Scalin (contactmica@gmail.com)
Naveen Selvadurai
Howard Yeh (hyeh@vpvp.com)
Thomas Stewart (thomaskstewart@gmail.com)