Jack Smith

When Jack Smith began Continuing Education and Special Program's Advanced Information Technology Management (AITM) program, he knew he'd develop skills in project and personnel management. But he never thought he would also impact a community so similar to the one in which he was raised.

And that's exactly what happened. As part of his required project, Smith collaborated with Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to create a program to teach software maintenance and Web design to residents of public housing in the Harlem community.

The first group of trainees, 27 residents from Harlem housing projects, met twice a week and became proficient in Web building using JAVA, ColdFusion and Dreamweaver; database software SQLServer and Access, and graphics software like Photoshop and Quark. They completed the program last December. Several of the trainees have found jobs in the technology sector. One now works for Thirteen/WNET, New York City's public television station, where the chief technology officer, Ken Devine, is also on AITM's advisory board.

Says Smith, "Not only did I learn project management—everything from soliciting financial support and software donations to mentoring trainees and taking a project through to completion—but I also got a great sense of satisfaction from working with the trainees. I felt that enabling their technical skills would ensure they could use them for their own development and find a certain freedom in that."

Smith knows something about education as self-empowerment. He himself grew up in public housing in the South Bronx. He earned a scholarship to Harvard and graduated in 1980; he also holds a law degree from New York University. He is now a consultant for Desknet, Inc., a company that makes software for automated publishing.

For the project Smith sought help from his advisor, Arthur Langer, chair of Continuing Education and Special Programs' Computer Technology Applications and AITM programs, who is also an expert in mentoring in the technology field. Langer felt strongly that the participants should be honing their skills by working on a specific project, as though they had clients. In addition, he felt they should have access to career-building resources.

"The computer training is just one piece of the puzzle," Langer said. "In order to truly give people opportunities, they need guidance and relationships all throughout." Indeed, Langer acted as their mentor, talking to them about possible career options in technology and software support, and helping them design a Web portal on which they were able to post résumés for prospective employers to view.

One of Langer's mentees was J.T. Cruz, a resident of Douglass Houses on Amsterdam Avenue.

After he graduated in December, Thirteen/WNET's Devine hired him as a helpdesk technology intern. Now, Cruz and his co-workers troubleshoot as many as 50 calls each day, from WNET's staff of about 600. In the month of May, he and his five colleagues logged 900 troubleshooting calls.

"Thirteen/WNET is such a creative environment that it gives me great pleasure to help the computer-users resolve their computer problems," said Cruz. Cruz says he also likes working for an educational-broadcast station that has a mission to educate communities at large.

Devine says he is enthusiastic about the training project. He hopes to continue to hire graduates and even aid them in furthering their technology education.

"This kind of project goes hand-in-hand with the kind of public-service programming we do," said Devine. "I cherish the opportunity to do public service not only on-screen, but off-screen too," he said.