Plugged In Enterprises Fights the Digital Divide

Silicone Valley is the last place that one would expect to see the negative effects of the digital divide, yet many in East Palo Alto are not utilizing the technological innovations common to the surrounding area.

Plugged In, a community center in the city, is aiming to change that.

"I think the phrase 'digital divide' has been overused, and I don't know what it means anymore." said Natalia Gabrea, Plugged In's Enterprise Development Manager, "But I definitely think that people miss our on a lot of opportunities because of lack of access, not knowing how to use it, not knowing how to create with it, they don't understand the importance of it and nobody really spends the time educating people what that importance is."

Right now, ten teenage students from East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park are learning these things in the Plugged In Enterprises program, one of the services that Plugged In offers. Inside a room full of computers in a small one story building that is covered with a brightly colored mural, high school students in PIE learn internet skills and web page design, and apply their knowledge to work done for area clients.

The five-year-old program is shifting its reliance from outside donors to paying customers, and the goal is for PIE to support itself solely through its business contracts with clients by 2006. "What we're trying to do is run this business as a social enterprise," said Gabrea, who explained that social enterprises are businesses run inside of non-profits.

Audrey Yamamoto, Plugged-In's Chief Operating Officer, said that funding for the center has traditionally come almost equally from individuals, foundations, and corporations, such as Palo Alto based Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems.

Jerone Hill is a high school senior who plans on going on college to get an engineering degree and an MBA. He's been involved with PIE for four years, and says that sometimes fitting PIE into his schedule gets difficult. "A lot of times it is kinda hard, because you get in at like eight, and, if you have three hours of homework, that's like eleven, plus you have to eat dinner, " he said.

One of his colleagues, Kimberly Fomby agreed, "but you basically have to suck it up. Either that, or quit my job, and that's not something I want to do."

Plugged In Enterprises is a job, and students in the program have the title of Production Assistant. But Gabrea said that the program is sometimes a hard sell to teenagers. The initial training period, which has lasted up to 12 weeks in the past, is unpaid. After this initial period, students must create a web page and a resume; pass a test and interview with PIE. After that, they are hired as interns on the team and begin to get paid minimum wage for their work at PIE. "You could go to Burger King or In-And-Out and make 9 dollars an hour off the bat flipping burgers," Gabrea said.

The Production Associates who work at PIE think that the value of their experience outweighs the pay difference. "This looks better, like five times better, on your resume than working at Burger King for a couple of years," Hill said. "And it actually shows that you're learning something, you've done a lot."

"It's quite a commitment," Gabrea said, noting that many Production Assistants also have obligations at home and have to commute to PIE by bus and foot from as far away as Belmont, since East Palo Alto does not have its own high school. "They are such an inspiration to me it's unbelievable," she said.

Production Associates in PIE can control the direction of their computer education after they learn the basics of web design. Mischya Adair, a PIE Production Associate interested in Graphics, is learning how to use a program for making web site banners and Ulead Cool 3D, a three dimensional graphics program.

Education is an important part of PIE, but so is work. The students have deadlines for projects. Right now they are working on mock-ups for a re-design of the Plugged-In center's website. Sometimes there is also work from outside sources. Adair, Fomby, and Hill all worked for America Online's Netscape division this summer. Fomby is examining content on actor's studio websites for a director, and will eventually help design a working website. "The opportunities, I mean, they don't stop," Hill said.

When asked how she thought her time at PIE would help her later in life, Adair said, "Basically, I just want experience in so many things so that I can't be turned down for one thing, and they know that I can accomplish anything."

There is a quote from poet Shel Silverstein written across the railing of a ramp leading to Plugged In's front door. It says, "If you are a dreamer, come in."