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Instead of summer jobs flipping burgers or killing time in some taxpayer-subsidized make-work scheme, 10 Plugged In teens from grades 8-12 used the skills they learned creating their own personal Web home pages to author pages for businesses and individuals. The kids got cash and priceless experience that will stand out on any resume. The clients got a no-sweat, one-stop home page authoring service and, if they wish, a presence on Plugged In's website. The firm, which operates programs in East Palo Alto, Redwood City, and Menlo Park, California, gets new business contacts plus a financial boost. The program, which came to life thanks in part to 16-year-old volunteer Web wizard Nathan Kuriger, had 10 potential clients at the launch of the Net-education program. Several of those were tech firms with their own websites who wanted to subcontract work to the Plugged In kids. "There's this huge demand for these services right now," says Plugged In executive director Bart Decrem. "We're hoping (the program) leads to long-term relationships with firms. This could be the lead-in to jobs and consulting. It's really the kind of experience any tech employer would just love to see." Fees range from $50 for an individual's no-frills page to $300 and up for a business. (Remember, those are the minimum suggested donations. Since Plugged In is a tax-exempt nonprofit group, 60 percent of the fee is tax-deductible.) I'd gladly pay $50 just to see the look on a school guidance counselor's face when one of these so-called socio-economically challenged kids casually mentions their summer job involved developing hypertext documents for businesses and starting their own consulting firm.
Written by David Plotnikoff, Digital Culture Reporter, San Jose Mercury News. Reprinted by permission of the San Jose Mercury News.
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e spend a lot of time calling the winners and losers in the cutthroat realm of digital enterprise. It's not too often we run across a commercial venture that's a straight win/win/win situation. That's exactly what the Plugged In home page program is -- a three-way deal with no possibility of losers. Six days a week, in three of the San Francisco Peninsula's toughest neighborhoods, the nonprofit group goes about the nuts 'n bolts work of building bridges between the digital haves and have-nots.
