This is a request for The South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (SoBRO), a community-based organization, to partner with Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Vision Education & Media, a firm specializing in technology education, for a three-year, youth-based program: SoBRO TEC. The program will serve up to 180 minority high school youth from the South Bronx -- a community beset by poverty, failing schools and social problems-in a project-based, design-centered program. The goals are to develop the participants' technological fluidity within the context of the local urban environment and to broaden the entry points to IT-related careers for these minority and low-income participants through exposure to IT applications in professional and creative settings (not mutually exclusive).
This three-year program consists of a series of after school, semester-length modules and a summer program. Students will meet for at least two hours per day, three days per week for a total of 11 weeks per semester; summer programs will meet for 20 hours per week during seven weeks; reaching a maximum of 230 contact hours per year. The modules engage students in three areas of technology: Information Technology in Urban Spaces, exploring products of urban design that involve IT systems and networks such as transit systems, parks and recreation and public service offerings as well as the cellular phone; Art and Entertainment Technology, film and performance technology and music production; and Architectural Modeling Technology, materials and building strategies and building your dream house. The summer program offers three options that build on these modules: field trip series, community web-building projects, and internships.
