FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CALIFORNIA STUDENTS WORK TO BRIDGE DIGITAL DIVIDE USING TechYES FROM GENERATION Y AND VERIZON

Kids Use Program to Enhance Technological Knowledge, Learn Real-World Skills

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Olympia, Wash. (Sept. 27, 2006) - Ninety-seven percent of participating Centeral California teachers agreed that TechYES helped bridge the digital divide among their primarily underserved student population. In addition, 100% of all participating teachers said that TechYES is a good way to ensure that students are technology literate.

Funded by Verizon, the Califronia Technology Literacy Project is the largest middle school technology literacy initiative ever implemented. The program, designed ny the non-profit Kijana Voices Foundation, delivered TechYES to 10,000 7th grade students in 45 underserved schools throughout the Central Valley.

Through TechYES, a student tech literacy program, students learn real-world skill ssuch as Internet safety, Internet ethics (Netiquette), and create projects for school. home, or the community. Aiming to improve skills through student-to-student peer training, mentoring and research-based practices, TechYES incorporates flexible materials and resources that can be used in existing classrooms or as any extracurricular activity.

"It was great to see my students really excited about something school-realated," said Jim Hunter, computer careers and leadership teacher at Christa McAuliffe Middel School in Stockton. "Students loved the completion certificates, administrators were pleased with their projects, and colleagues were impressed that students were able to work across the curriculum using their newly developed technology skills."

As the TechYES model assumes that students can take on major responsibility in learning technology, earning a certificate offers each student the chance to show their peers, educators, parents and community that thye have the skills necessary to take on the real world after they graduate from high school.

"It is vital our students enter high school technologically competent enough to use the available technology to complete their studies," said Diana Veneski, and English teacher at James Monroe Middle School in Ridgecrest. "With TechYES, the students see the difference between project-based 'real-world work' and traditional paper and pencil assignments."

For further details about the Verizon California Technology Literacy Project, a list of Central Valley schools receiving grants, and the results of the project evaluation please see http://www.geny.org/verizon

About Kijana Voices

Kijana Voices, a non-profit 501-3c corporation, promotes constructive technology use by youth. They accomplish this mission by providing resources, materials, models, and collaborative opportunities for youth-created, coordinated, and constructed by their peers. For more information, go to http://www.geny.org

For more information, please contact:

Sylvia Martinez
Kijana Voices
(888) 941-4369 x107
sylvia@geny.org

Sandy Fash
C. Blohm & Associates, Inc.
(608) 839-9800
sandy@cblohm.com