"Closing
the Digital Divide," Times Community Newspaper,
October 7, 1999
by Min Yi Han
In 1994, Appu Kuttan, president
of the National Education Foundation, decided to try
and close the Digital Divide. The Digital Divide,
Kuttan said, is the rapidly growing gap between the
haves and have-nots in the age of information technology.
According to the economist Sharon Cohany, of the Bureau
of Labor Statistics, 26.9 percent of computer systems
are women, 3.6 percent are Hispanics, and 7.2 are
African American. The low ratio of minorities and
women in the high-paying information technology field
concerned Kuttan.
"I saw a need to provide an affordable, high-tech,
high-quality education to anyone who has the motivation
to learn," said Kuttan.
CyberLearning Universe is a project of the non-profit
National Education Foundation founded in 1989. With
the encouragement of President Clinton, Vice President
Gore, Intel founder Gordon Moore and Congressman Tom
Davis (R-11th), and Steve Horn (R-Calif.), Kuttan
set up the Universe in 1994 in Alexandria to start
addressing the problems the Digital Divide.
Right now, the Universe
is offering free A+ training for lower income individuals.
It is also offering 120 scholarships every quarter,
worth $2,000, in a full, 172 hour Microsoft Certified
Systems Engineer (MCSE) program.Kuttan said CyberLearning
Universe trains about 40-60 students quarterly and
boasts a 90 to 100 percent graduation rate versus
a 17 percent national average.Kuttan is proud of the
fact that all of his graduates are employed IT field.
"This totally self-supporting million-dollar
annual scholarship program brings $14 million to the
local economy annually, assuming an average MCSE earns
about $70,000 annually," he said. The Universe
is currently offering two fast track MCSE courses
for 17 IT/engineering seniors and one graduate student
at George Mason Universe.
Each student received a $2,000 scholarship from CyberLearning
Universe, and had $2,800, which is far cheaper than
most comparable programs, he said."The students
receive 80 hours of intense, mostly hand-on classroom
instruction from our accomplished Microsoft Certified
Trainer (MCT) instructor," he said.
The classes are being held
at GMU's main campus in Fairfax. Kuttan said GMU is
very interested in continuing the program.
Since 1994, CyberLearning Universe has trained more
than 7,000 students in the Washington, DC metro area
and 15 other cities His next project will address
the digital divide in the schools and how to bring
disadvantaged children into the information age.
Kuttan, with the support of the White House, is in
the process of selecting a few middle schools in the
Washington, DC metropolitan area for a prototype project
starting in January 2000. He said he will select students
to work with mentors throughout the school year mastering
basic IT skills using online courses provided by CyberLearning
Universe. This program will be available for children
enrolled in the free-lunch program.
"We want the children to learn by doing, because
that is a more effective way to learn," Kuttan
said.
His ultimate goal, is to train 100,000 adults and
one million disadvantaged youths in the next ten years.
"You have to put your
heart and soul into something to change anything,"
Kuttan said.
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