Bridging COVID-19 Isolation and the Digital Divide with Bridging Tech
In 2021, it is nearly impossible to get anything done without a laptop: apply for a job, go to school, safely connect with friends, or schedule a COVID-19 vaccine appointment. Yet, there are fewer laptops in existence than humans on this planet, presenting a unique challenge for unhoused students. Not only are they disadvantaged in terms of their living situation, but also have to deal with this extra technological hurdle known as the digital divide.
Naturalized Americans have a unique set of familial and institutional knowledge about how to navigate the complex and confusing American system: What is an SAT? Who can I ask for help on my math homework? Where can I get free public Wi-Fi? While these questions might seem obvious to a second-generation resident, they are anything but for immigrant and first-generation communities. This week’s episode of Back in America, hosted by Podcast Editor Josh Wagner, highlights Bridging Tech, a charity devoted to providing hardware and other educational resources for unhoused students. Having donated nearly 1,000 laptops nationwide, Bridging Tech is developing infrastructure for companies and individuals to donate disused computers to be wiped/refurbished before being donated to unhoused communities. Founded by rising Stanford seniors, Isabel Wang and Margot Bellon, Bridging Tech is committed to listening to the unhoused community and creating actually helpful resources, rather than assuming what would be best and offering potentially unhelpful solutions. Holly Giang, Bridging Tech’s Foundation Relations Manager, also joins us for the interview.
To find out how unhoused youths can go to online school, what policy measures are holding back their success, and how to get involved with Bridging Tech, listen to our episode!
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In the coming weeks, the Back in America team will be launching an eight-part series investigating the relationship between music and poetry, tentatively titled “Rhythmic Verses.” Join Podcast Editor Josh Wagner as he poetically travels around the country, asking the age-old question: What is American to you?
Listen again: Divers from the EPIX/ BBC Docuseries “Enslaved”: Diving on Shipwrecked Slave Ships
SETI – Dr. Seth Shostak – Searching for E.T.
Poetism Part 7: Can you describe it all? Scott Stevens on the Cocteau Twins & Brigit Pegeen Kelly
Poetism Part 6: Can you experience? Michael Leon Thomas on Whitehead and Pharoah Sanders
Poetism Part 5: Can you speak for others? Lorenzo Bartolucci on Seamus Heaney and Hozier
Poetism 4: Can you break a word? Gabriel Ellis on SOPHIE and Jos Charles
Poetism 3: Can You Feel It? Johnnie Hobbs on D’Angelo and Amiri Baraka
Poetism Part 2: Are we numb yet? Lisa Robertson and the Airborne Toxic Event with Mitch Therieau
Poetism Part 1: Patrick Rosal and The Doors with Fang Liu
Doug Steinel: Cancel Culture in Classroom
Cargo-Sailboats are Back-at-Sea, Creating a Greener Supply Chain
Bruno Sarda: “Climate change poses a systemic, existential risk to the future viability of your system”
Students Becoming Pro: the Interns Behind the Mic
Navi Radjou: Is Frugal Economy a Viable Alternative to Capitalism and Could it Save our Planet?
Listen Again: Guns, God & the 2nd Amendment in America - David Treibs Christian & Guns Activist - Prof. Robert Spitzer Constitution and Gun Control Expert, SUNY Cortland
Derrick Jensen: Are We at the End of the World or just the End of our Civilization?
International Women's Day - Listen Again - Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings: Black Feminism, Civil Rights…
Who should get the vaccine first? We didn’t know so we asked a philosopher
Listen again: Eric Marsh - Being a Black man today in America
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