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At
The Summit
Last month more than 250 students from 18 countries met at the Museum of Science under Breslow's tutelage for the Intel Computer Clubhouse Network's 2006 Teen Summit. Members of local clubhouses in their hometowns, they swapped ideas on technical matters like Web design as well as community issues such as gang violence, racial profiling, and the environment. The clubhouses provide a safe place for youths to build confidence and express themselves by mastering computers. They are located in areas where many teens otherwise would not have access to the technology. All the clubhouses have a music studio, inspiring budding artists to write lyrics, produce songs, and burn their own CDs. Meanwhile their friends can use Photoshop to design cover art. Others learn to create websites. ``I tell all of the clubhouse coordinators when they start that they shouldn't expect to know everything," said Breslow, 51. ``We encourage the members to learn from each other and from exploring." She has touched
lives thousands of miles away. Before joining the clubhouse in Mexico
City, Christian Rodríguez planned to drop out of high school;
now he wants to study architecture. Laura Etienne of Miami said
the skills she learned at the Little Haiti Housing Association Clubhouse
helped get her into a prestigious high school, furthering her dream
of becoming an obstetrician. Breslow didn't invent the Computer Clubhouse. It was started in 1993 at Boston's old Computer Museum. She saw it two years later and ``was blown away." At age 40, she decided that if she was going to jump from corporate to community work, she'd better get a move on. The Computer Museum (now part of the Museum of Science) hired her and within five years she had kicked off 15 more clubhouses. Then she got the phone call that changed everything. Intel wanted to bankroll an after-school program and its national search led the company to Breslow's. The company committed $32 million to transforming the clubhouses into a global network. ``It was my dream phone call," said Breslow. ``We opened three clubhouses in Johannesburg and soon after, the city called to say they'd seen one and wanted to start two more in other neighborhoods." Intel seed money has launched 70 percent of the Clubhouses worldwide, she said. Now there are 105 clubhouses, 70 of them in the United States. Breslow has visited most of them, traveling to South Africa, India, Taiwan, Philippines, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Israel, Ramallah in the West Bank, and Jordon. Not all of her traveling has been on clubhouse business. Three years ago she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. She did so as a way to celebrate life after she was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer. A veteran of 20 marathons, Breslow is also an avid cyclist, commuting daily from her Watertown home to the Museum of Science. Just before the clubhouse summit, she had an accident and flew over the handlebars on Mount Auburn Street in Watertown. Despite breaking her arm, she made sure the show went on. As she sat in a borrowed office at Northeastern University, which hosted last month's teen summit, Breslow relished seeing the groups from Taiwan and South Africa mingling. ``It was a wonderful
sight," she said. ``This was the largest group we've had to
date and the most powerful -- especially in light of what's going
on in the world." For more information about Computer Clubhouse, log onto go to www.computerclubhouse.org. In Globe West, the Boys and Girls Club of Framingham hosts a clubhouse; call 508-620-7145 or visit it on the Web through the main clubhouse website. © Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company. . |
