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Maria
Salmoran
Four-year-old Maria Salmoran arrived
in Boston from Mexico City in 1989. Six years later, she went to the newly
opened Computer Clubhouse at The Computer Museum. Salmoran, who was only
nine or 10, had used a computer for typing in school. But at the Clubhouse,
she experimented 
with
a computer-based paint program. “I was interested in graphics but
didn’t have a computer at home.” She loved discovering Adobe
Photoshop “because of all the things I could do. I could let my
imagination roll and create artwork.” An early favorite was a picture
she created of her baby nephew on a background of flowers.
Now 18 and a Computer Clubhouse alumna, Salmoran especially enjoys experimenting with self-portraits, scanning and superimposing different images. She thinks her Photoshop expertise is the most valuable skill she’s learned at the Clubhouse. Wanting to give back, Salmoran started mentoring girls at the Clubhouse in 1996 on Girls Day. “I like to help other people. I show them my pictures and how they can do it too. It opens up a world for them like it did for me.” In one example, after learning how to use Photoshop at the Clubhouse, she designed ads for El Sol, a local Spanish language newspaper. “I learned a lot about how newspapers work,” she says.
Salmoran says that the Clubhouse has enabled her
to keep learning new things, whether it’s Macromedia Flash, or helping
a new Clubhouse member make a Web page. She’s also worked in the
Museum of Science’s Cahners 
ComputerPlace
and was one of the youth leaders chosen to go to a Consumer Electronics
Show in Las Vegas, where she represented the Clubhouse and met Intel CEO
Craig Barrett.
She says, “It’s hard to be a teen these days and stay focused on doing the right thing. Things used to be based on respect and morals. Now things are sort of corrupted. You have to make hard decisions.” Her biggest challenge has been “managing my diabetes,” which she’s done since she was 12. “It limits you. You have to live life a certain way.” Her older brother, Mauricio, has set a good example for her in many ways. She says, “Instead of just hanging out, I came to the Clubhouse and learned as many things as I could. The Clubhouse has changed my life. If I hadn’t come, there’s a lot I wouldn’t know.”
A 2003 graduate of Roxbury’s Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, Salmoran is trying to earn money for school tuition. She has interned at both Fleet and Citizen’s Banks, and is interested in exploring several areas, including psychology, criminal justice and cosmetology.