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SDB Daly
SDB Daly, 18, has loved “messing around with computers” since he was eight or nine. That’s when an educational software program challenged him to navigate a maze by solving math problems. “I was hooked,” he says. Unfortunately, there was only one computer in his 5th grade classroom.
Fortunately, Daly, who grew up in Boston’s Mattapan-Dorchester area, found the Blue Hill Avenue Boys & Girls Club in 1997. Club staff member Daphne Griffin encouraged him to join. Not long after that, he discovered the computers at the Blue Hill Club’s Computer Clubhouse and Daly was home! He has learned Adobe Photoshop, Premiere and Illustrator and Bryce 3-D software. His passion is computer graphics, experimenting with filters and other special effects, movie-editing and animations. Since 1999, he has been working with other kids as a member of the Boys & Girls Club junior staff, introducing them to technology and maintaining and fixing the computers.
Says SDB, “Some of my friends are being shot at and locked up. The Computer Clubhouse helps me keep positive. It’s kept me off the streets and out of trouble. And I really like the people.” A 2003 graduate of English High School, he developed a logo at the school that won a contest and a $100 prize. He has also designed business cards and flyers, and created artwork for the Clubhouse Digital Studio exhibit at the Museum of Science.
Currently, Daly is earning his associate’s degree in computer technology at Boston’s Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, studying computer concepts, digital systems, Visual Basic 6, applied college algebra and trigonometry and exploring academic opportunities. His goal is to start his own computer graphics company.
Today, what matters most to him are “honesty and team work. You need to understand where people are and how to work as a group or things fall between the cracks.” In 2003, he was appointed to the Intel Computer Clubhouse Network's International Youth Leadership Team. The five-member team, representing Clubhouses in the Philippines, Germany, and United States, met for the first time in Anaheim, CA, in April 2003. “We talked about how to bring together all the communities and work better across the Clubhouse Network. I really enjoyed meeting different people and finding out their views,” says Daly, whose parents are from Trinidad. The team meets monthly online and is designing its own Web page. Daly hopes to help plan the Network's July 2004 Teen Summit.
"SDB has worked very hard and shown great interest not only in the Computer Clubhouse, but in the Blue Hill Club more broadly," said Yvette Proenza, director of technology for the Blue Hill Clubhouse. "He is a great example to our other members—always willing to help out. This is a wonderful opportunity for him to be rewarded for his efforts." Daly also used to serve on the President's Youth Council for Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, meeting monthly with BGCB President and CEO Linda Whitlock and youth from other BGCB Clubs.
"I have learned so many things through technology at the Club and gained experiences I never would have had," said SDB. “I really like learning new things.”