Chelsea high school student seeks to bridge the digital divide

Bronx Science High School student Margaret Baughman at home in Chelsea with tools of the trade earlier this week.

By Ariel Vered

Chelsea resident Margaret Baughman remembers reading a newspaper article on the so-called “digital divide” while a sophomore at Bronx High School of Science a couple of years ago. She couldn’t believe there were high school students out there who didn’t have access to computers or the Internet to do their schoolwork, given how essential these were to her and her friends.

“We use the Internet all the time to do research and other things. I’ve realized more and more how it affects my own life and how Internet access is becoming such an important part of academics, in terms of college applications, SATs, and teachers putting work online and requiring papers to be typewritten,” said Baughman, now a senior.

While most kids would be satisfied with the discovery and leave it at that, the epiphany stirred Baughman into action—prompting her to complete a school project on the divide between digital haves and have-nots, which she entered in a citywide competition before attempting to implement a solution to the problem at restaurants near her school and reach out to a local politician to see what could be done.

It all started in 2004–2005, when Baughman entered the Quality of Life competition as a requirement for a social science research class she was taking at Bronx Science. Quality of Life is a citywide program of Working in Support of Education (W!SE), a New York-based not-for-profit that helps students prepare for higher education and the professional world through a variety of services and programs. The competition encourages high school students to consider issues that affect their schools, neighborhoods and cities and come up with possible solutions.

For her project, which was a semi-finalist in the competition, Baughman needed to first define a problem that she would tackle. To that end, she surveyed academically motivated students at her high school and found that, on average, most students spend two-and-a-half hours a night on the computer doing schoolwork. The centrality of PCs and the Internet in academics helped Baughman see that access to both was an important indicator of future success.

As a result, she sought out not-for-profit organizations such as Computers for Youth, in Hell’s Kitchen, that provide refurbished computers for the families of low-income students. While Baughman’s research found this to be an effective solution, there were two caveats: “Parents often dominate the use of the family computer, and these families usually can’t afford Internet access,” she said.

Baughman noted that kids in homeless shelters lack access as well. “They have nowhere to go, really, to use computers and get on the Internet”—except maybe the library.

But Baughman’s seven month’s of research also found that students lose out at public and school libraries, since they usually close by 5 p.m., limiting PC and Internet access for students who commute to school. In addition, Baughman surveyed Manhattan and Bronx public libraries and found that while one-quarter to one-half of public library computers are used by students after school, those kids are only allowed between 30 and 45 minutes of computer use at a time, and the sign-up sheet is often filled by the time students get out of school.

“It’s the American dream that you do well in school, work hard, go to a good college, and you can be successful,” Baughman said. “But I think this has become a barrier [for] people from lower-income families. It starts when you’re younger and you don’t have access to this kind of opportunity.”

For her project, Baughman also needed to devise a solution to the digital divide. For that, she proposed to make refurbished computers available at places like McDonald’s in the Bronx, many of which are wi-fi accessible—though for a connection fee.

“My idea was to have computers in places that already had wireless Internet access, where students could go and do their work,” Baughman said. “There would be no additional cost, because the wireless Internet access is already there.”

After witnessing other Quality of Life finalists who had implemented their proposals, Baughman decided to try and bring her idea to fruition in the spring of 2005.

After contacting McDonald’s Tri-State area headquarters, Baughman was directed to a manager of several Bronx-area franchises who was willing to work with her and reach out to neighboring schools near his locations. The project fell through, however, when she ran into difficulty gaining approval from the wireless providers. Soon after, Baughman shelved her idea for the time being and focused on school.

A year later, Baughman found that she was still preoccupied with the findings of her research. In the summer of 2006, she contacted the office of City Councilmember Gale Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side and Clinton neighborhoods.

“I wanted to do something useful with the information I’d gathered during my research for the project, and my mom saw an article about Councilmember Brewer’s digital-divide initiative,” Baughman said. “So, I called and set up a meeting with her chief of staff, Bruce Lai, and we spoke for almost a half-hour at her office, talking about my project and what I could do to get my research out there.”

Baughman had found the right person.

Brewer works with not-for-profit organizations to bring refurbished computers to schools in her district. And as chairperson of the Council’s Technology Committee, she is leading efforts to get an affordable broadband connection to everyone in New York City to decrease the digital divide. To that end, Brewer recently established the New York Broadband Advisory Committee, consisting of eight Mayoral and seven Council appointees, some of whom hail from various industries and not-for-profit organizations. The committee will hold its first of five public meetings, to take place in each of the boroughs, on March 30 at the Gould Memorial Library at Bronx Community College from 10 a.m. to noon.

“Some parts of New York City are among the most wired and wireless in the world, but affordable broadband access varies from neighborhood to neighborhood. It’s time we gave all New Yorkers the chance to enter the 21st century,” Brewer said in the press release for the event.

Meanwhile, Lai recalled meeting Baughman and being impressed with her passion for the issue.

“Margaret contacted me and said, ‘I want to work on these issues. What can I do to help?’ Her idea was really interesting, and she was really committed to it,” Lai said. “A high school student doing advocacy—that’s unique. It’s great that she’s really passionate, especially for someone that age.”

Lai suggested to Baughman that she write an Op-Ed advocating action on the digital divide, which she did and submitted to the Villager, Chelsea Now’s sister paper. In addition, she wrote an essay on the First Amendment that incorporated her research on the digital divide for a government class she is taking in this, her final semester in high school. The essay, which focused on freedom of speech and access to information, was published this week in the Riverdale Press.

Meanwhile, as Baughman nears graduation, her thoughts are turning to college next fall. She is considering psychology as her major, and credits the Quality of Life competition for piquing her interest in the research aspect of psychology—gathering information and turning it into something meaningful.

Baughman found her project to be a positive, inspiring experience, and she plans to continue to increase awareness about digital divide. “I may even call up Bruce Lai and try to testify at Councilmember Brewer’s upcoming meeting on broadband access. That would be great, wouldn’t it?”