The Lena Connection

The Lena Connection is the culmination of work that started first in the year 1999 when I was completing the final phase of my education administration credential at Wadsworth Elementary School. I named this project after my deceased mother, a bilingual teacher named Lena Stevens. Lena began her teaching career at Normal School at the age of 21 in Panama, Central America. She moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1957 with my older brother and sister then came back to get me in the winter of 1959. There was a snow blizzard that scared the daylights out of me to the extent that the cab driver had to yank me out of the back seat and carry me into my new home. It is she who taught me that giving back to your community was essential to living well. She past at the age of 78 on October 18, 1999. 

 Based upon my observations starting from the late 1980's, most students in economically impacted areas here in Los Angeles did not have computers in their home. So I reasoned that if there was an increase of home computers in a tight geographical area it may positively affect the outcome of a local school. The focus was not simply on placing computers in homes, it was more about empowerment of families by virtue of shifting priorities. A full computer set up was attainable for a very reasonable price.

There is a small computer store in Jefferson Park, about three miles directly west of Wadsworth Elementary. I worked out an agreement with the George, the owner. He charged a straight $79 for IBM clone machines that ran a host of educational software suited to the elementary school level. I installed donated machines in 15 homes during that field work project. 

The collaboration of staff at Wadsworth under the management of Cynthia Williams, their principal, sent student reading scores through the roof in the year 2000 and continued to improve in sucessive years. It was a fine learning experience for me.

I have always continued the process of placing computers in the homes of students who were earning their way, showing improvements in their performance at school. It's an excellent incentive.

Over the last two years I have increased my professional collaboration on this project to include Mario Araujo, the Japanese speaking Mexican American owner of Aztecanet, a local internet access company. Also, the nonprofit named Say Yes to Life has been consistently supportive of all I do as an educator.

The most recent phase of the Lena Connection has us now placing specially designed computers that run on Linux software. The software designer is named Michael Batie, a doctoral student attending the UC Riverside.  Michael's computers are made for internet access. There is no other function for these machines. There are two families in the Jefferson Park area receiving the machines and the internet access for free. We will keep you informed about the continued development of this program.

The legacy of Lena lives on.