I'm an international student from Vietnam and am a part of the Laidlaw Program at Tufts University. To fulfill the Laidlaw' Leadership in Action component, I worked with the Timothy Smith Network, or TSN for short, teaching STEM subjects to high school students in the greater Boston area. 

MY WHY:

Digital divide, to my understanding of its definition, refers to the gap between those who benefit from the convenient access to information and communications technologies and those who don't. Things such as the Internet, a phone/smartphone, computers are examples of technologies that not everyone is taught to use these tools can provide. Therefore, people who aren't equipped with the necessary skills and literacy to utilize these technologies are slowly left behind and are put at socio-economic disadvantages.

As someone who is from a developing country, I grew up and observed the changes of the Digital Age. I remember when my family bought our first TV, my dad brought home a smartphone and asked him to play games on it. I was very fortunate to be exposed to these technologies early on and gained the skills to navigate within the ever-changing society. However, I have many relatives who are US immigrants who struggled to find a job in America because they have never used a computer. My grandfather never had used a phone; my parents convinced him how helpful it can be. He had never gone onto the Internet. To me, the digital divide is something I have witnessed. I also fully understand how important it's for the future generation to be exposed to emergent technologies as early as possible. For this reason, I resonate greatly with TSN's mission of "bridging the digital divide".

HOW DID I DO IT?

For me, explaining concepts and finding a different way to relay my understanding to others is something I really enjoy doing, but I have only worked with 5th to 7th grade students and college-level students. So I'm also looking to gain more experience working with a wide range of age groups. 

Our project was called Tech Your Fitness, a six-week virtual program that focused on the application of fitness technologies. The end goal was to have each student create their own wearable devices that would address a fitness problem that is closest to them. Most have never had exposure to programming, electronics or CAD, so we felt a great sense of responsibilities as their first ever instructors, Fortunately, I was a part of a great teaching team (shoutout to the two Laidlaw scholars from the UK, Tom and Victor!) and we got to lesson-planning and scheduling the curriculum. 

I was responsible for teaching 3D modeling and 3D printing. We spent a whole week learning TinkerCAD. The students really surprised me with their works and the effort they put into the design challenge I gave them. These activities were stepping-stones for the students to acquire the hard skills to design their housing of the fitness wearable devices. When we reached the final showcase, it was a very good feeling to see how all the ideas came together. Seeing students who had minimal experience with engineering suddenly being able to put together these wearable prototypes was amazing!

MY TAKEAWAYS:

Towards the end, I saw the great importance of communicating technical skills effectively. I made sure that not only did I hone my own technical expertise, but also build my own soft skills and awareness to convey my ideas to these curious students. One skill that I'm proud to say that I have acquired was how to adapt on the fly, to the chaos of the classroom. It was a real eye-opener, commanding the attention of 15 high-school students. I realized that sometimes one has to let go of the desire to follow every single detail of a concrete plan. One has to improvise on the spot and carry out immediate changes to match the little hiccups of the classroom. The technical content was pretty heavy, the concepts weren’t the easiest and some lacked the confidence to say when they struggled. So, I took it upon myself to actively look out for these students. I modified my lesson plans with GIFs while walking through my thinking process and the students found it super helpful. I was grateful that I caught my subconscious habits and found an effective way to relay that knowledge onwards. I didn’t just want to teach for six weeks, I wanted to build connections with these students and teach them the skills that helped me cross the digital divide myself.

All in all, my Leadership in Action experience with TSN was packed with personal growth and skill development (both technical and interpersonal). Not only did I meet like-minded scholars, but I was also grateful to have the opportunity to change the lives of these students in a subject that I'm passionate about.