St. Katherine Drexel
Roxbury, MA

St. Francis de Sales-St. Philip Parish in Lower Roxbury was the original applicant for the Connections for Tomorrow program. However, as has been the fate of many Catholic churches, St. Francis merged with another church during the grant period to become St. Katherine Drexel. Despite this merger and the appointment of a new priest to the parish, the programs of their community technology center have continued, with the timeline of the grant activities only slightly affected.

The parish has a 130-year history of serving the community, with a focus on political, economic, social and cultural empowerment. Included in its social service programs are an after-school program, summer camp, food pantry and teen group. The community technology center at the parish was established in 2001 with 20 networked computers and wireless Internet access. Through the center, the parish has successfully hosted the Technology Goes Home program and has incorporated technology skills into its after school program and summer camp.

C4T Grant Activities
With C4T funds, the parish has improved and expanded its technology program through the hiring of a skilled computer instructor. The computer instructor works with the staff of the after-school and summer camp programs to develop computer training that supports the literacy activities of the youth programs. An MCAS tutorial program has also been established as part of the summer activities to assist older youth with preparation for the exam.

As of May 31st, the parish cooking instructor and computer instructor had collaboratively created a literacy program, which combines cooking and technology in a way that allows youth to gain new skills such as cooking, computer word processing, basic computer literacy, and internet navigation and reinforce traditional skills such as reading and mathematics.

Outcomes
Twenty-four youth (5-8th graders) have strengthened their reading and mathematics abilities through a 21-week course that combines cooking and technology activities.

Marquis, 12 years old, said: “I never new how much fun cooking can be and how easy it is to find a recipe online. This year, I have learned to read recipes and learned to figure out the measurements, while learning to work the computers. Yeah, I used the computer to find recipes, to write my journal –where I have to say if what we cooked was good or bad, and to use the calculator to figure out some of the measurements”.

“We also did typing for 15 minutes before so we could learn where the keys were on the keyboard. The instructor said that it would help us write on the word processor. I’m sad that this school year is coming to an end, but mostly because of how much fun I had in my after school program.”

The Cooking/Computer Class was also offered to 27 students (ages 5-10) as part of St. Katharine’s summer camp program (July 5-August 15, 2005). The MCAS Prep program for youth in grades 7-12 served 22 youth. The computer lab was made available to these students Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. During these times, the youth were able to use the MaxSkills training software to help them gain an edge in passing the MCAS exam. All 22 students completed all the modules offered by the software.

Work Products
As part of their C4T activities, St. Katharine was able to successfully develop lesson plans incorporating technology for their youth programs. In addition, they developed a database (with assistance from Wentworth Institute interns) which allows them to track students’ needs, outcomes and successes, and increases their capacity to provide follow-up services to youth and their families.