PR Newswire, March 11, 2008
Winning Team Bridged Digital Divide Between Senior Citizens and Their Families
PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Every day new technology emerges that brings distant friends and families closer together. Whether it is sending an instant-message, e-mail or pictures online, these quick and simple computer tasks are nothing new to today’s teens that are growing up in a digital world. Many senior citizens want and need to keep connected to their families. However, the same technology is foreign to them. Simply receiving a picture online of their grandchildren would be a joyful yet difficult task to perform without the computer skills that teenagers enjoy.
PNY Technologies, Inc., a leading manufacturer and supplier of computer products, put teens to the test to bridge this technological gap with the first annual Seniors Helping Seniors competition. This scholarship program invited all high school seniors in the graduating class of 2008 to design and perform a project that would enhance the lives and meet the needs of seniors within their community while utilizing PNY technology.
Among the many hundred applicants, PNY Technologies announced that the Grand Prize Winning team is Sachin Santhakumar, Yunpeng Yang and William Zhang from Carmel High School of Carmel, Indiana for their project called Senior Connects. Each student was awarded a $2,500 college scholarship in addition to having three computers and monitors donated to their school.
Entries were judged on the originality and usefulness of the plan, teamwork involved, and the way the plan enhanced the lives of the senior citizens in their community. The winning team refurbished donated computers and installed anti-virus software using PNY’s Attache(TM) USB Flash Drives for senior citizens to learn and work on at a local senior activities center. Senior Connects taught each participant at their own pace basic computer operation skills such as typing and moving a mouse, how to use the internet, as well as shopping online for those who are unable to leave their homes. They were also instructed on the different types of storage options available such as PNY’s SD(TM) Flash cards & USB Flash drives used to save, store and share information.
Through this program, senior citizens who had once been unconnected due to immobility were now connected to family, friends and all that life has to offer, through the simple use of the internet.
“We are pleased to announce the winning team and their project called Senior Connects,” said Margaret Salleroli, Marketing Communications Manager, for PNY Technologies. “Senior citizens in their community now have the knowledge and ability to keep in touch with family through the use of technology while each student earned scholarship money to further their education and continue giving back to their community. Seniors Helping Seniors was a gratifying experience for everyone and PNY Technologies looks forward to more rewarding results in the future through our commitment to this program.”
Three Honorable Mention entries included Ashley Barton of Katy, Texas, Joseph Alessi of New Paltz, New York and a team from Chanhassen, Minnesota that included Sarah Thune, Ryan Maus, Maren Franzen and Catherine Cheam for their program, Get Connected. Each student received a PNY Flash Media Prize package consisting of USB Flash Drive and Flash Memory Card with a value up to $500 per team. All program entrants received a special gift package including music and image downloads.
For more information or pictures from the Seniors Helping Seniors program please contact Jenny Krieger at 973-227-8600 or via email at [email protected] .
About PNY Technologies, Inc.
Established in 1985, PNY Technologies(R), Inc. is a leading supplier and marketer of NVIDIA Quadro(R) by PNY professional graphics boards and Verto- brand consumer graphics cards. The company also offers a full line of high-end memory upgrade modules, flash media, Attache(TM) USB flash drives, flash peripherals and S-Cure(TM) Data Protection Cards. Headquartered in Parsippany, N.J., PNY maintains facilities in North America (Santa Clara and Orange County, CA, Miami, FL and Parsippany, N.J.), Europe (France, United Kingdom, Germany) and Asia (Taiwan). For additional information, please visit the company’s Web site at http://www.pny.com/ .
