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On a rain-soaked November afternoon in Las Cruces, N.M., Aaron Soto, 13, traded places with his former East Picacho Elementary School teachers and for two hours conducted an in-service technology-training conference for a dozen of them, arrayed before him around a horseshoe of computer terminals. Aaron, a freshman at Mayfield High School, ran through a series of sophisticated videoconferencing demonstrations. Later he provided individual assistance to his adult "students," pacing behind them, peering over the top of his gold-rimmed glasses to look at a screen or click a mouse.
The trick, he says, is to "get teachers to overcome their fears." Ralph Ramos, a teacher at Picacho Middle School, confesses that his computers were sitting idle in the classroom. "Then Aaron trained me, and now I have my class dissecting frogs on the computer with a CD-ROM program and doing research on the Internet."
"Computers are what I know," explains Aaron www.zianet.com/aarons/) "The teachers once taught me addition, subtraction, division, so my thinking is now I can help them." He averages only two in-service sessions a year, but almost every day after school and often on weekends he conducts private tutorials--for free.
Aaron's gift to his community these past three years isn't just generous; it fills a void. The school district employs only three full-time network specialists to address the needs of 30 schools. While two of the specialists are also responsible for teaching district employees how to use computers, they rarely visit schools.
One teacher thanked Aaron by nominating him for the state board of education's Council on Technology in Education, which recommends appropriation of technology funds. Aaron is the youngest council member; he's also the only one who is chauffeured around the state by his mom to the council's quarterly meetings. The icing on his cake came last spring when he won a Prudential Spirit of Community award--$1,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington. "In class I'm the nerd," says Aaron. "But when I got this award, I realized that being the nerd wasn't all that bad." --Reported by Nancy Harbert/Las Cruces
JESSICA'S FEAT Sock It to Me brings comfort to thousands
Jessica Burris, 14, answers the door to her Conyers, Ga., home in her stocking feet. She offers an easy smile with a glint of braces. She is taking a breather, having just returned from an All State Chorus tryout, and soon she'll be leaving for a party.
Jessica lives life to the hilt every day. She sings in three choruses and at special events sponsored by the city of Conyers; she takes voice and piano lessons, and performs with a kids' musical group. (Her dream is to be the next Bette Midler.) A freshman at Salem High School, she has joined a literary club and is trying out for the golf team. On top of all this, there is the Sock It to Me campaign.