This student (who we’ll call Mary) lives in a single-parent, bilingual household with her mother and physically handicapped and learning disabled young brother. The mother, with responsibility for the young boy, and therefore limited available work hours, strives to make ends meet with hourly employment. Our After School Library and Homework Help Program did not really fit Mary’s needs. 

She had research exit projects to do in Science and Social Studies, and English papers to present as portfolio pieces to high schools that she would be applying to. Mary was torn between helping out with her brother after school, and doing her school papers in her local library, where she could access the internet for her research and use the computer to type and edit her required assignments. 

Furthermore, she was paying a fee to the library for her use of their computer/printer/paper. Although the amount was minimal, it was constant, and not minimal to a little family scrapping by. Because of the National Cristina Foundation and the donation of computer (from a young woman who treated had treated the computer lovingly during the time she had it) Mary was able to do her homework at home, submit everything on time and beautifully done, and join her teenage peers in the use of twentieth-century technology.