Major Corporate Sponsors Involved — New SeniorNet Facility Opens Thursday At Nova Southeastern North Miami Beach Campus

Business Wire, Oct 21, 1998

NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 21, 1998--One of the most intriguing community services in South Florida will officially open its doors Thursday afternoon, Oct. 22, when "The Bridge" welcomes North Miami-Dade to its new computer facility at Nova Southeastern University's North Miami Beach campus.

The Bridge, brainchild of NSU education professor Pete Wagschal, is a first-of-its-kind entity: It combines in one place computer training and Internet access for senior citizens, similar access and training for at-risk youth, and the resources of the largest graduate school of education in the country, with significant corporate and local business resources.

Thursday's event includes an Open House with tours and refreshments from 4 - 7 p.m., with a ribbon-cutting at 6 p.m. The Bridge is located at 1750 NW 168th Street, North Miami Beach. For more information, contact Wagschal, NSU Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services, at (954) 262-8597, via e-mail to thebridge@fgse.nova.edu or visit the website at www.fgse.nova.edu/thebridge.

Who are the beneficiaries of all this effort?

"Those caught by the widening gap between technology `haves' and `have-nots'," Wagschal says. "We're bridging the gap and helping people find new ways of enhancing their lives -- hence the name `The Bridge'."

Already, the foremost tenant of The Bridge -- a national organization named SeniorNet -- has trained more than a dozen senior citizens to be trainers of other seniors. One reason for its rapid success, he says, is that this SeniorNet location -- unlike any other in the country -- has access to a high-speed university computer network, and thus has easy access to the Internet.

"Other locations, the seniors come in and learn word processing and such," Wagschal says. "Here, they walk in never having touched a computer and in half an hour they're surfing the Internet. This is how you close that gap," he emphasizes.

Wagschal and SeniorNet expect The Bridge to involve literally hundreds of North Miami-Dade area seniors over coming months. At the same time, work is continuing on developing a parallel program for at-risk youth -- children in the community in grades 5-12.

The facilities are located in an easily accessible, first-floor "classroom" with convenient parking, security and continuous interaction with the Graduate School of Education's master's, doctoral and other programs.

The Bridge represents an array of corporate, institutional and community contributions, Wagschal says:

-- NSU renovated the facilities and is making them, the School's computer networks, and other support available at no cost to the project;

-- IBM donated the top-of-the-line personal computers;

-- BellSouth provided a matching donation to defray start-up costs;

-- Microsoft -- a new partner of SeniorNet -- will make software available and provide other services;

-- SeniorNet is handling training and coordination of the services; and

-- The Aventura Marketing Council is actively promoting the service among its members, the at-risk youth it serves as a special project, and seniors in the North Miami-Dade community.

Seniors using The Bridge have access to training in basic or advanced computer technology, learning to use software for their own personal needs (letter-writing, e-mail, creative writing, graphics, newsletters, spreadsheets, accounting, genealogical research, etc.).

The Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services, which last year moved its 250 faculty and employees to a 250,000 square foot, 4-building, 18-acre campus in North Miami Beach, is the largest graduate school of education in the United States with more than 8,000 graduate students.

The School also is on the cutting edge of in-person and online professional development and specialized certificate programs for educators. For information, contact FGSE by phone at (954) 262-8500, via Internet at www.fgse.nova.edu, or via e-mail to fgseinfo@fgse.nova.edu.