Broadband Changing Lives
Broadband Changed My Life! Winning Contest Entries:
FIRST PLACE: Sorraine Hot
My name is Sorraine Hot and I am a divorced mother of four children. When my ex-husband and I divorced 3 years ago, I decided to return to New Mexico and to Native lands, as I am Navajo. My children's father stayed in St. Louis where we had lived, and by his own choice, has not seen our children for 2 years.
Living on Native lands, we had no telephone and no Internet; there was no way that my children could contact their grandmother, who also lives in St. Louis, and who they were close to. So, because of the divorce, the move, and no broadband or phones, my children suddenly lost all contact with their father's side of the family.
In February, 2007, Sacred Wind Communications, Inc., a telephone company dedicated to serving the Navajo Nation in the north and western parts of New Mexico, started an Internet Training Center free to my people at the Huerfano Chapter in New Mexico. I was hired as a trainer at this Center; my duties included training members of this Community, who may never have used a computer before, on the basics of computer usage. Besides the basics of computer usage I also introduce the basic of Internet. Most of these people had no clue that you could do a lot with internet. Part of the program includes awarding a free refurbished computer to any low income family member who has taken and passed our class.
I have helped the Elders learn how to research health issues on the Internet; watched as a mother who hadn't been able to contact her son for a year (he was serving in Iraq) email her son for the first time and know he was safe; helped school age children research school papers on internet, and for the first time receive an "A" on a research paper because they had access to broadband; watched adults apply for jobs on-line (and get the job) and high school graduates apply on-line for technical college and been accepted. I have seen, in the past seven months how broadband changed these people's lives and helped connect this Community to the outside world.
There has been another benefit of working in the Huerfano Computer Training Center, and this is a personal one. Over the last seven months, I have many times brought my children in to the computer lab after school or in the summer and let them play on the computers. One of the first things that they did was to email their grandma, uncle and their aunts in St. Louis. My children have reconnected with this part of their family. Now they email and send pictures to each other. Regular mail was just too slow and didn't want to write letters but with having access to broadband we have more time to write and exchange pictures more often. Now wherever my kids get a chance to be near a computer with Internet they would get online and email their grandma. We have even taken a vacation with their grandma recently.
As a mother, nothing is better than to see your children happy. As a person, and as a Navajo, nothing has been more rewarding for me than to know that I have been part of an organization that is helping to better my people?s lives through broadband.
SECOND PLACE: Stephen Wooten
Growing up can be a pain for anyone, but it is most definitely a pain growing up with slow, or no, internet.
Now I know what you are thinking: "What a spoiled brat! I can't believe he doesn't admit to the luxury that is broadband!" I don't admit to it, because broadband isn't a luxury anymore, it is a necessity.
My family isn't exactly a perfect one: a 12-hour shift working father; a disable mother; a brother who has been to Iraq and is soon to return; a sister who has two children by the early age of 17. However, we are a loving, caring, and beautiful family; however early on we were a family with no, or extremely slow, internet.
Dial-up was all we had when I was in middle school. Papers, research, leisure: all under the hammer of 56kbs. In all honesty while I have grown up I have simply become nerdier and nerdier. I love books; I love the internet--supposedly two of the nerdiest things in the world. My first love, though, was easily dismantled by the limitations of my schools and the fact I couldn't get to public libraries due to disabled and indifferent parents.
That's where broadband really showed its colors. Throughout high school my mind literally re-became the child sponge that it once was. I sat in my room day and night and just soaked up knowledge. Random tid-bits of information that no one else knew or wanted to know. I grew and grew until I finally realized that I was a smart guy, and needed to go on to college: a thing the rest of my family thought preposterous, for none of them had ever gone.
So here I sit now, typing this story in my dorm room at Appalachian State University. I can't say that I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the internet, and a quick broadband connection to boot, but I assure you the gateway of possibilities broadband opened should not be ignored: an increase in academic studies, social growth, and even artistic expression. All of these things are possible through broadband internet, and I have been a part of it. I am glad I am where I am, and I know that broadband is just one example of many of what got me here.
THIRD PLACE: B. Honse
In 2004 our oldest son was stationed with the US Army 3ID in Baghdad, Iraq for the second time. On this tour each Saturday at 900pm local time, our son would get on his computer/web cam & we would hear the "bell" ring. My husband & I, 9 hours earlier & over 8000 miles away, would be able to see & talk with him for a couple of hours. After having all 3 of our sons sent to Baghdad in 2003 when the war started, this was a real comfort to see & hear him weekly. Without DSL Broadband, it was weeks/months sometimes before we heard from him or the other two.
FOURTH PLACE: Diane Mettam
Broadband gave me wings. I am a physically disabled pastor in a small rural area. Broadband let me compare, spec and purchase a power wheelchair. Since my insurance won't pay, saving $3000 was very important to me. Broadband helps me serve my community. I am able to share sermon, music and Bible study resources with pastors all over the world. Broadband keeps me connected to my family: I can e-mail and chat with my uncle and cousins in Arizona, my daughter, son-in-law and grandson in Louisiana, my aunt in Illinois, and my AFS kids in Norway, Thailand and China. Broadband brings the world marketplace to me. We are three hours to the nearest WalMart - odd how that has become an illustration of how remote we are. I can buy fair-trade coffee and merchandise, computers and printers, clothing and pet supplies, all without leaving the house. Broadband lets me help the world. I support an AIDS orphan in Uganda and charities worldwide. Broadband gives me a voice. I can petition world leaders and my elected officials here at home. Broadband allows me to be all I can be.
Finalists:
Thomas Benziger
Since 2004, I have used broadband to access video phone relay services. It has made my life so much more independent. I depend on video relay services more often than I have relied on TRS relay services (TTY Relay services). For example, my wife Hazel, who was almost completely deaf, would give our children a call using her voice to wish them happy birthday.
Two months after her death, my son-in-law informed me that my daughter Paula was feeling depressed. She knew that her mother would not call to say happy birthday. On the other hand, I who am deaf and have no hearing, wanted to continue my wife’s tradition. I decided to call Video Relay Services to inquire about VCO (Voice Carry Over). I was able to give my daughter a call, using VRS/VCO. I talked by voice to my daughter directly and watched VRS (video relay service operator signing). My daughter was crying and happy. She asked me if it was really me wishing her happy birthday. This really made her day. And it made me happy to keep this tradition in the memory of my wife. Without broadband, I do not know any other way to reach my children on their birthdays. Using VCO, I have access to visual sign language describing the response. It can be very emotional.
Jennifer Best
I quit my full-time writing gig when our first daughter was born. But my writing career was far from over. From my home office, I regularly supplement my husband's regular income. After my second child, the speed of broadband Internet allowed me to access a world of information, research my first book, learn about publishing, and ultimately turn out a completed product. My first book paid off the second loan on our home. In the few hours that my children sleep, I carry on my research and writing, communicate with sources and editors around the globe, and submit stories for publication all while still attending to the needs of my family. We are also educating our children at home. Where years ago I turned to a reference librarian across town that may or may not have had the answer or brushed my teeth and put on my pajamas while waiting for a web page to come across the modem, today we turn to experts around the world from the comfort of our own home in a matter of seconds. Our children are excelling. My career is excelling. Our family is thriving. Broadband has saved my career, our finances and opened up a world of opportunity for our children.
Brett Breitwieser
Eighteen years ago when my wife died, I became a single parent with a three-year old daughter. At the time, I was a truck driver who travelled away from home for 18 hours a day. It was a completely inappropriate job with a daughter who needed someone at home. As a result, I went back to school at the local Community college. I trained in what was then the newly evolving Internet. A few years later, I landed a job as a tech support specialist for a new startup ISP in the Silicon Valley area. As the Internet developed and grew, initially from slow dialups to DSL and later to fixed wireless, my job grew as well. I was able to work from home and turned into a "hands on" parent. My daughter became a National Merit Scholar finalist who wound up going to Reed in Portland, the "Harvard of the West" with plans for grad school. She maintains a high 3.7+ GPA and speaks fluent Chinese and Spanish. As a home-bound telecommuter, I became a much more responsible community member and parent over the years. I now live in Phoenix where the housing is affordable. I telecommute to my job back in the Santa Cruz Mountains above the Silicon Valley. I am a telecommuter inspiring and helping other telecommuters. I am also a passionate Green and environmentalist, an advocate of the "car-free" lifestyle, and an advocate for telecommuters. Broadband really matters in my life, I use VOIP to call my clients and operate seamlessly with the servers back in the Silicon Valley and wireless Access Points in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I use the internet almost exclusively for shopping and communications and have a wonderful lifestyle that is convenient and minimizes my "carbon footprint." My greatest joy is that I can maintain contact easily with my daughter as she blossoms into a beautiful and talented young woman.
Patricia Cort
I worked for 10 years for a non-profit. When working for a non-profit, your job is from budget-to-budget. In 2006, I was laid off from my career as a one-stop employment and training lead/computer instructor. I was devastated. I now own my own business, Pat Cort's Word Processing & Computer Training in Kittitas, Washington. I have been through the dial-up experience, the slow process of being bumped off of the Internet to the wonders of high-sped access. It has allowed me to learn with distance learning. I am currently enrolled in a "Court Reporters" training online. It allows me to teach others what I have learned through broadband. Broadband has built my business, my life, my security, and yes, I occasionally fit in a game of SCRABBLE for pleasure.
Jody Courtney
Broadband gives me the gift of time. I am a person with a disability who is self-employed. I credit a large portion of my success to the benefits of having broadband. As a person who has a pretty severe form of cerebral palsy -- a neurological disability obtained from birth, I appreciate the fact that broadband helps me as a freelance writer and sales representative. I have limited use of my hands and I have a speech-impairment. This means that I take a long time to do anything on the computer. Speech recognition programs -- which save time for many people-- do not help me. Therefore, the time I save through broadband makes up for my slowness. It may take 20 minutes to compose a short email, but I can send it in a blink of an eye. It may take a while to surf the web, but since broadband downloads websites and images so quickly, the internet is an enjoyable experience. I can easily transmit stories and essays to my clients. With dial-up services, I often lost my internet connection before the transfers were completed. As a sales representative for a well -known company, I can manage most of my business online. Broadband makes it so easy that a fellow sales representative is jealous of me! She cannot get broadband because she lives in a rural area. Without broadband, using the online business tools is more of a chore than a help. Broadband also enables me to run my website -- www.jodymichele.com with very few headaches. If I need to upload a new image, I have no problem. If I need to save content fast, no sweat. With broadband, I can! In short, broadband gives me the gift of time. This, in turn, allows me to deal with my disability better.
Beth Finke
I am blind. Although I manage to do just about everything my sighted friends do, my tasks always take a bit longer. I feel through the clothes in my closet to determine what to wear each day. In the shower, I smell each container to figure out which one holds the shampoo, which one has conditioner. I wait until the radio announces the weather, then I know if I need a raincoat or not. The one thing I do as quickly as others is to send emails. A handful of companies in the U.S. develop and market special screen navigation software for blind people. The speech synthesizer I use parrots the letters I type so I can hear and fix my typos as I go along. I manipulate keys to make the synthesizer read a page of type by word, line, or paragraph when I want to check for spelling and grammar. Before I had my talking computer, I had to rely on others to read my mail aloud for me. Now I have my own private life back.
And before I had broadband, I had to wait until my husband was done with the phone and his computer before I could send and receive my messages. Now I can ping away all day if I want. Broadband provides the one and only way I am up to speed with my sighted peers.
Lynn Gaubatz
For years, I have been using the Internet both for my career as a classical soloist and for my website. AdoptALibrary.org is an Internet clearinghouse, which helps libraries, prisons, Native American reservations, and schools in the US and around the world by encouraging and facilitating the donation of books and equipment. Since AdoptALibrary.org has had over 250,000 visitors, my old dial-up connection made working on it and responding to emails from potential donors quite tedious. With my broadband connection, I am able to handle it quickly and easily. Broadband also makes it easy to set up concerts all over the world; broadcast important performances worldwide; archive my performances at the Kennedy Center website; accept lecture invitations and work out the itineraries; research concert halls to program music for the audience and acoustics for each performance; and arrange rehearsal times and choose solo and chamber music repertoire with colleagues, conductors, and managers just to name a few things. What can I not do with broadband? Sleep.
Kathy Huff
I am a blind medical transcriptionist (MT) and work from home. Before it was either extremely difficult or impossible for a blind MT to work from home, due to the fact that so much was (and still is) not available in either Braille or accessible CD format. Thanks to high-speed Internet access, I can now research information that I need to perform my job the same as any other MT. It has allowed me to work from home and take care of things I would not be able to take care of if I had to go to an office every day to work. Thanks to high-speed Internet, I can access Web Braille from NLS and download magazines and books without having to wait for the snail mail, or worry about getting bulky books back to the library. I can search for and download patterns for knitting and crocheting that were most often in print that I had to get somebody sighted to read to me. Thanks to this technology, I now have much more freedom to read and work independently. I think it is a wonderful tool and I am very glad it is available.
Kate Lancor
I am the Welfare Director for my rural town of Moultonborough, New Hampshire and I also am the Coordinator of the Mentor Program for the Moultonborough School District. In April, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a tremendous blow to me, personally, and my family. I wondered how I would continue to work both jobs, traveling daily to two schools and the Town Hall to meet with students, faculty and clients. I informed the School Board members and Selectmen in my town of my dilemma. They supported me in my decision to continue working both jobs as long as possible. I have a laptop for each job and began to work full time from my home office. With broadband I have been able to communicate with both the school district and the town offices each day, as well as communicate with the students and welfare clients who are on-line. I can scan and send necessary documents and photos via the School and Town's Intranet and Internet, exchange ideas during a meeting and continue to maintain both offices from my home. I do meet with our welfare clients personally, by appointment only, in Town Hall and meet with school district employees at my home. I have continued to maintain my jobs after my surgery and throughout my cancer treatments and look forward to continued support from my employers. Broadband has helped to make this a wondrous journey for me instead of a frightening and isolating one. I look forward to future technological advancements.
David Letson
In 2000, my wife was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Cancer. We did a lot of research over the Internet on her condition and treatments. She was treated and in remission for four years. In 2004, the cancer returned. My wife’s doctor referred her to an out-of-state treatment facility. At the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center for a Bone Marrow Stem Cell Transplant in Houston, the treatments and recovery took five months. We lived in Texas the whole time. While we were away from home, I worked from our hotel room and her hospital room on my lap top. While I was connected to my work place back in Alabama via the internet and my company's network, it was just like sitting in front of my computer back at work. I had access to all of my files and all of the resources of my company. I could stay in contact with my supervisor and friends at work. I lost very little time off my job while we were in Houston. I was able to be with my wife and have something to do with my time while she was in the bed. My company was very good to me by letting me work while I was away from home. My wife is doing well, and we are blessed.
Jennifer Michaels
As a working mother in the journalism field, it has never been easy to find that balance. Broadband changed my life by giving me balance. It is the reason that many women have the freedom to work, while staying home with children. I can send quick e-mails in between helping with homework, driving to baseball practice and making dinner. Rather than being tied to the hours of a television studio, I have built a family travel website, Family Travel Expert VisitFlorida.com FamilyTravelPlanet.com. The Internet fuels my business venture. I became the CEO of my own company and I remain the CEO at home (Just don't tell my husband!) I can use the speed of broadband to make sure that my travel stories meet deadlines. My editor's can e-mail assignments. I can do it all, right here from my home office, while my boys are playing. We can travel as a family, with my laptop in hand. With broadband, I can get things in an instant when I need them. Moms only have so many hours in a day. The kids come first. Work is something that I squeeze in between running carpools to and from the bus stop. I can give more time to my kids because broadband speeds up my work.
David Rosenberg
Broadband has cut down on the number of my doctor visits. I am permanently disabled and unable to walk. Every where I go, a wheelchair is always a part of what must go with me.
My wife or daughter takes care of getting the chair in and out of our car trunk. It is a difficult task for either of them. I am prone to fall and develop pressure sores. Instead of a visit to the doctor, a picture is taken of the affected area in question and sent to my doctor over the Internet. In less then five minutes, my doctor can decide whether or not a trip is necessary.
Patti Sherman
A few months ago, my partner was diagnosed with cancer. It seemed like our world ended. He wanted to spend the summer in our RV. My dilemma was that I have a home business. How could I leave without my constant checking for orders on my computer? I found an RV park with broadband access. I bought a laptop and signed us up for the summer at an RV park within 20 miles of my business. It is ideal! We are able to relax, enjoy the pool and each other and I can use my computer to keep up with my business. I haven't missed a beat and he is happy and enjoying life for the summer. We could not have done this without broadband.
Vinnie Valente
Last week with my wife, daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren present, I accepted a pair of Associate in Science Degrees at Washtenaw Community College (WCC), Ann Arbor, MI. This would not be so extraordinary except for the fact that we all live in Rhode Island. Completing these degrees would have been virtually impossible to do without broadband internet access. Key to this effort was the ability to take several courses online with WCC. In addition to traditional classroom work, I completed many core courses for the degree through Interactive Television, using broadband DSL connections. This amounted to live, real time, classrooms interconnected in UA Plumber and Pipefitter union halls in different states of the U.S. The use of these modern technologies allows the interaction of students, professors and peer professionals in ways unimaginable just a few years ago.
Wendy Verdon
I am a stay-at-home mom, so broadband is very important to me. It allows me to connect to my company and access all their files from the comforts of my home any time of day or night. In my opinion, Broadband is a life saver! I love being home to take my 5-year old to school now and pick her up and work in between. Without it, I would be driving to a location 30 miles away from my home and my little girl would have been in daycare without her mommy for the last 3 years. Now that my daughter is in Kindergarten, she would be staying in after care if I had to drive to work.
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All entries are posted as submitted to APT through the Broadband Changed My Life! contest. APT makes no claim and is not responsible for authenticity, accuracy, or originality of submitted content.
