She wants to be sure her students, whose ancestors once were victims of another New World, aren't left behind. But their activities were directed at more than familiarity with computers. At the end of the first four weeks, the students went on to another four weeks' work as interns in some of America's highest tech corporations, including Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, Unisys, Toshiba and Northrop. One phase was an immersion in new technology, the other a jump into an environment almost as complex - the modern corporate culture. Both were a challenge, students said.
All police work requires some computer work.
For her, this was a first exposure to computers. Travis Yazzie, by comparison, was a seasoned pro. One of this summer's mentors, Diane Hooper of Hewlett-Packard, says interns there talked about how different corporate life was from what they'd expected. They hadn't been out in the business world. I don't think they knew exactly what to expect.