April 22, 2005
Neighbors
Kyle Egbert
Age: 16.
Family: Parents, Tom and Jill Egbert; brother, Chris Egbert.
Pets: “None, but I would like a dog. Mom won’t let me.”
Residence: Carmel, Hamilton County.
School: Sophomore at Carmel High School.
Accomplishments: Kyle volunteers his time with Senior Connects, a senior citizen computer literacy advocacy group that teaches computer skills. He designed an interactive program to help teach senior citizens how to use computers.
Something that happened while volunteering that you will never forget: “When I first started volunteering at Senior Connects, I found that I could really impact this organization in a way that no one else can. It inspires me to teach and help spread the joy I have with computers to others.”
What made you decide to put together the program: “When we were trying to teach the aspect of how to use programs in Windows, I realized that from my previous programming experience, I could teach these concepts more successfully if the seniors directly worked with real programs.”
Best thing about your school: “All the great people in it and the ways our teachers allow us to reach our potential.”
Best thing you like about volunteering: “When a senior is able to take a scenario that I have never taught about and figure it out by themselves.”
At school: Science Olympiad; robotics; bottle rocketry; disease detection; experimental design.
Favorite movie: “Back to the Future,” for its message that nothing is impossible.
Hobbies: “I love to be with friends and family, learn new things, play various sports and work on my computer.”
People you most admire and why: “I admire all of our brave troops helping to spread democracy, freedom, and peace.”
If you could ask anyone, anything: “I would ask Bill Gates . . . how he answered early skeptics asking why anyone would ever need a jumble of electrical parts that we now call a computer.”
Plans for the future: Take computer science at Purdue and eventually help to shape the computer industry.
