ThinkQuest Annual Gala To Help New York City Schoolchildren
Bridge The Digital Divide

NEW YORK, Feb. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- ThinkQuest New York City, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing Internet technology to local schoolchildren, will hold its Third Annual Gala, "Learning with the Power of Technology" on March 5th. Funding from the Gala will support cost-free training for New York City teachers, allowing them to implement the ThinkQuest program through in-school, after-school and summer programs.

"At a time when local schools are facing the largest budget cuts in recent years, private sector support is critical to improving the education of our children and preparing them for a high-tech world," said Dr. Terence Rogers, President of ThinkQuest Inc.

"The ThinkQuest program has met great success in 65 countries and 37 U.S. states, and we are poised to expand its benefits to more students and teachers in New York City," Dr. Rogers continued.

ThinkQuest New York City is based upon the internationally acclaimed ThinkQuest Internet Challenge, which has brought online learning to over 100,000 children in more than 100 countries. Teams comprised of a maximum of six students create high-quality, educational Web sites under the guidance of teacher coaches. The goal is to create an educational experience that emphasizes the exploration, collaboration and fun that can happen when children learn together and share their results with others using the Internet.

The ThinkQuest New York City Coach training program was launched in 2002 in cooperation with the Department of Education, Office of Instructional Technology. By the end of the 2002-2003 academic year, the regional program will have trained at least 200 educators, who in turn will bring the ThinkQuest program to schoolchildren throughout New York City's five boroughs.

This year's Gala will honor Esther Dyson, chairman of EDventure Holdings, for her leadership in promoting the use of the Internet as an effective tool for learning and for involving parents in the process. An active start-up investor and commentator, Ms. Dyson is the editor of the influential technology newsletter Release 1.0, a columnist for The New York Times Syndicate, and the author of Release 2.0: A design for living in the digital age.

Ms. Dyson's numerous philanthropic activities include Bridges.org, the Santa Fe Institute, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Eurasia Foundation. She also spent a two-year term as founding chairman of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the international agency charged with setting the policy for the Internet's core infrastructure, independent of government control.

About ThinkQuest

ThinkQuest is the largest and fastest-growing Internet-based education program in the world, allowing students and teachers to work in teams to build high-quality educational Web sites on a variety of subjects. In the past six years, the ThinkQuest Library has grown to over 5,000 content-rich Web sites that are made freely available as learning tools via the ThinkQuest Library at http://www.thinkquest.org/library/.

About ThinkQuest New York City

ThinkQuest New York City, inspired by the success of the International ThinkQuest Challenge, brings together learning and technology for students and educators at New York City schools. The organization launched the ThinkQuest New York City Coach training program in 2002. By the end of the 2002-2003 academic year, the regional program will have trained at least 200 educators, who in turn will bring the ThinkQuest program to schoolchildren throughout New York City's five boroughs. The program is supported in part with a grant from the AOL Time Warner Foundation and the Mark and Anla Cheng Kingdon Foundation. Additional information about ThinkQuest New York City can be found at http://www.tqnyc.org.