Students Guide Quarantined NYC Seniors Through Tech Issues

UPPER EAST SIDE-ROOSEVELT ISLAND, NY — Tech-savvy students at Cornell Tech's Roosevelt Island campus are using their skills to help New York City seniors struggling with tech issues while quarantined as a precaution against the spread of new coronavirus in the city.

Cornell Tech student Sadik Antwi-Boampong told Patch that it "wasn't a hard choice" to organize a tech help group for Roosevelt Island seniors despite the disruption of the final semester at the school. As social-distancing measures made face-to-face contact impossible, Antwi-Boampong knew that seniors would need to rely more on technology and digital communications to connect with their families and access services such as Medicaid.

Antwi-Boampong's volunteer efforts started on a small scale. In his first semester at Cornell Tech, the MBA candidate took a web literacy class in which students helped local seniors with tech issues. When coronavirus hit New York, Antwi-Boampong began reaching out to people he helped during the class. After helping one senior navigate the Medicaid website, he knew the idea could work on a larger scale.

"I did a Google Hangout video call with them. I navigated the website with them, I shared my screen and got a list of the medications that they were looking to get insurance quotes for," Antwi-Boampong told Patch. "For me, that was enough to assure me that other students could also do that."

Cornell Tech's office of community engagement has helped Antwi-Boampong connect with 15 seniors who requested urgent tech help. Using a database of Cornell Tech students who have interest in volunteering, Antwi-Boampong tries to connect the seniors with students who may be particularly well-suited to help them. Most students are happy to help out, Antwi-Boampong said.

Antwi-Boampong said that Cornell Tech is taking efforts to expand the program to help more seniors across Roosevelt Island and the city. The MBA candidate told Patch that school support for the volunteers has been "amazing."

The most common theme among tech issues reported by seniors is trouble using programs to connect with their friends and family, Antwi-Boampong said. These issues include getting in touch with family members overseas, teaching remote classes and participating in family Passover seders.

"One of the things we saw was that the main need was about connection. The seniors wanted to find a way to connect with people outside their immediate home," Antwi-Boampong said. "So the students have really been focusing on helping students learn how to use Zoom, how to use WhatsApp and other programs like that."

Students involved with the volunteer program are also crafting illustrated how-to guides for programs such as Zoom and Facetime that can be used without having to provide one-on-one lessons with seniors.

Antwi-Boampong told Patch that he thinks the volunteer program can be a good model for tech schools around the country.

"I think that the need is there. And it's, it's something that students will happily do if given the opportunity, because a lot of us use these tools daily — it's second nature — and we are well suited to be able to help seniors during the time," Antwi-Boampong said.