THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 27, 1995 TAG: 9510270557
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
When Professor Linda Hayden introduces Matresha Walker, the Elizabeth City State University senior is looking on the Internet for a job.
She's keying away on a sleek gray machine whose connections put just about everything she could want to know about anything at her fingertips.
``The first time I saw it, it was working on e-mail,'' Walker says of her introduction to the 'Net about a semester ago. ``I thought that was amazing.''
Walker still uses electronic mail to communicate with a friend in California, ``to cut down on phone bills.'' And she considers it essential that she understands the growing phenomenon of computer connectivity.
``I think everybody should know how to use the Internet,'' she says, ``especially when you're looking for different kinds of information.''
A new center opening at ECSU Wednesday will spread access and knowledge of the Internet to some area universities and public schools that otherwise might not be exposed.
The Network Resources and Training Site will be funded by a five-year, $2.25 million grant from NASA, says Hayden, a professor in ECSU's Math and Computer Science Department who is overseeing the program.
Reaping the benefits will be six other historically minority colleges and universities in North Carolina and Virginia, three public schools in Portsmouth, N.C., and 1,000 predominantly low-income students in northeastern North Carolina.
``We're really excited about thisopportunity,'' Hayden says. ``It's a lot of work getting ready for it.''
The center will hold a ribbon cutting for 2 p.m. Wednesday in rooms 113 and 116 of Lester Hall on the ECSU campus. Two days of training on Internet resources and services and networking specifics will follow.
ECSU's site will be one of seven such NASA-sponsored centers in the country. Hayden says ECSU's long-time relationship with the Office of Naval Research laid the groundwork for its selection as the lead institution in the partnership.
During the program's first year, officials will bring the ECSU campus up to networking guidelines and set up the center's support office. Scholarships will go to five students.
``After that, we'll start to focus on our partner institutions,'' Hayden says. ``We bring them in for training and we assist them with the projects that they have targeted.''
The public schools will be visited regularly by mentoring universities in the project. Students will learn about ``net etiquette,'' Internet resources and tools and educational NASA databases. Eventually, students will create their own informational ``home pages'' on the World Wide Web.
The project, Hayden says, ``kind of opens up . . . this area of North Carolina to the full-blown access to Internet and World Wide Web.''
Participating are Fayetteville State University, Virginia State University, Pembroke State University, Hampton University, Norfolk State University and Bennett College.
The public schools involved are Douglass Park Earth and Space Elementary, Emily Spong Earth and Space Elementary and I.C. Norcom Aerospace Technology Magnet School.
Also participating is the ECSU Talent Search Program, which helps 1,000 students in northeastern North Carolina complete high school and move on to college.
Most spaces for the ECSU workshops next week are filled. For more information or to register for the opening day reception, call (919) 335-3696. by CNB