The Computer Tutor

by Laurel Holliday

Fours years ago, when Tim Wilken was 15, he heard on the news that only 15 percent of Americans over 65 knew how to use computers. That fact struck him as a real shame. Everyone should have the opportunity to learn about computers if they want to, he thought, no matter how old they are.

“It’s what the new times is going to be,” says Wilken, now 19 and a freshman at Spokane Community College, “and a lot of the seniors in my hometown of Sprague, Wash. (pop. 450)—all they knew about a mouse was one that runs around and squeaks.” So Wilken decided that, as a 4-H project, he would find a way to share his knowledge of computers with folks who know a lot about raising wheat and barley and cattle, but know very little about the digital revolution.

By scavenging components at garage sales, Wilken eventually was able to piece together a few usable computers. He then approached local businesses and civic groups for help in finding a classroom, furnishing it, and wiring the town’s first (and only) computer lab. The Sprague Chamber of Commerce provided a tiny office, a seniors club paid for telephone lines, and Microsoft donated software. Topping it all off, Wilken was awarded a $5,500 grant from 4-H and an $8,500 grant from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“The more we learned about Tim Wilken, the prouder we were to support this great project,” says Ken Thompson, who oversees the Gates Foundation’s Community Access to Technology Program. “Tim brought a resource to his community that wasn’t there before, and we applaud him for it.”

Wilken thought he’d drum up interest in the new computer lab by passing out flyers, but it didn’t take long for word to get around town about the amazing things he was doing. In addition to teaching whatever anyone wanted to learn about computers, Wilken also refurbished computers so he could lend them out to lower-income families in town.

“A lot of kids are doing better now in school because of them,” Wilken says.

For some of Wilken’s students, the first step was to learn to type. Tom Alldridge, a retired merchant mariner who moved to Sprague five years ago, can now type 35 words a minute thanks to Wilken’s classes. Other students want to learn to use e-mail so they can get a better response from their grandkids, who write e-mails, not letters. Some of Wilken’s students need to know how to use certain software applications in order to get a job.

“His patience helped me to not be so afraid of the computer,” says Claudette Sharp, 59, who works for the Sprague Chamber of Commerce.

Wilken has had so many people taking his computer classes that his mother helps him teach occasionally, as does his good friend Micheal Thomas, 17. Students range in age from 9 to 91, but few are teens.

“I think the other kids think it’s this 4-H thing and they aren’t interested,” Thomas explains. “But they’re starting to be.”

Thomas is hoping to attract teens to the computer lab because he wants them to help him out when Wilken is attending college in Spokane. Wilken insists his leave will be temporary.

“I’m coming home every weekend!” he says. “I built this computer lab, and I’m going to teach in it until I die.”

Such devotion has not gone unnoticed. In 2001, Wilken was one of two Washington state teens to be awarded the Prudential Spirit of Community Award, which gave him some much-deserved recognition and a $1,000 boost to his college tuition fund.

Laurel Holliday writes books and articles in Seattle.

first appeared: 12/14/2003