As a DREAM mentor for the last three years, I quickly noticed how polar differences between the Dartmouth Bubble of Hanover, NH and life in low-income housing in White River Junction. During my first year in DREAM, a student-led nonprofit mentoring organization ago that matches college students with children in disadvantaged neighborhoods throughout Vermont, I often wondered and was frustrated about why it was so difficult to simply communicate with the families. The answer was simple. Dartmouth students are online and by their cell phones 24-7. Parents & children in our communities are not, and some don’t even have active land lines. I later discovered that this fundamental lack of connectivity limits families’ opportunities for success in many other aspects of life, beyond being able to communicate with DREAM mentors. From job-searching online, to taking online classes and being able to trouble-shoot general problems such as simple car-repairs or finding local childcare, internet access offers endless possibilities in today’s world.

Recognizing this lack of connectivity was one of the inspirations for the year-long fellowship I am now working on full-time for the summer. The fellowship’s goal is to sustainably improve DREAM’s impact in the community in a few ways – by improving the involvement and communication between parents in the community, by improving parents’ access to social services Upper Valley, and by improving the leadership structure of DREAM so as to help mentors work with the children and their parents, thereby advancing DREAM’s mission of building stronger communities.

This summer, with my initial funding from the generous Class of ’82 Dartmouth Alumni, I was able to purchase four refurbished computer systems from WinCycle, and have installed them in the community center buildings in each complex. However, I soon discovered that providing internet service to these computers was going to be well beyond my budget for project materials. And so I started calling every service provider out there to see what I could find. That’s when Comcast came to the rescue, awarding DREAM a $1000 grant to be used toward technology expenses in the communities over the next year. This grant will go along way towards ensuring that the work I’ve begun this summer can be sustained over the next many years of DREAM’s existence. And for that I am incredibly thankful.

Brian Bensch
DREAM Mentor & Community Liaison