Cyber Café

Traveling to New York City, or even Rome, and want to check your email? A Cyber Café on 5th Avenue or on the banks of the Seine could be the answer to your electronic needs. Or, if you are in Bethesda, you could stop into Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School.

In late March 2003, B-CC High School opened the doors of a new high school learning environment, the Cyber Café @B-CC. Envisioned as a facility which can support greater levels of student achievement, the Cyber Café provides an opportunity for all B-CC students to access technology in a casual, appealing, and safe environment.

Open prior to school (6:45am - 7:20am), during lunch (10:54am - 11:34am), and after school (2:15pm - 4:00pm) for all students and also available for community programs during the evening, the new café, located just outside of the school cafeteria, boasts 16 Dell Pentium IV computers, an HP Laser Jet Printer, and a scanner. To complete the atmosphere, the café also includes a Café Diem hot beverage vending machine which offers a wide variety of hot beverages including coffee, cappuccino, tea, and hot chocolate.

Three years prior to returning to the newly renovated B-CC building, Principal Katy Harvey created a school-based Technology Task Force and charged this group with creating a new technology vision for the modernized building. This broad-based committee of administrators, faculty members, interested parents, and community members developed a comprehensive technology plan for B-CC, built around the dual principles of equity and access. One of the many creative projects to emerge from that committee was a Cyber Café, modeled after similar facilities on college campuses and in major cities across the country.

The Cyber Café is another learning resource for the school and its students. While the majority of B-CC's students have access to computers in their homes, there are a significant number of students within the school who cannot easily access learning resources beyond the school day. As more and more teachers find innovative ways to incorporate technology into their lessons, these students are likely to lack access to these important tools, and the Cyber Café provides one more opportunity for these students to complete their school assignments and research projects.

Funding to construct and equip the Cyber Café came from a grant from the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Educational Foundation. The Foundation, under the direction of Board President Matt Gandal, secured donations from many sources in the B-CC community, most notably a commitment of $25,000 from the Town of Chevy Chase . The school received a separate grant from MCPS to staff the Cyber Café, and is planning to use savvy B-CC computer students to provide technical support to Cyber Café's customers. Additional staffing is being sought in order to keep the Cyber Café open later in the afternoon and into the evening.

Visitors are invited to stop by for a cup of java and a few bytes of information!