In this 2022 photo, provided by the youth-led nonprofit Your Tech Q, a high school volunteer is pictured helping older adults at one of the organizations workshops.
Courtesy Your Tech Q
Your Tech Q is a youth-led nonprofit that gives free workshops and presentations on technology and digital literacy in various communities, with a focus on older adults. It’s run by 16-year-old high school junior Atef Siddiqui. He got involved with the workshops about a year after the organization was founded in 2022 by Portland students. At the time, he was in middle school and doing similar work tutoring Afghan refugees.
Siddiqui says he and other youth volunteers find the kind of one-on-one tutoring extremely rewarding. The feedback they get in real time, and afterward in written evaluations from participants, tells him Your Tech Q is providing a service that is in short supply. Your Tech Q now has chapters in San Diego and Houston. And Siddiqui says he’s happy to share the nonprofit’s knowledge base with any group of young people that would like to take on a similar mission. We talk with Siddiqui about Your Tech Q and his hopes for the organization and the mission as it grows.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Three years ago, a group of Portland students started a nonprofit called Your Tech Q. The idea is pretty simple. Young people give free workshops and presentations on technology and digital literacy in various communities, with a focus on older adults. The group is now run by a 16-year-old. Atef Siddiqui is a junior at Catlin Gabel High School, and he joins us now. It’s great to have you on the show.
Atef Siddiqui: Thank you for having me.
Miller: Before we talk about Your Tech Q, my understanding is that before that, you tutored Afghan refugees. What kind of help were you providing?
Siddiqui: My interest in digital inclusion really started during middle school in the middle of the pandemic, because I was looking for something meaningful to do to use up my time and I also wanted to connect with students that were my age. So I started tutoring recently arrived Afghan refugee students in Portland. We’d meet over Zoom, and I would teach them, or at least I try to, but I quickly noticed how difficult it was for them to stay connected ...
Miller: Literally, to use Zoom or whatever the technology was?
Siddiqui: Yeah, exactly. It was difficult for them to stay on Zoom because their Wi-Fi connection would drop, so I realized that their learning was really impacted by not having the proper Wi-Fi connection. And this was during the pandemic, keep in mind, so their virtual classes were also impacted by the fact that they couldn’t stay throughout the whole class and absorb the information that was going on.
Miller: How did you go from that to Your Tech Q?
Siddiqui: That’s a good question. During my time with them, at some point I just started to give tips on how to use your device, how to connect to Wi-Fi better, and places that they could go to. So I did that and a lot of the other family members – because I was tutoring the students and the grandparents would overhear my lesson – they would listen in, and I started to help them as well.
That’s when I realized that a lot of the problems that these communities faced came from the underlying fact that they had a lack of digital skills and they had poor Wi-Fi connection and broadband access.
Miller: How do folks find out about Your Tech Q? I mean, how do they get to you at this point, in the first place?
Siddiqui: Yeah, people reach out, but it is really a challenge because a lot of the seniors, adults and the communities that I’m trying to work with don’t know that organizations like mine exist. So to reach out to them, it’s been a challenge. But I’ve been trying to be really diligent about going to things like libraries, public spaces, and advertising in a physical manner, because you can imagine advertising online would be a challenge for someone who doesn’t have the right connection.
Miller: Let’s listen to a voicemail that came in from somebody that you have helped out. This is Pete from Tualatin.
Pete [voicemail recording]: I grew up in a time when I learned to write with a pencil or later with a fountain pen, in cursive. Typewriters were an easy transition, but navigating in today’s digital world on a computer can be very challenging and frustrating.
Miller: All right, so as Pete says, from pencil to fountain pen to typewriter, but then things got dicey for him. What are the kinds of questions or tasks that you commonly help people with?
Siddiqui: I help people with really a huge variety of things. Actually, the session that I was in with Pete who was just on the voicemail, we were going over how to use really basic things like email and text messages. And in that very session, I remember I was helping out another resident with getting photos and downloading photos from their emails so that they could view them. And this was really impactful to them because they wanted to connect with their family abroad. So being able to finally download these images and send back images connected them with their family through a simple thing.
So I range from small tasks all the way to larger things like helping people update their computer system, but I try to accommodate for everyone in need. Yeah, it’s a wide variety of things that I really try to answer.
Miller: Where do you meet with people?
Siddiqui: I meet with people in a number of places: libraries, public spaces that are open for everyone. I also visit things like subsidized housing units to meet with the residents, senior retirement homes and retirement communities. But if someplace reaches out, I try to accommodate everyone and go to every location that is in need.
Miller: Let’s listen to another voicemail. This came in from someone named Mohammed.
Mohammed [voicemail recording]: I was so ignorant and illiterate about the technology. I bought a phone, and I couldn’t be able to do anything with it, so I reached out to him, and he started from A to Z, but it was so simple to learn. And it’s helping so much because now I’m expert in it. I also took help from him on my tablet. And the technology is so difficult nowadays because it does not get along with me and it is afraid of me, so to say, or I’m afraid of it. He taught me how to get into it, find the texting, and also the e-mail and all kinds of things where what now I’m keeping myself busy hour after hour. If I have any questions, I just reach out to them. It’s a big help and I thank him.
Miller: I was really struck by that language from Mohammed, that “technology is afraid of me,” he says, “so I’m afraid of it. Technology just doesn’t like me.” What kinds of fears do you hear from the people you’re working with?
Siddiqui: I think it’s kind of a spiraling thing, that when people don’t have access or don’t have the proper digital skills, they have a bad experience. One thing that I noticed, especially with the senior adult communities that I help, is that there’ll be a time where they respond to a phishing email, or they have a scam that they respond and connect with, or they hear one of their peers in the community that was really impacted by that or they had a financial situation that is dangerous.
When they have that fear, it kind of disables them from being able to use common things that they should be able to navigate freely. A lot of it comes from email, from text messages. So they’ll get a message that may not even be fraudulent, but they’re so scared and so frightened because of their lack of digital skills that they aren’t able to properly communicate. So a lot of the fears I see come from the misconception and lack of digital skills, which I really try to combat by going through the types of scams and ensuring that everyone knows what’s going on.
Miller: Another line from that voicemail from Mohammed that really stood out to me is that he says he can now spend hour after hour on these machines, and he says this in a positive way. It’s hard for me not to also think about other problems that could come from that [like] internet addiction, or the dangers of going down YouTube rabbit holes, or getting radicalized and believing stuff that’s not true – AI slop, propaganda or whatever. How do you talk about these big issues with, especially older people who you’re now getting online?
Siddiqui: When I go and give a session for the first time to a new place, and people kind of had that realization moment that, “Aha, now I can use my device to its fullest extent, now I can go on social media and use Facebook, WhatsApp and all these different messaging stations and platforms,” I think it can lead to a lot of misconception, getting messages that are fraudulent and not understanding. And that’s why I make it a point to go back and visit the places that I’ve gone to multiple times.
Oftentimes, if I go back a second time, people will receive a whole bunch of messages that are fraudulent because they put their number in someplace or they signed up for something that wasn’t real. So by having a sustained connection and visit with communities, I can see and gauge the problems that they’re having and work through it with them.
It’s something that I think is a little bit up to them as well, because if I give them the skills and they choose to be on it all day, that’s their right. But I just try to guide them in the right direction and do what I can do best.
Miller: Let’s listen to part of one more voicemail. This is also from Pete from Tualatin.
Pete [voicemail recording]: This intergenerational connection is truly something special. It’s heartwarming to see young people like Atef take the time to support seniors with such respect and enthusiasm. Having known Atef since he was a small child, I’m very proud of him. They are not just helping us seniors with technology, they’re building bridges across generations, and that’s a wonderful thing. Thank you.
Miller: What has it meant to you to have these intergenerational relationships?
Siddiqui: For some background, Pete was one of my, I guess friends, and someone who I’ve known for a long time. So when he invited me over to help out his community, it was really heartwarming. It’s really inspiring, I will say, that when you have the skills that you use in your everyday life and you can share it with someone in a quick 30-minute workshop and positively impact their day-to-day lives; that they can use this every day when they get on their phone, their tablet and their computer … It’s something that’s very inspiring.
And for all my members, my other high school members, I think they feel the same way, especially when they get to help someone and they receive that feedback, that “I can help someone, and this is something that I can do to give back.”
Miller: Do you ever think that, 60 years from now, 70 years from now, you’re going to be the one who is completely mystified by AI 7.0, assuming there are still humans in 70 years? That you’re going to be the one, because this is the way technology works, who doesn’t understand the “newfangled thing?”
Siddiqui: You know, I think it’s a possibility. I, of course, hope that that’s not the case.
Miller: You’re gonna be the one who’s always with it.
Siddiqui: If that’s something that I would be able to do, I would like to. Because something that I’ve also noticed is that the leaders in the community and people who can reach out to organizations like Your Tech Q, which can come and help, are the catalysts for positive change in their community.
When a senior resident reaches out to me and I’m then able to help so many more people, it’s a great opportunity. So if I’m in that situation, I just hope that I can find some help and reach out.
Miller: What is next for Your Tech Q?
Siddiqui: My goal for the future, and it’s in two parts – first, I want to continue training and giving people digital literacy skill training, so continuing focusing on practical, everyday skills that help people feel confident. But I also want to spread this initiative to more high schools, like things like Model UN or mock trials. I want this initiative to be spread across the nation so that students just like me can understand and give back to their communities.
Miller: Atef, thanks very much.
Siddiqui: Thank you for having me. I really appreciate this.
Miller: Atef Siddiqui is a junior at Catlin Gabel High School in Portland. He is director of the nonprofit Your Tech Q.
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