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“The challenges in the nonprofit sector are just deeper; the problems are so much more entrenched,” says Elisabeth Stock, who spent two years after college in the Peace Corps in Ghana.
“The challenges in the nonprofit sector are just deeper; the problems are so much more entrenched,” says Elisabeth Stock, who spent two years after college in the Peace Corps in Ghana.
40 Under 40
New York’s Rising Stars
Jan. 29 – Feb. 4, 2001
ELISABETH STOCK, 32
Computers for Youth
Executive Director
ON ELISABETH STOCK’S OFFICE DOOR hangs a photo of a smiling African-American boy carrying a huge box that says, “Fragile, handle with care.”
In that box is a Pentium computer, one of 430 that Computers for Youth has given away to inner-city middle school students since its inception in February 1999.
With both undergraduate and graduate degrees from MIT and a patent under her
belt, Ms. Stock might have been expected
to start a dot-com. Instead she started a
dot-org.
“The challenges in the nonprofit sector
are just deeper; the problems are so much
more entrenched,” says Ms. Stock, who spent two years after college in the Peace Corps
in Ghana.
Ms. Stock developed the idea for CFY while serving as a White House fellow in the
vice president’s office in 1997.
Her mission there was to place donated computers from corporations in schools.
But in order to truly bridge the digital di-
vide, Ms. Stock believed, low-income kids needed to have computers in their home,
with an e-mail address and the training to go with it.
Since then, she has raised more than $1 million from places like the Citigroup Foun-dation and George Soros’ Open Society In-stitute, and convinced Microsoft Corp. to of-fer up free software licenses. For now, CFY works only with schools in the New York
area, but in a couple of years, Ms. Stock
plans to expand nationally.
“She is a tremendously impressive
visionary. An energetic young person who
had an idea and capacity to make it hap-
pen,” Says Gara LaMarche, director of U.S. programs for the Open Society Institute.
—MIRIAM KREININ SOUCCAR