• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Calvert Hall graduate Isaac Hawkins, now a sophomore at Georgetown University, volunteered in the Cyber-Senior program administered by the Baltimore County 4-H extension. (Courtesy Calvert Hall College High School)

Calvert Hall students help seniors navigate new technology

October 19, 2023
By Kurt Jensen
Special to the Catholic Review
Filed Under: Feature, Local News, News, Schools, Seniors

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Lesson number one about helping senior citizens navigate technology, mostly laptops and phones: Lean into the generation gap. Accept it. Revel in it. Stumble through it. And always speak slowly.

That’s what one current Calvert Hall College High School student and one former student learned over the summer in the Cyber-Senior program administered by the Baltimore County 4-H extension.

Logan Moon, a Calvert Hall sophomore, is a member of St. Joseph Parish in Cockeysville. Isaac Hawkins is now a sophomore at Georgetown University.

Cyber-Seniors is a nonprofit organization founded in 2015, the outgrowth of a documentary on volunteers who help senior citizens cope with rapidly changing technology.

Calvert Hall graduate Isaac Hawkins, left, and Calvert Hall sophomore Logan Moon volunteered in the Cyber-Senior program administered by the Baltimore County 4-H extension. (Courtesy Calvert Hall College High School)

The Baltimore County program launched in 2020, partnered with the Baltimore County Department of Aging.

From July through August, high school and college students worked with their eager new pupils – 96 in all – at senior centers in Towson, Parkville, Reisterstown, Randallstown, Dundalk and Monkton, with an additional class taught in Hereford for the agricultural community.

The program created videos on YouTube to support long-term learning, and also a four-part podcast series for the Maryland Agriculture Law Education Initiative on topics related to farming. Moon and Hawkins were two of seven digital mentors for the seniors. As is typical in tutoring relationships, they learned as much as they taught, and the first thing they learned was that technology skills are not intuitive.

“For me, personally, patience,” Moon said. “Some are hard of hearing, so you have to speak slowly and ask if they learned anything.”

For Hawkins, it was finding out that “maybe farmers are not well-versed with technology, even though my own grandparents had to use it.”

There were the inevitable cell-phone anecdotes, too.

They encountered one man with 50 apps on his phone that he thought were intended to speed it up. “It did the opposite,” Isaac observed. The learning curve involved explaining the difference between real, functioning apps and fake ones.

And there were small moments of joy, including the man who texted his son for the first time – he was greatly impressed – and a woman they described as “very, very shy” who gained self-confidence with her new communication skills.

Older technology was a big hit as well. The Hereford senior center group appeared resistant to new forms. Not a problem – there was the classic Nintendo Wii.

Seven seniors learned how to operate Wii Sports – still a popular group activity – and Just Dance. To them, it was entirely new; to the students, ancient electronics from 2006.

“We had to tell them that Wii stopped being popular 12 years ago,” Hawkins said.

“From a larger standpoint, this is about providing … an intergenerational service,” said Vernelle Mitchell-Hawkins, Isaac’s mother, who works for the University of Maryland 4-H Extension.

“They got as much out of it as the seniors. To see something bigger than themselves is valuable.”

Read More Schools

Can’t afford a Catholic college? Think again. Many offer full tuition options

When it comes to serving students with disabilities, how are Catholic schools doing?

School club gives students chance to benefit veterans, fosters Gospel value of serving others

school choice

ANALYSIS: ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ gives school-choice advocates partial victory with more to do

DUAL ENROLLMENT

Double the learning: Dual enrollment provides college credit to high school students

2025 Stellar graduates

Copyright © 2023 Catholic Review Media

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Kurt Jensen

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

  • Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary

  • Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

  • Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

  • A butterfly lands on a flowering bush with purple blossoms A Miracle for a Baby in Rhode Island (and for all of us)

| Latest Local News |

Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

Third annual gun buyback scheduled for Aug. 9

Driver arrested after crashing into entrance of Esperanza Center

Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

| Latest World News |

Warsaw archbishop ‘devastated, crushed’ by priest’s arrest in brutal murder of homeless man

Jubilee of Youth chance to celebrate hope, fraternity in world at war, panel says

New York archdiocese sees hundreds of responses to ‘Called By Name’ program

Can’t afford a Catholic college? Think again. Many offer full tuition options

Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Warsaw archbishop ‘devastated, crushed’ by priest’s arrest in brutal murder of homeless man
  • Jubilee of Youth chance to celebrate hope, fraternity in world at war, panel says
  • New York archdiocese sees hundreds of responses to ‘Called By Name’ program
  • Can’t afford a Catholic college? Think again. Many offer full tuition options
  • Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary
  • LA archbishop, joined by business leaders, starts fund to help families affected by ICE raids
  • FBI surveilled SSPX priest amid probe of suspected neo-Nazi’s plans for violence
  • Poland’s ‘living memorial’ to St. John Paul II marks 25 years of transforming lives
  • Our faith is not afraid of questions

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en