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Rose

Born in Puerto Rico, Rose, 67, came to the United States with her family when she was about 7 years old. They settled in Manhattan, and Rose has good memories of her childhood and teen years. Rose married young and had two daughters. Both still live in New York City.

Rose also has a sister who lives in the Bronx and a 30-year-old granddaughter living in Germany and working as a journalist. The granddaughter and her husband had a baby in 2009, which made Rose a great-grandmother. Already bilingual in English and Spanish, Rose now wants to learn German, because her granddaughter speaks German as well as English, and the baby will soon be speaking it, too.
 
As a young woman, Rose worked in sales while she was bringing up her children, and eventually earned a bachelor's degree in social work. Her willingness to rise to a challenge is still evident today.
 
"I saw this project as a challenge," Rose says. "It was new, and I'm the type of person who likes to learn new things. I'm very open-minded. My spirit is open to new ideas.
 
"I love the new technology we have nowadays. I know that all this new technology is going to enrich my life in many ways. I love to read and to inquire about different things. So I knew this was going to be good for me."
 
In addition to taking part in classes and discussion groups at the Selfhelp Benjamin Rosenthal Senior Center, and communicating with family, friends and her Selfhelp social worker via webcam, Rose also uses her computer for online banking and shopping, regularly purchasing books, CDs, even shoes and clothes over the Internet. She is also looking into taking college courses online.
 
"I go crazy on that computer. I go all over," she says. "This was a heaven gift for me. I always wanted to have a computer like this."
 
As a former social worker, Rose brings her professional as well as personal perspective to bear when assessing the Virtual Senior Center project and its value for seniors.
 
"When you're homebound and you can't get out for whatever reason, you can go online and reconnect with other people through the computer, and visualize what's going on outside" Rose says. "That makes you feel good. It's good to try new things, because sometimes, as a senior, you lose your perspective.
 
"Sometimes seniors don't want to do anything; they just stare," she says. "That's not part of life. You have to bloom where you are. Even as a senior, you don't have to wither. You need to move and do things, get new ideas. The computer is a wonderful way to motivate yourself."