July 24, 2001



Research committee
Committee on Science
U.S. House of Representatives

Dear Committee Members:

My name is Geneva Lofton Fitzsimmons; I am the American Indian
Coordinator for the Early Academic Outreach Program at the University
of California, San Diego. I am responsible for community outreach
and relations for all 17 reservations in San Diego County.

The reservations are located in remote areas of San Diego County.
Access to resources, formal education and the Internet is extremely
difficult. Very few tribal education programs have access to
qualified tutors, University resources and support.
  
Through the efforts and work of Hans-Werner and the UCSD Supercomputer,
the wireless Internet has been installed at Pala Reservation's
Learning Center. With the installation of the wireless Internet at
the Pala Learning Center, we were able to coordinate resources at
UCSD's Early Academic Outreach Program to provide tutor-mentor,
via distance learning and the internet.

Students were very excited and receptive of the distance-learning
program.  We were able to see dramatic results in student's grades;
they improved from an "F" to an "A" in algebra and other subjects.
In addition, the wireless Internet has provided a reliable educational
resource, allowing students to do research and other projects.
Pala learning center has also offered Internet classes to Indian
adults for personal and business use.  This has helped provide
support to the limited number of staff available at the center, at
the same time being cost effective.

We are sure that this program will prove very effective in providing
our youth and community access to high-quality resources. The
reservation is looking forward to participating in the program next
fall and we appreciate the committee's support of the HPWREN project.

Sincerely,


Geneva Lofton-Fitzsimmons
Assistant Director 
American Indian Outreach Initiative