Our Story 

As aspiring STEM students, Anish and Ankit have always been interested in technology. In order to explore this interest, they enrolled in Ap Computer Science Principles during their Junior year. During the course of the school year, their teacher, Mrs. Bhatnagar, assigned a project on the Internet Dilemmas. Anish and Ankit went through multiple topics such as Net Neutrality and Internet Censorship but eventually settled on the topic of the digital divide. Through a Wired Article, they learned that the digital divide is a gap between families in the low-socioeconomic status and families in the upper class, where technological advancements benefit the rich but are inaccessible to the poor. After finishing their research, Anish and Ankit realized the mass of this issue even in places like Silicon Valley (the world's epicenter of technology). As prospective computer science students they were heartbroken that even in this digital age, many people in their local area and around the world did not have access to technology. Thus to further explore and aid this issue, they decided to cofound this organization.

Our Goal

ClosingTheDivide aims to close the digital divide through the donation of computers to low-income areas nearby in the San Jose Area and globally in places like the Kampot Region of Cambodia. We have achieved this by partnering with local organizations such as San Jose Goodwill for the distribution to the homeless as well as global organizations such as Mission To the World which aid in connecting us to missionaries such as Ester Cho of the Kampot Region for the distribution of computers to underprivileged areas to increase the quality of education centers. ClosingTheDivide also aims to get an influx of old computers through our E-Waste Program which aims to collect and refurbish old computers, while simultaneously helping the environment.