Prompt #1

Though technology played a large role in each of the students futures, I think there were other issues that influenced each of them as well. I think two of the main issues that affected each student differently was their family and their financial state.
It was no surprise to me that Cedra graduated from a tech based high school in Cupertino, CA and was going to Brown University. In the film it said her father worked with computers and she has been around them her whole life, having four in her home. Because her family used and was around computers a lot, so was she, so she became more interested in them. Her family was also not hurting financially, so she had the ability to go to college without having to worry about how she could afford it.
I was also not surprised with Travis and his decision to not go on to college. In his family he played the role of a son, brother, and uncle, which kept him busy. Even though he went to New Technology High School, which was ahead in technology use for students, it does not mean that he was ahead financially. Travis did not have the money to go onto school and he could not get others in his family to pay for college for him. I also think that New Technology High School was so focused on getting kids set up for a career and doing internships at younger ages, Travis probably didn't find it necessary to go on to college, since his high school kind of acted as one already.
From what we saw in the film I was somewhat surprised to see that Kep became valedictorian of his class. He worked hard, but I thought Travis tried to work just as hard, he just had bad luck with his final project. Kep's family always seemed behind him, but they did not have a lot of money to help him out. I think he too would have not gone on to college if it wasn't for his scholarship. He is an example of how technology can be used as a solution. If he did not go to New Technology High School he probably wouldn't have gotten a full scholarship to college, which means he may have had to work with his family in their Royal Jelly Doughnuts restaurant until he could make enough money to afford further schooling.
Luisa was some what of a surprise to me as well. She seemed so motivated with trying to learn new things and teach others with what she learned from her multimedia class in her high school, I thought she would have graduated on time and passed her Photoshop exam. If she would have gone to one of the Tech schools she probably would have been able to pass the Photoshop exam, but she still may not have been able to graduate on time. Luisa's main problem seemed to be that she was low income and had to spend so much time working. Even if she had all of the technology experience the other students did, she probably would have ended up like Travis who never went to college because he could not afford it.
Technology is a tool that all of these students used. Even students who had access to technology did not get what they fully wanted. Having a family to help with support and being in a good financial state seem to be two major factors that influenced each of these students outcomes.