In our office we are all constantly checking our iPhones. You’ll see an iPad open at just about every meeting and even our 7th million one-to-one tutoring session was done from an iPhone.
Steve Jobs said in an interview: “I’ve helped with more computers in more schools than anybody else in the world and I absolutely convinced that is by no means the most important thing. The most important thing is a person. A person who incites your curiosity and feeds your curiosity; and machines cannot do that in the same way that people can.”
We agree. That’s why 7 million times we’ve connected a student to a real, live inspiring person. Technology just makes it possible.
To honor the passing of Steve Jobs, we asked our staff to share some of their thoughts on how Jobs affected their own lives. From our tech support staff to creative services, Steve Jobs and Apple truly changed the way we worked, played and most importantly, learned. We will miss him. Have a Steve Job thought to share? We’d love your comments.
“I regret missing my opportunity to express my gratitude to Steve Jobs before he passed. If I could, I would thank him for enriching my life and millions of others. Without his efforts to make personal computers available to the public, I might never have been able to do the things that are most important to me. I love computers. I am grateful for the fulfillment and sense of satisfaction that they bring to professional life and hope to spend the rest of my career working with them. My life would be incomplete without Steve’s accomplishments. So many of the activities that bring me joy would be impossible without computers. I rely on them to make music and edit photographs. He’s one of my heroes. His leadership and innovation inspired me and encouraged me to be creative and ‘Think different.’ I mourn the loss of both the exemplary individual and the unrealized potential. I will miss him dearly. May he rest in peace.”
- Matthew O’Connor, Tech Support
“ I worked in the Silicon Valley when Microsoft was still running on DOS (or you could buy Novellus). When MS introduced Windows 95 it appeared, at least on the surface, to be a copy of the Apple OS.
The bumper stickers all over the valley read: ‘Windows 95 – Macintosh 89′ or ‘Windows 95 – Been there done that’
OMG, I can’t believe it . . . I just found them on eBay!”
- Carmella Petrocelli, Comptroller
“I remember when the first Macintosh was released. I had just begun design school, and was determined to become a successful ‘commercial artist.’ Back then, the work involved putting pencils and markers to paper, using glue and rulers, and squaring things up on a drafting table. The Mac was a curious thing. Right from the start you could see its potential, you could tell it was something special. I recall being in awe of the interface – how windows opened, how the cursor traced the movement of my hand on the mouse, how I could… create stuff. What?! It was scary, exciting, and a bit magical.
Steve Jobs often remarked that technology was nothing without the human connection. And there it was, being realized in a basement classroom in suburban New Jersey. Little did I know that nearly 30 years later, the vast majority of design that I do now would be through a keyboard, on a computer that evolved from a box of circuits some wild visionary helped develop long ago from a garage in California. That realization never ceases to amaze me. Every day I can make something from nothing (on one form of Apple device or another), share it with a person across the world, and have them be moved by it. For an artist, there’s no greater sense of empowerment and accomplishment than that. Steve ended his commencement speech to Stanford University in 2005 with ‘Stay hungry. Stay foolish.’
I like to think because of his influence, I will continue to do both.”
– Duane Romanell, Director, Creative Services
“Although I never met Steve Jobs I have great respect for his work as a visionary leader who merged style and innovation, a dreamer who made ideas work and sell. At one point I was a project leader at Ziff Davis’ PC Magazine Labs, the testing arm for the magazine. We had a NeXT computer in a back room that Jobs had given us. We never tested it as at the time it had no viable operating system. But we all knew there was something new and unique going on with this design and concept. I often went into thay room just to look at that computer.”
- Pamela Livingston, Product Manager, MyLivePD ™
“ My first programming computer was a Macintosh 2, it made learning music easier. I’ve been using Apple products since the time when the company and its president were not so popular or mainstream, but I guess that’s what Steve offered us (geek followers) and eventually the rest of the world, a sense of connectivity and a belief that anything you could imagine could be accomplished. He is and will always remain one of my heroes! I tweeted the following last night: Mr. Jobs has now entered the great pantheon of inventors, Tesla, Edison, Franklin, Ford, Jobs… iSad.”
- Tom Aponte, Director of Program Implementation, K-12
