Immigrant Grateful for Helping Hand

By JASON MILLMAN

Miguel De Los Santos knew almost nothing about computers two years ago. These days, the 20-year-old whiz from Roxbury is fluent in several languages he once never knew: HTML and JavaScript.

“I could basically reboot a computer with my eyes closed now,” he said.

De Los Santos, who lived in the Dominican Republic until he was 13, became tech-savvy when he enrolled in a tutoring course for Boston’s inner-city youths, organized by Action for Boston Community Development, or ABCD, and sponsored by Verizon Business.

After 15 two-hour classes on Saturday mornings, De Los Santos learned how to fix and build Web sites.

Now, De Los Santos spends summers working for Verizon alongside engineers and contractors, and has a full-time job offer awaiting him when he graduates from Urban College of Boston.

If he hadn’t enrolled, he said, “I would be working at Walgreens, going to community college and hoping for a better life.”

Like De Los Santos, 30 students from Boston’s poorest neighborhoods will get a chance at a better life this year because of their involvement with the ABCD program.

The program gives students a better view of the world instead of just seeing the violence on their streets, said ABCD head Robert Coard.

“It’s been an eye-opener for kids in Dorchester, Roxbury,” he said.

Dave Landry, a Verizon executive director, recalled De Los Santos showing up to the first class an hour and a half early. “We got the sense he was a very ambitious man and very hard-working,” he said.

CAPTION: `A BETTER LIFE’: Miguel De Los Santos attends a fund- raiser at Fenway Park last week for Action for Boston Community Development. STAFF PHOTO BY MARK GARFINKEL

(c) 2007 Boston Herald. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.