So far, Smith has e-mailed jokes to a friend, put together a computer slide show, and designed a business card. What's more, this retired math teacher's time with students like Juliano has altered her opinion of today's youth.
"Oh, wow, this has really turned my head," the Gibbsboro resident said. "I didn't know if I was going to like this. But then we got to know each other."
Indeed, what began as a way for district freshmen to meet a new service requirement and for seniors to build computer acumen has become a bridge across the generations and proved that you're never too old - or young - to learn.
"Oh, gosh, it is so cool," said Kathryn Stalter-Allen, Woodbury's Option II coordinator, in charge of out-of-class learning.
Stalter-Allen won a grant through a federal agency, Learn and Serve America, to create the program, but she had concerns.
For one thing, quite a few freshmen resented the new requirement. Another cause for trepidation was what Stalter-Allen calls "the digital divide."
"There was a bit of a fracture between our teenagers and our seniors," she said. Smith, 65, was not the only one less than thrilled with today's teenagers. And some teens were not into the older generation.
So before the first Golden Bytes class, the young volunteers - "freshman buddies," they are called - got an education in manners, holding doors for the "senior students," helping with their coats, making conversation beyond typically teenage one-word answers.
There were rules. No cellphones, for one. Stalter-Allen would teach, and when possible, each senior would have a student helper. But students were not to take over the keyboard. They had to let the seniors do the lesson work.
