The Business of Changing Lives: How One Company Took the Information Highway to the Inner City

Allan Weis
Greenleaf Book Group Press (2009)
ISBN 9781608320110
Reviewed by Irene Watson for Reader Views (8/09)


Allan Weis, known as CEO of Advanced Network and Services (ANS) by most internet business users, gives us the working model of how the company advanced in the industry, accomplished phenomenal growth in size and profit, and at the same time bridged the socioeconomic gap between inner-city youth and the internet. “The Business of Changing Lives” is an inspiring story of how one company changed the lives of inner-city, low-income kids that had the potential to fit into high-tech jobs and opportunities.

Weis quotes one teacher, “Some of the kids had juvenile records and weren’t doing so well in school,” Shasek said. “So we made a deal.  They had to complete their school assignments before they could play around on the new equipment. These students formed a group called Network Navigators and started helping teachers integrate technology into the curriculum. They started doing ThinkQuest, and computers became the new vocational technology.”

ThinkQuest was launched by ANS in 1995 from the Clinton administration. It’s an online project environment where students and teachers create projects and share them with other users globally. As well, the site offers competitions for the groups and while under the ANS administration gave away $1 million in scholarships and cash awards.

“The Business of Changing Lives” touched me. Throughout the book Weis explains the ins and outs of the projects, scenarios of events, stories of students’ successes, and inspiring ideas of how we, as a society, can help the inner-city youth change their lives.  Weis took our most precious renewable resources and the future of our country and turned them into well-adjusted, goal-oriented citizens. I’m inspired and now looking for ways I too can help.

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