KING OF THE KEYBOARD—Kyle Gronich, a standout student at Oak Park High School, works with University Village resident Clara Knopfler on her computer skills. Kyle has donated about 100 hours to helping seniors become hi-tech. Kyle Gronich, a 17-year-old incoming senior at Oak Park High School, wanted to do something different this summer. While out of school, he decided to share his computer knowledge with the seniors at University Village in Thousand Oaks.

Through a series of free, halfhour private lessons, the residents are learning from Kyle the ins and outs of email, the Internet, Microsoft Word and Facebook.

Kyle is the grandson of University Village resident Alyce Gietter, who started working with the student to improve her computer literacy four years ago.

Through his experience with his grandmother, Kyle learned the importance of breaking each new computer skill down into small steps and building from there. He found he enjoyed working with older people and turned his consulting into a community service project.

Since starting the program a year ago, Kyle has donated approximately 100 hours to teaching the seniors at University Village.

In lieu of personal payment to the computer instructor, some of the residents have made donations to the Oak Park High School robotics club. Kyle is the club president.