Raising Maine

By SHARON ROSS, Raising Maine Contributor

Vinitha Nair takes risks. She learned this from her late mother, who grew up in rural India and put herself through nursing school before immigrating to Canada.

“She really took her life in her own hands,” Nair says about her mom, who died after a long battle with leukemia when Nair was 17. “She was never one to back away. She taught me to be someone who takes chances, who keeps her chin up.”

The ability to see the potential in an opportunity is what gave Nair the courage to quit her job in Dallas almost 10 years ago and move to rural Maine to form a nonprofit company with Erin Reilly.

In 2001, with the help of a Maine Women’s Fund grant, the two launched Zoey’s Room, a subscription-based, online educational and social club for Maine girls between the ages of 10 and 14 that features interactive math, science and technology challenges. In 2005, Zoey’s Room opened to girls across the nation, and Nair says there are plans to make Zoey’s Room accessible for free and to develop a companion site for boys under their umbrella nonprofit, Platform Shoes Forum.

Nair talked recently with Raising Maine about how her virtual daughter, Zoey, and her real-life, 20-month-old daughter, Rani, have transformed her life.

RAISING MAINE: What kind of impact do you hope Zoey’s Room will make on the web?
NAIR: To get more women to pursue careers in the science, technology and math fields. We want to broaden the participation of girls in these fields. We also hope Zoey’s Room becomes a tool for educators.

RAISING MAINE: Why do you think it’s important to provide a safe place for teen girls to convene around the subjects of math, science and technology?
NAIR: We wanted to create something educational online. We didn’t want it to just be school; we wanted it to be an informal learning experience. But we couldn’t get girls engaged without addressing the social issues that girls were dealing with. Any time you want to educate a kid, you have to look at them holistically. That’s why we put so much energy into creating a site (that appealed to different aspects of a teen). Keeping them safe online is one thing. Now there’s a whole other level of cyber-ethics for them to learn. Zoey’s Room became a training ground (for the teens who were using it). When news stories about cyber-predators hit the media, admittedly I was just as nervous as the parents of our members. Our members really drove our decision to keep our chat rooms and message boards, as these tools were how we kept them engaged in the program. However, if we were going to keep our chat rooms, we would have to figure out a way to keep our members safe. This took a lot of trial and error, as well as integrating a third-party verification system. Fortunately, our site fostered peer mentoring. Our users were starting to self-police each other and teaching their peers how to be safe as well.

RAISING MAINE: How will Platform Shoes Forum serve boys?
NAIR: We realized that what we built for Zoey’s Room could be replicated for other demographics and subject matter. Boys are just as likely to have online issues as girls. In fact, we recently led an all-day workshop at the Waynflete School in Portland about cyber-bullying. We’ve tested some of our modules in its appeal to boys and are open to working with a community partner to develop STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curriculum for boys.

RAISING MAINE: What are some of the things parents should know about Internet safety?
NAIR: Try to do a personal exploration of the sites before shutting down your Internet connection. Don’t be afraid of getting to know that world. Parents should go to one of their kids’ favorite sites and register their own account, play around and explore before visiting their child’s page and his or her friends’ pages. Try to approach it without the fear factor and media hype. There’s a lot parents should be aware of, but until you know about it personally, it’s only secondhand information you’re getting.

RAISING MAINE: How has motherhood affected your approach to your business?
NAIR: Sometimes I feel like I have two babies, Zoey and Rani. My real child calls into question things I used to take seriously. Running a nonprofit is hard, and a lot of things would get me down, specifically a financial crisis like if we lost a grant or a funder backed out. But now I’m able to put things into perspective. There’s a dependency on me from somewhere else.

RAISING MAINE: Are you a technology family?
NAIR: A lot of my early education was through watching television, in particular shows like “Sesame Street.” It was really how I learned the language and how to pronounce things, since I’m a first-generation Indian. So I learned a lot through a digital medium. Since technology is infused in my work life, I like to be less techie at home. I do have a home office, with two desktops and a laptop. When we lived in Portland, we had cable and Internet. When we moved up the coast, I wanted to be unplugged for a while. It lasted a year. Cable came first. We’re back to being plugged in.

RAISING MAINE: What’s ideal (or not ideal) about running a business in Maine?
NAIR: Business has had its ups and downs. The downside has been travel time and costs. Although I can do most of my work virtually, it almost takes a day to travel anywhere, as most flights tend to be out of Portland or Boston. On the flip side, it’s easy to get our name out around the state. People know each other. ... Some great collaborations happen in Maine. We also received support from former Gov. Angus King and the Maine Learning Technology Initiative for our project, which felt like getting local support but on a statewide level. I don’t think we could have done that in any other state.

RAISING MAINE: How about raising a family?
NAIR: The biggest thing about raising a family in Maine has been a cultural issue. I’m an Indian; I married a New Englander. We have an inter-racial child. It was important to me that Rani grows up in a culturally diverse area or where she is not ostracized because she has an ethnic makeup. Southern Maine does have a big Indian population, but it’s different than living in Texas. Yet, in Texas, we didn’t always know our neighbors. I’m finding that I have a closer-knit community. I know more couples in my area than I have ever known before. It’s nice to have that small-town feeling.

RAISING MAINE: Who’s a mom who inspires you?
NAIR: My mother. It just so happens that it’s the 20-year anniversary of her passing. She has been on my mind a lot. It’s been difficult to be a new mom and not have her here. She was quite a fighter. She’s the one who inspired me to take the kind of risks that I take.

We had the typical love-hate relationship that teenagers have with their parents, but by age 17, I was starting to form a friendship with her and becoming aware of her as a person. She had a joy of life and she was very socially active... She taught me that it’s important to have a full life and to take care of our needs. I think women have a hard time taking care of themselves, especially working moms.