Cherry Creek Students Help Seniors Tackle Tech Through GenTech

On a sunny Saturday afternoon in Centennial, while most teens might have been soaking up the last warm rays of fall, a small group of Cherry Creek High School students chose to spend their time indoors. Laptops open and phones in hand, they moved from room to room at Holly Creek Life Plan Community, patiently troubleshooting Wi-Fi glitches, printer errors and even the occasional stubborn landline.

For members of Generation Tech (GenTech), a student-run club at Cherry Creek, the work is about more than fixing devices. It’s about sitting side by side with older adults, trading stories between software updates and bridging the gap between generations with patience, curiosity, and a shared sense of connection.

“I just really love helping people, and I think this is a really accessible, easy way for high schoolers to do it,” said Stuti Yadatore, a sophomore and Chief Marketing Officer for GenTech. “It feels really good helping people, helping the residents here. It’s empowering to make technology more accessible in this rapidly developing world.”

Riley Zhu, co-president of the club, agrees. “It’s less about the volunteering and the help and more about making connections with the elderly people we help,” Zhu said. “As I’m helping them, we talk, I learn their story, about their kids who also graduated from Cherry Creek. It’s heartwarming to feel connected to someone who’s so close to you, yet not at all.”

Zachery Wang, a former student of Cherry Creek High School, founded GenTech in 2018. The club has had a strong seven-year partnership with Holly Creek and intends to continue it for many years to come. 

On Saturday, Oct. 18, Zhu and Yadatore set to work at Holly Creek, moving quickly between rooms to troubleshoot as many issues as possible. That afternoon’s main challenge was Wi-Fi connectivity, which had been complicated by frequent building updates and system changes. Even when they couldn’t fully resolve a problem, the students restarted devices, checked routers and adjusted settings—small fixes that residents said made a big difference simply by having someone there to help.

“With their help, I’m able to worry about one less thing,” said one resident. “They help me stay connected with my friends and family, which I deeply appreciate.”

“A lot of times it’s issues we aren’t familiar with, like landlines or Wi-Fi that’s out of our control,” Yadatore said. “But we just communicate, troubleshoot, and most of the time, we can figure it out.”

Zhu also shares that volunteering has been a learning experience as well. “I was very unfamiliar with printers and how to connect them to the Wi-Fi, but to overcome those challenges, I searched for them on my phone,” Zhu said. “I see what could be applicable and try out things that I already know.”

This growth has helped these students learn how to approach the service and technology part. “My problem-solving skills have gotten a lot better since doing this,” Yadatore said. “It’s also really nice getting to make connections with the residents here. They don’t always get to talk to people that much, so it’s great just walking by, chatting about their families, and catching up.”

For Zhu, those connections are the best part. “There’s this nice lady named Nancy,” she said. “I’ve helped her a lot of times, and every time I see her name, I always want to be the one to help. It’s about building those connections.”

That feeling goes both ways. Bryn Webster, Holly Creek’s Public Relations Consultant, shares, “We plan to partner with GenTech in the long term. All the residents are deeply appreciative of the students’ hard work.” 

Looking ahead, both students are eager to expand the club. “We almost doubled our members this year,” Yadatore said. “We’re getting more interest through announcements, social media and flyers.” 

Zhu added that the community has started to notice the work at Holly Creek. “People have messaged us on Instagram asking if we could help at their homes,” she said. “Our goal is to gain more capacity to support more places and make this help accessible to even more people.”

Beyond the technical know-how, the experience is reshaping how these students view community and empathy. “It’s just really fulfilling to help people with things that might seem second nature to us,” Zhu said. 

For now, GenTech is still serving the community by helping residents with technology issues, but the hope for the future is that it will expand to more retirement homes. For GenTech, it’s not just about solving technical problems—it’s about building bridges between generations, one Saturday and one connection at a time.

“I’d encourage anyone reading this to go volunteer locally,” Yadatore said. “It’ll make the biggest difference in the world.”