Student Volunteers Refurbish, Receive Computers

Student Volunteers Refurbish, Receive Computers

By J. Paul Sank, NTR Staff Reporter

High school student Tharon Daniels no longer has to keep asking his mother for a password when he needs to log on to a computer and get schoolwork done. Thanks to a computer given to him gratis on April 28 by Nonprofit Technology Resources (NTR), he can now log on to his own computer in his own room, get his work done, and "chill for the rest of the day."

Daniels, when not in school, is a member of a teen group called Digital Connectors (DC), a Digital Inclusion program of the People's Emergency Center (PEC) in West Philadelphia.

"We're constantly trying to narrow the digital divide through our programs for sixth-graders, teens, and adults," said PEC Digital Inclusion (DI) program manager Ron Edwards.

"We supply computers when we can get our hands on refurbished computers, and we distribute to the community," said Edwards. "So having students work here as volunteers helping NTR, and getting volunteer hours for [our] program ..., and receiving a free computer system from NTR helps us out immensely."

"Over 1100 participants have gone through our programs and more than 600 computers have been distributed," according to PEC literature. "DI provides free courses in computer and internet literacy to local residents. Upon completing the course, students receive free or low-cost computers along with technical support. Additionally, DI promotes viable, low-cost broadband internet access for the people it serves."

The DC students at NTR didn't just receive; they also gave. From March 1 to April 28, they volunteered four hours a week.

"We had them refurbishing," said NTR warehouse coordinator Melvin Bonilla on the last day of the students’ participation. "By refurbishing, they learned a couple of the troubleshooting techniques. We showed them how to take care of their own computer that they built. And now they're taking the computer home."

"We wanted them to get it the first time, so they could do it by themselves," he said. "The person that's there with them should only be answering questions, really, just in case they run into a problem."

Five out of the seven teens did get it the first time.

"The first time I needed a little help, but after that I was like, 'All right, I got this,'" said student Andrea Davis. The most fun part of her NTR time was "putting together computers, knowing that I did it myself without any help."

Volunteering at NTR felt good to Andrea. "It's, like, you did something that most people can't do." She mentioned a recent conversation in which somebody said, "I wish I knew how to do that."

"I didn't know that you had to do that much just for a computer," said student Jasmin Minor. "It's a lot that you got to do just to get your computer set up."

"The imaging process [for installing a full set of software], I think that was the hardest part," said Sharonice Daniels, "because you had to have the right image on the computer. If it's the wrong image, it's gonna work, but it's not gonna work right for that type of computer."

The most fun parts according to Minor and S. Daniels were refurbishing a lot of computers, stripping some, learning how to work the software duplicating machine, going into the BIOS (a setup feature), and finding out about the various types of RAM and hard drives.

"My favorite part was stripping the computer," said T. Daniels, "taking it apart, getting a feel on the inside of it, seeing the motherboard, stripping the hard drive, seeing the inside of a hard drive, how everything works."

"Then you start to refurbish the computer," he continued. "Once you get on there, log into Windows, start defragging the computer, seeing how a computer works like a city a little bit: Inside of a computer, you have busses, and everything works together."

The DC program engages teens in a number of activities like learning how to handle money, shooting and editing video, creating photo essays, and a project, in which, according to Davis, students go to businesses and see what each business is and what it does. Then the students write a profile of each business and post it online.

T. Daniels was evidently pleased with the program: "With the information I get from PEC, I bring it back to school, and when I go to computer class I don't have to be looking stupid like I don't know what to do. So I just get on right to work."

At NTR, these DC students got work experience, and they acquired "familiarity with computer hardware that they wouldn't otherwise have an opportunity to handle," said NTR chief executive officer Stan Pokras. "Even though they might have computers there at PEC, they wouldn't have the variety that we have."

The new partnership is good for NTR, too: "We're learning how to be a service organization that includes teenagers in our mix of service offerings," said Pokras. "The young people and staff from the People's Emergency Center have given us an opportunity to practice serving teenagers who are supervised by training staff from another agency. It’s been a learning experience for everyone."

Edwards said he looked forward to an "official working relationship," in which more DC groups would volunteer for NTR and receive computers.

Davis said she intended to give her computer to her aunt, who lost everything in a fire.

RELEVANT LINKS:

People's Emergency Center

http://www.pec-cares.org

Lancaster Avenue Community Directory

http://lancasteravephilly.com/joomla/