By Matt de Simone
Earlier this year, a group of Botetourt high school students from the Botetourt Technical Education Center (BTEC) who won a $10,000 grant from Altec Inc.’s Innovation Challenge recently revealed their plans to spend their award. The competition instructed students to develop a project to benefit the local community.
The students received a group of donated computers earlier this year to clean up and update. They were able to utilize the grant money in updating the donated computers and made the decision to donate them to families that may not have access to home PCs.
BTEC Computer Systems Technology (CST) teacher Kurtis Kennedy recently shared in an interview that the students decided to donate the refurbished computers to the Botetourt community to a local food bank.
“With there being new internet (fiber) coming to area, we figured that there would be families that could use a refurbished computer, but just didn’t have one in their home other than a cell phone. So, we thought that there would be a need in the community,” Kennedy said.
Last week, the class was in the process of refurbishing the computers. CST students Bryan Nida and Ryan Markham shared their thoughts on the process and what it is like to provide a need for the community.
“There were about 10 of us who volunteered,” Nida explained. “I kind of took the responsibility of making the proposal happen to actually win the competition. After winning the grant, it’s been really fun managing the project. I’ve just kind of been focused in on the function of (the project) but only recently I’ve been retrospective on who these computers are going to.
“It’s very satisfying knowing that I am helping the community because the people these are going to are probably using their phones for most of their ‘computer work’ where a computer would be much better. Or maybe it’s a parent, through the food bank, trying to get a computer for their child because maybe they can’t afford a new computer. It’s been very satisfying to think about who this project is helping and all the work we’ve put into it.”
Nida, who graduated this week, said that he enjoyed the experience as a project manager, refining his leadership skills and learning “the in’s and out’s” of putting together a reliable team.
Ryan Markham is a sophomore who is looking forward to taking over the role of a project manager for his class’s future projects in the next couple of years.
“The first month I worked on the Altec project was daunting in comparison to my other classmates who had years of experience working on computers,” Markham recalled. “They know way more than I do, but as the months went by working more and more (on the project), we all became friends and I learned a lot working with Bryan.”
Most of the equipment involved with this year’s distribution came from Altec, but the class also received equipment from Spectrum Design along with other private donations that will be used next year. Kennedy and his CST class encourage others in the community to consider donating any electronic equipment they may have to this worthy program. Even the oldest equipment can be used in the classroom for learning opportunities.
The class and Kennedy have been in correspondence with Martha Rodgers of the Botetourt Food Pantry about donating computers to the food bank. He noted that Rodgers is “an indispensable part of this program.” On Tuesday, students donated 42 computers to the Botetourt Food Bank, two to the Buchanan Resource Center, and two to Solomon’s Mission. The class also plans to expand the program to involve proper e-waste recycling and hopefully some kind of community event in the near future.
