Helping the needy get nerdy

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Students at North End's Community School of Excellence recycle computers and donate them to families without one

Computers from the Asian Penguins go to Community School of Excellence families that are getting free or reduced lunches and don’t currently have a computer at home. Last year, 7 computers were given away. About 30% of the families at CSE don’t have a computer or internet access. Computers from the Asian Penguins go to Community School of Excellence families that are getting free or reduced lunches and don’t currently have a computer at home. Last year, 7 computers were given away. About 30% of the families at CSE don’t have a computer or internet access.[/caption]

By TESHA M. CHRISTENSEN

Helping the needy get nerdy.

That’s the motto of the Asian Penguin club at the Community School of Excellence, a charter school at 170 Rose Ave. W. in St. Paul.

When school ended in June, the Asian Penguins had given away seven computers to families that didn’t have one.

About 30% of the families that send children to school at the Community School of Excellence don’t have a computer or internet access at home, noted Asian Penguin faculty adviser Stuart Keroff.

He oversees the program, along with fellow teacher Jeff Carter.

“The club was created to give kids the opportunity to do something fun and different with computers.” said Keroff. “Right now, Linux is used on only 2% of desktop PCs, so none of the kids in the club had ever used it before.”

Aug2013Monitor_Nerdy2KIDS MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Students feel like they’re making a difference in their community. “It’s real nice that I’m helping the community and the world and changing it little by little,” one student told Carter. Another commented, “It is fun to help people.”

Another sees it as a larger mission: “We’re trying to change the world.”

“The kids use words like ‘fun’ and ‘awesome’ to describe what we do,” said Keroff.

The motto he shares with the students to describe their community service effort is a quote from Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple: “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

The first family to receive a computer had only been out of the refugee camp in Thailand a couple of months.

Computers go to families with children at the School of Excellence who receive free or reduced lunch. The school’s Hmong and Karenni community liaisons help the Asian Penguins find eligible families.

STUDENTS RECYCLE COMPUTERS

The program began in the spring of 2012 with a small group of technology-oriented students that wanted to learn more about the desktop computers Keroff uses in his classroom.

Keroff needed some desktop PCs for paperless quizzes for history, and was given some through a grant from Free Geek Twin Cities (www.freegeektwincities.org). They recycle computers and use Ubuntu Linux as the operating system.

“Once the machines were there, some of the students got very interested in something that was different from Microsoft Windows, so I started to teach them how to use and install the software,” said Keroff, who was already a Linux user.Aug2013Monitor_Nerdy3

When the 2012-2013 school year began, Keroff and students started a case study experiment to determine if Ubuntu Linux was a suitable replacement for Microsoft Windows on student laptop computers.

“From there, we decided to go beyond just using Linux ourselves, but using Linux and open source software to help people in our community,” said Keroff. “We obtained computers to recycle, and then the students installed all of the software and got the computers ready to give away.”

He added, “We’ve been lucky in that the computers we’ve worked with so far have all had working components, just no software.”

When the school year ended, there were about 30 members in the Asian Penguins, spanning grades six to eight.

Teams of two to three students follow a multi-step checklist to get a computer ready.

“We start by checking for proper operation of all parts of the computer, we then do a thorough clean-up of the computer both inside and out. We then install the Unbuntu operating system and selected applications (Office Suite, Web Browser, Typing and Math tutor programs, Karenni and Hmong to English dictionaries), test all aspects of system for proper operation, assign a local serial number and finally set up user accounts on the computer,” said Carter.

The last touch is when the kids put the “Asian Penguins” sticker on the outside, certifying that the computer was prepared by the Penguins. The whole process can 90 minutes or more and takes one to two days. Students work before, during and after school.

During Asian Club meetings, which are student-run, members discuss “upcoming ‘missions’ (what the kids call taking a computer to a family) and have a debriefing about past missions,” noted Carter. They also learn something new about the software, if time permits.

BIG PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Next year, the Asian Penguins intend to donate at least 15 computers.

They plan to partner with the Linux Professional Institute to start offering students a Linux Essentials certification, an entry-level professional certification.

“As demand for Linux in industry grows, it feels good to know our students will leave 8th grade with a certificate that can open employment doors for them,” remarked Keroff.

They will also be starting tech support clinics for community members who are having computer problems.

REWARDING WORK

“In all of my years of teaching, this is the most rewarding thing I have ever done,” said Keroff.

Carter agreed. “This is one of the more satisfying things I have participated in as a teacher. The students are so engaged in helping their community and learning new things.”

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