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BY HANNA KOZLOWSKA

In print | Published February 25, 2010 — Updated February 28, 2010 11:55

ChesTech, which started out as a class project designed to enable Chester residents to gain access to technology and basic computer skills, has turned into an ongoing volunteer program in Chester.

Last semester, nine students in the Socially Responsible Computing class joined forces with computer science professor Doug Turnbull, the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility and the Chester Housing Authority, which runs family developments. Together they created three computer labs in Chester and an afterschool program for children.

Though the course is over, the two student teams, Education and Tech, continue to work on ChesTech, which has recently been chartered as a student group.

“It’s a fun project,” said Ryan Carlson ’11 from the tech team. “We wouldn’t let the people in Chester down.”

The student volunteers also acted as teaching assistants in adult learning classes. Two of the labs are now operating and are open on a daily basis, with Chester Housing residents as supervisors. The third lab is still being set up.

“[The students] don’t need to do it,” Turnbull said. “They found a way to contribute to the community.”
The Education Team, lead by Kwame Osei ’11 and Ivana Ng ’12, goes to Chester once a week drop-in lesson sessions with kids. They want to keep the ratio of Swarthmore mentor to child as small as possible. The last session, led by 12 volunteers involved with the project, had an one-on-one format.

The ChesTech information session last week at Swarthmore had a good turnout, and new volunteers were recruited. “It is mostly computer science majors or people who take CS (Computer Science) courses,” Ng, a computer science and education major, said.

Osei, a leader of the education team, said that the project helps computer science students see how to apply what they learn to real life and get them involved in community service.

ChesTech’s original goal was for the after school lessons to attract kids in middle school and high school, but, due to the demographics of the turnout, the group changed their focus to younger children.

Ng said that the kids were amazed just by the students’ typing speed. “We take these things for granted,” she said.

For some of the children, the sessions are the only time they have to access a computer. Some of them still need to learn basic skills, such as double clicking on icons.

“At first we thought we would have lesson plans,” Osei said. “But when we arrived there we saw that it was a diverse group with different interests.”

Ng agreed. “We have a casual stance to the lessons,” she said.

Osei stressed that since ChesTech is a mentorship program, it’s important “to get to know the kids first.” If the children are interested, volunteers help them set up an e-mail account or teach them programming in a child-friendly language called Scratch. Osei recently helped one of the boys make a Lil Wayne poster.

The adult program, for which the students were teacher assistants, is designed to help participants aquire not only job skills but also the opportunity to apply for a job.

Carlson said that “there is an assumption” with job applications “that you have [computer] access.”

Osei also said that computer access is necessary to keep up with curent events.

“You have to have computer knowledge, with all the election and government [information] online. If you’re not able to access it, you’re disenfranchised.”

The students helped the attendees, ranging from teenagers to 70-year-olds, set up e-mail accounts.

The Tech team goes to the labs whenever they are needed. Currently, they are working on the Revitalization Program. “We‘ll teach them [adult students] how to use the computers, fix them, look inside a computer, install an operating system,” Nick Schultz ’11 said.

Eventually they would want their students to work on two computers, one of which they could take home.

The 40 computers used in the labs now are put together from parts taken from 80 computers donated by a law firm, and the computers run on Ubuntu, a Linux operating system.

“It’s secure. We gave it a XP skin to minimize the boundary of the experience [with using other computers that they might have had in the past or will have in the future],” Carlson added.

While the Tech team is working in the Revitalization program, members from the Education Team said that they want to have more sessions during the week.

“We have modest goals,” said Turnbull of the future of ChesTech.

The program is funded by a Housing and Development Grant, managed by the Chester Housing Authority, which also provides lab space and teachers for the adult classes. ChesTech also received a Curriculum Development Grant from the Lang Center. “[The Lang Grant] was enough to grease the wheels, “Turnbull said. Turnbull said that the Lang Center can be used to fund things like tables.

The second round of funding from the Housing and Development grant will consist of $18,000 for new computers. After the computers are purchased, the goal is to have some of the residents take the computers home, provided an internet connection can be established.

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