By Terence Lee
EqOpTech partners with Almond Elementary School to launch a laptop drive to benefit students in need. “Our goal is to promote equal opportunity learning through technology tools,” said Terence Lee, CEO and Founder of EqOpTech. “All donated laptops will be refurbished and deployed to kids who do not have easy access to laptops to do home assignments.”
Refurbished laptops deployment: Erika Benadom, Almond School Principal, Terence Lee, EqOpTech Founder, Jessica Mountz, Almond School’s ELD Teacher (left to right)
Students in the Los Altos School District often work collaboratively on project-based learning using tools such as Google Docs and Edmodo. This collaborative environment aims at sharpening students’ research and analytical skills as well as teamwork and project management experience expected of them in the real world. For this reason, it is essential that students have easy access to laptops outside of classroom.
To close the gap for students who do not have laptops at home, Lee and his tech team work tirelessly at the weekly school clubs at Los Altos High School and Egan to fix up, upgrade and install necessary software on all donated laptops. Each laptop has been refurbished to its full functionality and all personal data removed prior to redeployment.
On June 2, 2017, EqOpTech delivered all refurbished laptops to Erika Benadom, Almond School Principal and Jessica Mountz, Almond School's ELD Teacher to deploy to needy students without computer access at home.
"I feel privileged that our school was included in EqOpTech’s program this year. Thanks for all of your hard work and support to our schools. Children deserve equal opportunities to learn and thrive in this tech savvy world," Mountz said. "Technology is something that most of our students have in abundance at home. But for a few, it is something that they could only access at the school or a public library. Having that luxury at home was not attainable for them without help. Thank you for offering that help to our wonderful students."
Embarking on a new journey, not only do refurbished laptops receive an extended life cycle but students are also given an equal opportunity to compete academically. Jumping with joy, each recipient shares their unique story of what the new computer means to them.
“Thank you so much for this computer. It is really amazing and you have done such a great job to fixing it and I will be so proud to take it home with me soon. Since my older sister has her computer to work on her homework, it has been hard to work on mine. This computer will be really useful for me to work on my homework. Thank you again for this computer and all the hard work you put into it.
— Sincerely, Natalie”
“I am so so happy about my new computer. I thank you for fixing the laptop for me.
—Yahir”
“Thank you for the new computer, I really appreciate it. Now I can do my homework at home. Now, I don’t have to go to the library and do my homework. I used to have a computer but then it broke so then I didn’t have one and it was really hard for me to do my homework. Thank you very much for letting me have this computer.
—Sincerely, Leslie”
“Thank you for giving this computer to me, I really appreciate you spending time on this. I always have to ask my mom for her computer but I don’t use it very often. So sometimes, I have to do the work by hand and I am so so excited to have my own computer. Thank you.
—Sincerely, Sophia”
“I am really happy for having a computer because, before I had to use my brother’s computer and it was very difficult for both of us. Now that I get to use a computer, it will be very helpful for me because before I had to hand write the assignments. Thank you for all the hard work you have done for me and another students.
—Sincerely, Samantha”
“I am very thankful and happy that I got a computer. I am very happy because now I have a place to do my homework. This computer is very helpful because if there is ever a time I have to finish things from school or homework, I can use the computer to do all my work on. Thank you so much for all your hard work and all the time you spend preparing this computer. Also thank you for doing this for others and helping lots of other people. I am so grateful for having his computer and thank you for all your hard work.
—Sincerely, Abilene”
Our Equal Opportunity Technology program is made possible thanks to Los Altos Community Foundation community grant award.
Visit here for more information.