Terence Lee , LAHS junior (left) and Shannon Yan, Stanford University freshman (right)
By Terence Lee
The Equal Opportunity Technology program collaborates with the community at large to tackle the important issue of digital divide in education. The nonprofit organization teams up with local schools, boys scout troop, church, service clubs, nonprofits and local companies to (a) run laptop drives, (b) charter school clubs to refurbish and deploy laptops, (c) team up with other nonprofits to either teach STEM classes or provide access to refurbished laptops for coding outreach.
On June 20, 2017, Terence Lee of EqOpTech presented 8 refurbished laptops to Shannon Yan, a 17 years old from Oakland, Girls Who Code and incoming Stanford student, who will be teaching students from Oakland and Piedmont to learn computer coding.
"Shannon discovered her love for coding her sophomore year of high school and since then has focused on teaching herself through online tutorials. Two summers ago, she became involved with Girls Who Code where she spent the summer at Square learning several programming languages. It was through that experience she realized she wanted as many people as possible to fall in love with coding like she did," according to the teenvogue website.
"I started running programs and camps across the Bay Area teaching coding to elementary school students (many of whom are underprivileged), hoping to inspire young children to participate in the space" Yan said. She has so far mainly taught at local East Bay schools, but during the summer that is not possible, so she is planning to teach at a local community center/ library.
Here is a list of websites/resources Shannon will use in her teachings:
EqOpTech looks forward to continue to team up with Shannon to inspire and enable students to pursue an interest in coding and other STEM fields. Shannon is invited to check back in and share her experience and success stories on how these refurbished laptops help her accomplish her goals. Stayed tuned.
Our Equal Opportunity Technology program is made possible thanks to Los Altos Community Foundation community grant award.
Visit here for more information.