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.”
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.
Our Equal Opportunity Technology program is made possible thanks to Los Altos Community Foundation community grant award.
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