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MURRAY — A group of students decided to use their newly acquired tech skills to build computers and then donate them to charity.
Computer science students at Stevens-Henager College were up to their elbows in wires, PC boards and other computer parts Friday afternoon. The students are members of the Tech Junkies computer club, which gives students hands-on experience testing, repairing and programming computers.
The students find the working parts of several old computers and put them together to make a functioning unit.
"A lot of (old computers) have good working components in them, and we'll take them out and take another machine and say, ‘Hey, it's missing these components, let's pull them out and make this one work,' " said Eric Miller, secretary of the Tech Junkies.
In September, the group had an idea — When they got a computer working again, why not donate it?
For these students, their computer degree program now has dual meaning.
"One, to further our education and get hands on experience and actually doing the work; and two, turn around and put those computers back out to the community," Miller said.
The club has a modest goal to have six computers ready for donation by the holidays. However, they need more computer parts to reach their goal, so they're appealing to businesses and the public.
"There's a lot of people out there who have computers collecting dust. And if they feel they need to get that out of their homes and into use, that would be what we're looking for," said Ron Martin, computer science instructor at Stevens-Henager.
The students hope to build many more computers from spare parts and make them available to charitable groups in 2014.
"Granted, it's not going to look pretty, probably won't be brand new, but it'll be something that will function and serve a purpose," Miller said.
For these students, learning a career and giving back to others is one and the same.
If you wish to donate the their cause email the Tech Junkies at shctechjunkies@gmail.com.*
*KSL.com
