Page 157 - 1988.Millard.North

Volunteers Help Young

Develop Computer Skills

A with great approval from the administra-
ment, time, and staff.
Foster suggested her idea, and met
lthough the math department swit-
ched offices, business had to go on as usu- tion. She organized the students and be- I
al. One such piece of business was a new gan contacting the teachers and found
volunteer program which was the brain- that the demand was more then the school
child of teacher Alice Foster. could meet.
She began by trying to organize a There were 18 to 20 students who filled
group of students with specialized com put- out applications for the program. They got I
er talents. They would make up teams involved because they wanted to help the
which would go out to the elementary students and because they enjoyed work-
Foster envisioned the program snow- I
schools to help teachers and students. ing with computers. It also satisfied some
Foster developed the idea in a previ- students' civics volunteer hours.
ous year when she attended a computer
conference. She learned that there was a balling to really provide the elementary I
- big push to form Apple computer clubs in schools with a lot of help, but she was tak-
the elementary schools.
ing it slowly. As she said, "We have a lot of
However, despite the benefits that potential, but we don't want to jump in too
they predicted by encouraging early com- fast." She had seen too many programs
puter interest, they were having difficulty that started out great but quickly got too
getting it off the ground. The problem was big, and she felt that this was too good a
that unlike the high schools , in the elemen- program to rush . _/
tary schools there was a shortage of equip- -Bitt Raleigh-

>me happy youngsters play a game designed to 153
1hance computer interest while their volunteer su-
3rvisor Senior Michael Hill looks on. (0. Broker)