Morgan Hill
– Thanks to a $60,000 grant from Microsoft, 17 teenagers at the
El Toro Youth Center are receiving hands-on computer training that
compares with the kind of education taken for granted in more
affluent areas.
And they’ve mastered the technology so readily that the teens
hope to open a cyber cafe soon.
Morgan Hill – Thanks to a $60,000 grant from Microsoft, 17 teenagers at the El Toro Youth Center are receiving hands-on computer training that compares with the kind of education taken for granted in more affluent areas.
And they’ve mastered the technology so readily that the teens hope to open a cyber cafe soon.
“This is an exciting program for us,” says center director Lori Escobar. “This computer program is our equalizer. We can compete with people from Jackson Oaks and Castle Valley.”
Teens participating in the center’s training course begin their computer education from the chips up. The center buys computer parts, which the students assemble in the first leg of their training. As unfamiliar as most are with computers – just one student in the current program had any experience at all, according to Escobar – the kids learn quickly.
The director says they slot two weeks for the initial computer assembly. It wound up taking the current group of students less than one.
“When the boxes came in, they couldn’t believe all the parts,” Escobar said. But they quickly got their new learning tools up and running. They are now learning to install and use applications.
Tesfalem Gebremariam, 19, is a product of an early, makeshift version of the El Toro Youth Center’s program. Now he’s an instructor, helping the next group of teens master computer technology.
Gebremariam was 14 when he came to the center, where a technician taught him to use computers. He attends Evergreen Community College and plans to transfer to San Jose State University to major in electrical engineering.
The training they’re getting will help them in their future careers, but the center also stresses learning the skills to land a job in the first place.
“You could be the best qualified person for a job, but that interview will just kill you,” said Escobar.
Several students have emerged from the program to go on to jobs in the tech industry. Most continued to make use of computers in college.
The center will accept more students once school starts later this month.
The current group of trainees hope to open a cyber cafe to be run by the youth with help from Escobar. The cafe would be open to young people in Morgan Hill and would act as a fund raiser for Friday night jams. The center would be named for Tomas Amaya, a local teen who died in a car accident.
Escobar says all the software used on cafe computers would be licensed and that users would be restricted from downloading anything or accessing chat rooms.
“We will watch these kids like hawks,” she says. “We’re really careful and they seem okay with it. It teaches the kids to be responsible.”
There’s a plan to offer the center’s programs to adults. Older students would skip the computer building step, however, and start in immediately on applications like Microsoft Word, Power Point and Excel.
The center opens every weekday after school. El Toro Youth Center is located at 17620 Crest Ave. Details: 779-6002.
