Refurbishing program yields more than green stamp
By Madeline Patton, Published December 8, 2009

It frustrated Catherine Ayers to see DeAnza College periodically disposing pallets of old computers that she knew could be reused by students.

So the director of the Experiential Learning Center at the California college created CompTechS, which for the past five years has employed student interns to refurbish more than 1,000 computers.

“We completely wipe out the computer so it has no operating system, and we reinstall the operating system so we know there are no errors,” Christopher Kalaveras, a ComtechS intern, explained during the student showcase at the recent Advanced Technological Education (ATE) conference in Washington, D.C.

Each computer is tested twice to make sure it is fully operational and a “solid product” for its new owner—a Foothill-DeAnza Community College District student who qualifies for student financial aid. 

“We’re giving out computers to people who normally can’t get computers,” Kalaveras said.

To comply with federal tax regulations, the desktop computers are donated by the college and Silicon Valley companies through the college’s foundation, which awards the refurbished computers to students as part of their financial aid packages. 

The CompTechS interns not only check the hardware and reinstall new software and antivirus programs, they also provide operating instructions when they give the computers to their new owners.

Tech students who succeed in the production lab where they work with peer mentors under the direction of a full-time lab director are eligible for industry internships through the college’s Occupational Training Institute.

The program’s benefits to the environment and disadvantaged students have been obvious all along. But now research supported by an ATE grant from the National Science Foundation shows that the production lab helps retain students, most of who are low-income, under-represented minorities and women. Of the 98 students followed from June 2007 to December 2008:

• 89 percent were either still in college or university program or have graduated.
• 74 percent of the CompTechS students received grades of “C” or better in their computer-related coursework, compared to 67 percent of a control group of DeAnza students enrolled in computer information systems courses.

 Overall, students reported that the supportive lab staff and working on something that helps other students are key to their engagement and persistence.

“They really value the structure of the lab, the organization and procedures. It was an environment in which they feel very comfortable, and they knew what to do when they walk in the lab,” Ayers said. She also noted that it is important to the students “that they are working on something that is going to help another student.” 

Another thing students in the program value is that they are immediately put to work.

“There’s not a long orientation. They’re pulling computers apart as soon as they start. That hands-on experience is really good,” said Susan Malmgren, the program director.  

Whether CompTechS can be replicated is the next phase of the research, which will follow a new initiative that the DeAnza program is helping to start with low-income, African-American students at City College of San Francisco’s Southeast Campus. Researchers are also taking a closer look at the three African-American students in the first cohort of 98 students studied whose rate of success was not positively affected by the program.