Clearfield County students give back to area organizations

CLEARFIELD COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) – Students at the Clearfield County Career and Technology Center are using their skills to help the environment and give back to local services.

With old computers lying around the school, some students decided they would make use of them rather than throwing them away.

“No one wants anything to do with them. They get thrown in a recycling center or they get thrown in the trash,” Senior Olivia Stephenson said.

Stephenson says her mother was a 911 dispatcher. Working with computers and helping save lives was an everyday occurrence. This brought motivation to her and the other students. Students took the old devices and made them just like new and now they are going to local fire departments and other organizations.

“So one of the things they thought about doing with some of the computers were just sitting around, they wanted to repurpose those computers, fix them up, and use them for the greater good,” Information Technology Instructor Jerome Mick said.

The project will also be displayed at the state SkillsUSA Competition. The SkillsUSA Championships is the premier showcase of America’s most highly skilled career and technical education students. It’s also one of the largest hands-on workforce development events in the world.

However, the students are focusing on giving back to the community. Something they say is bigger than the competition.

During the presentation, a representative from a female recovery center mentioned how the addition of a computer can help change lives by simply just being able to apply for jobs more easily.

“Many women don’t have help. That one little gift, they might open their eyes and be like wow this may change my life,” Stephenson said. “Same with the fire companies. They have many online pieces of training and they are self-funded and they don’t have much funding. Their materials are expensive, their equipment is expensive. So even giving them those computers to get their online training done with their online admins really helps them out a lot.”

For school staff and administration, this helps showcase what the students are capable of doing.

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“I think it’s important for the community to see how great our youth is, with so many great kids in our school. They’re doing so many great things,” Mick said.

In total 50 devices were refurbished and the class is hoping to do more to help the community.

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