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Computer clubhouse
February 21, 2006
BY ANGELA CAPUTO
A group of Rogers Park kids is reaching halfway across the world, chatting with new friends in far-off places such as South Africa through a new computer center that recently debuted on Morse Avenue.
Through a $75,000 grant from Intel, the nonprofit Howard Area Community Center hired staffers to lead local youth in using a dozen new, top-of-the-line Intel computers, a digital camera, music studio equipment, and essentially start up the Intel Computer Clubhouse.
The doors to the new center opened in late-January, and Carolyn Read, youth program director, said the local kids already are "super excited" about new equipment, even though they are just beginning to figure some of it out.
Unlike most computer labs, the clubhouse a 1527 W. Morse Ave. doesn't have a teacher to walk the kids through lessons. The goal, rather, it to give the kids a space to be creative, and ultimately to turn them on to learning.
There are currently 100 Intel clubhouses around the world, four of which are in Chicago. The initiative started at the Boston Museum of Science a decade ago as an experiment in piquing the curiosity and imagination of youth to get them achieving in other parts of their lives, Read said.
So far the Rogers Park kids coming from Gale, Jordan, the Chicago Math and Science Academy and Sullivan High are clamoring to the music studio, Read said. The sign-up list gets long, but some bide their time by getting creative on the computers, where transposing themselves into pictures with sports and music super stars became instantly popular.
"I think it's going to open a lot of doors to them just through using this technology," Read said. "I hope that [it] opens their eyes to all of the opportunities out there."
Pioneer Press
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