By Sarah Yung
Take a look back at the events of 2019!
Dear Friends and Supporters of EqOpTech,
2019 was full of milestones for EqOpTech - from the largest laptop deployment ever to the influx of new interns, this year saw EqOpTech rise to new heights of success. The amazing support from the community has allowed us to expand our reach and dream big for the future!
In April, we had our first laptop deployments, kicking off a busy year for EqOpTech. Although interns faced some technical issues with the laptops, they successfully deployed over 100 laptops to East Palo Alto and Monta Loma students.
We received three batches of computer donation in June from CBS KPIX 5, the Los Altos School District (“LASD”), and the Mountain View-Whisman School District (“MVWSD”). We also began training the new interns, teaching them how to refurbish computers and restore them to their original functionality. During the two orientations, experienced interns acted as mentors, helping new members learn the ropes.
In November, we had our laptop deployment at Mariano Castro Elementary School, the biggest laptop deployment EqOpTech has ever undertaken. The deployment was featured in both the Los Altos Town Crier and the Los Altos High School Talon. The EqOpTech team learned valuable lessons from this deployment for the future.
None of this work would be possible without the generosity of our donors and partners, including CBS KPIX 5, MVWSD, LASD and Sunday Friends. We would also like to thank our interns for a year of tireless service, bringing technology access to everyone in the Silicon Valley!
Thank you for an incredible year! Join us as we look back on the remarkable achievements and memorable events of 2019.
Sincerely,
Sarah Yung
Public Relations
The Mission
Growing Up
New Interns
23 new members joined the EqOpTech family this year! Our interns come from schools all around Silicon Valley, including:
Los Altos High School
Mountain View High School
Prospect High School
Saratoga High School
Archbishop Mitty High School
Foothill College
Generous Donors include:
March 15 - 83 Chromebooks from Santa Rita Elementary School
May 21 - 25 Chromebooks from Oak Elementary School
June 3 - 30 MacBook Pros from CBS KPIX 5
June 10 - 1500 Chromebooks and 50 iMacs from MVWSD
December - 36 Dell/Lenovo Windows laptops from Silicon Valley Companies
Our donation program engages the community in our equal access mission. The donations allowed us to organize a deployment for MVWSD students. With the backlog, we also anticipate a major deployment at Theuerkauf Elementary School in 2020.
Deployments
Over 2019, EqOpTech donated over 400 laptops to local students. Access to technology allows students to access valuable educational tools like STMath, Lexia Core 5 Reading, and Khan Academy. By providing students with laptops, EqOpTech empowers young students to enrich their own academic experience and achieve great success.
Mariano Castro Elementary School
On November 22, EqOpTech donated 258 Chromebooks to Castro students. This was the largest deployment EqOpTech has ever held, thanks to our generous donors and hard-working interns.
This event was publicized in local news. You can find articles about this deployment in the LAHS Talon and the Los Altos Town Crier.
East Palo Alto and Monta Loma
In April, EqOpTech deployed 56 Chromebooks to East Palo Alto students. Later that month, EqOpTech deployed 70 MacBooks and Chromebooks to Monta Loma students.
Interns Cedric Chan (left) and Kevin Gao (right) with a Monta Loma laptop recipient
Other Deployments
EqOpTech has also held numerous smaller deployments to local organizations and schools. Elementary schools include Theuerkauf, Huff, Bubb, Santa Rita, Stevenson, and Edith Landels. EqOpTech also deployed laptops to Los Altos High School and Sunday Friends, a nonprofit organization operating out of San Jose.
Tech Talks & Workshops
Talks
June 22 - Volunteer Orientation 1
In the first orientation, EqOpTech Founder, Terence Lee demonstrated a series of operating system installation using the VirtualBox. After brief introductions, volunteers learned how to install computer software like Windows 10, CloudReady, Linux Ubuntu, and Lubuntu. More experienced volunteers acted as guides while new interns learned how to powerwash and update a Chromebook, the basic unit in EqOpTech’s November deployment. They also learned about the resources they had access to while working at home, like Slack, where they could access the knowledge of volunteers and mentors. At the end of the meeting, volunteers were able to check out computers to work on at home.
June 29 - Volunteer Orientation 2
The second orientation focused primarily on computer hardware. Terence Lee covered “Parts of a Computer” and led an interactive Firewire demo, a technique that EqOpTech adopted to revive MacBooks with defective CD drives. This was followed by a simple laptop architecture & I/O ports talk by Hing Lee, Founder/CEO of Search411. Mr. Lee highlighted the uniqueness of the EqOpTech internship program; EqOpTech’s “learning-by-doing” approach empowers students to pursue STEM opportunities in their education and career.
Students also learned about successes of previous interns and the different projects they can engage with through EqOpTech. At the end of the meeting, volunteers were able to check out or swap out more computers to work on at home.
EqOpTech interns gather for a picture with the computer hardware at a hands-on workshop and orientation.
July 6 - Artificial Intelligence Talk
Willie Lim, Development Architect at SAP Labs, came in to talk to interns about Artificial Intelligence (AI). A fairly informal talk, Mr. Lim discussed the applications and practical usage of AI in the world around us. Through this talk, interns got exposure to someone who has a career in computer science, giving them a taste of what it would be like to work in industry.
July 20 - College Preparation Talk and Student Panel
The college preparation talk and student panel discussion was geared towards high school juniors and seniors. Kalven Goreal, a professional writing coach, gave a presentation on how to prepare to apply for college. Then, EqOpTech alumni Terence Lee and Kevin Gao joined us for a student panel, keeping them connected to the EqOpTech community through engaging them in mentorship.
Computer Refurbishing Workshops
EqOpTech hosted a series of Refurbishing Workshops over the summer to provide hands-on training (with Macs, Chromebooks, Windows, etc.) by installing operating systems, partitioning hard disks, and other skills.
After learning the skills, they worked independently at home or at the school club to refurbish computers. Refurbishing old computers keeps them from becoming electronic waste. Instead, they go to students who need them at our laptop deployments.
In addition to workshops at The View Teen center, the EqOpTech club at LAHS runs monthly refurbishing events. These workshops engage students, helping them gain technical skills and meaningful work experience while giving back to the community.
Our Achievements
President’s Volunteer Service Award - 2018
Eric Che, Saratoga HS, Gold Award
Kevin Gao, Los Altos HS, Gold Award
Nate Latif, Los Altos HS, Bronze Award
Daniel Lim, Los Altos HS, Gold Award
Trevor Smith, Los Altos HS, Gold Award
EqOpTech celebrates the achievements of its volunteers. To receive this award, our interns spent over 1,000 hours volunteering. We can’t wait to see what our team achieves in 2020!
2018 interns pose with their awards
Research-Based Tech Projects
In June/July, technical interns Bill Shao, Roman Black, Artin Davari conducted a research-based project to test-drive top 10 lightweight Linux distributions for older laptops and/or troubleshoot problematic laptops. Bill Shao summarized all findings, ranking the Linux OS ease-of-use and sustainability by installation, navigation and use, applications and internet browser access, and support. Bill is also taking on another initiative to develop an asset management application using an open-source tool called Snipe-IT.
EqOpTech Intranet
In August, we launched the EqOpTech intranet - a project spearheaded by intern Maya Yung. The intranet serves as a “hitchhiker’s guide” for new interns, storing useful resources such as tutorials on how to write a news article, organize a laptop drive, tools for the refurbishing process, and a forum to ask questions and collaborate on.
Resources provided through the intranet empower interns to take initiative within EqOpTech. By giving them the tools for success, we hope interns will fulfill the Students Helping Students mission of EqOpTech.
Digital Marketing and Media
Interns Justin Chou and Joshua Kung spearheaded the digital marketing team. From designing flyers for EqOpTech’s events to various editing projects, Justin and Joshua produced content cultivating EqOpTech’s digital presence. At the Castro deployment, Justin and Joshua were the video and photography team, documenting the night’s events through photos and recording our interviews. Check out the flyer for our MVWSD free laptop program here.
Together with Alice Liu and Sarah Yung, leading the public relations team, these interns spread the word about our tech program in the local community. Their projects include producing blogs of EqOpTech events and designing marketing collateral for our tech program.
AI Research Articles
In August and September, interns Alice Liu and Sarah Yung released a series of articles focusing on research into Artificial Intelligence (AI) - computer systems that can mimic human intelligence. From personalized learning to smart medicine, these articles offer a glimpse into the exciting developments in computer science.
The blogging project empowered interns to conduct their own research projects, culminating in a publication that observed the topic from multiple perspectives. In doing so, they not only developed the research skills to learn about a complex topic, but also learned the skills to write about it in an understandable manner.
Daisy is Heading to College
During her four years at Los Altos High School, Daisy found her dream of becoming a media manager. The laptop program at LAHS helped her succeed during high school, but she still had to return the laptop once she graduated. Daisy knew that pursuing her majors in business and journalism would be greatly benefited by having a laptop.
Through the Refurbished Laptops for College-Bound Seniors program, Daisy received a laptop that would help her through her college experience. We are excited to see where postsecondary education takes her!
Testimonials
What difference does a Laptop make?
“Thank you so much for this computer. It is really amazing and you have done such a great job to fix it and I will be so proud to take it home with me soon. Since my older sister has her computer to work on her homework, it has been hard to work on mine. This computer will be really useful for me to work on my homework. Thank you again for this computer and all the hard work you put into it. Also thank you for doing this for others and helping lots of other people.” -Natalie, Almond Elementary School
“Sunday Friends and my family would like to thank EqOpTech for fixing laptops and tablets and donating them for kids. My children learn so much by using the tablets.” -Nubia Tellez, Sunday Friends’ family
“I am excited about the opportunity to work with EqOpTech to ensure access for students without a computer at home, there is a high overlap between low-income students and those who don’t have a laptop at home,” Castro Principal Theresa Lambert said in an interview with Los Altos Town Crier. “Technology isn’t required to complete homework. However, students use laptops at school and teachers use a variety of online tools. Students who received a laptop from EqOpTech will now be able to access many of those tools at home.”
How do students help students?
“I joined EqOpTech as an intern in 2016. Since then, our team has refurbished hundreds of donated laptops and organized a few laptop drives [...], approaching principals and IT specialists for donations of their outdated Macbooks and Chromebooks that were no longer in use.” Daniel Lim, student President said in the Los Altos Town Crier Students Voice article. “Students can now do research and complete their online homework with the refurbished laptops. We also rolled out STEM education programs at Sunday Friends to teach children how to use the technology for online STEM classes so that they can break the poverty cycle.”
“To problem solve and have the ability — the computer knowledge — to wipe out a computer and have it available so it’s really ready, that’s quite an incredible feat,” Santa Rita Elementary School Principal Greg Land said in an interview with CBS KPIX 5.
Take Action
Together, we can do so much more! See how you can get involved:
Visit us. Check out our website at www.EqOpTech.org to learn about our projects and upcoming events.
Volunteer with us. Become an intern to gain valuable technical and leadership skills in a meaningful way. Apply here.
Refurbish computers and restore them to their original functionality through our Computer-in-a-Box Project.
Charter a club. Email Lucy@EqOpTech.org for more information on our school clubs and activities.
Donate computers that will go towards future deployments to enrich students’ educations. E-mail Donate@EqOpTech.org.
Share our mission. Get the word out about our programs and get people excited about the opportunities EqOpTech creates.
EqOpTech Inc.
We are a registered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit, all donations are tax deductible.
Tel: 650.254.6618 Email: Contact@EqOpTech.org
To contact the writer: Sarah@EqOpTech.org
See the attached files to download our 2019 annual report!
Our Equal Opportunity Technology program is made possible thanks to Los Altos Community Foundation community grant award. Visit here for more information.
2017 Jefferson Award for Public Service recipient
2018 Daily Point of Light Award recipient
The President’s Volunteer Service Award, certifying organization
U.S. Congressional Award, partner and ambassador