Sycamore Technology Solutions benefits community, students
The Sheldon Swope Art Museum needed its staff computers networked.
The Boys and Girls Club of Terre Haute needed banks of computers rid of adware, spyware and viruses.
Neither organization has technology staff, or for that matter, much of a technology budget.
Both turned to Sycamore Technology Solutions, a free-of-charge service that links Indiana State University technology majors with non-profit organizations for technical support.
The relationship provides the Indiana State student interns with valuable real-world experience working on the type of projects and problems they'll face upon graduating while providing non-profit groups with invaluable tech support free of charge.
"It's basically making it so we can do our job better," David Vollmer, director of the Swope Art Museum, said of the STS work. "Our funds are very limited and we try to use them as carefully as we can. This has been very helpful to us."
Jenean Ireland, office manager at The Boys and Girls Club of Terre Haute, said the work of the Indiana State interns was invaluable.
"Anytime we had a problem, we could call and they could help. They always seemed to be able to do the repairs," she said. "It was absolutely wonderful."
The Sycamore Technology Solutions program began last summer as an outreach of Indiana State's Office of Information Technology to give junior and senior students majoring in computer science, electronics and computer science, information technology, management information systems and other computer-related majors a chance to get real-world experience in their fields.
The STS program is managed and operated by student interns with a project coordinator overseeing project management. So far, 26 ISU students have passed through the program with seven more beginning this semester.
The program offers a wide range of technical services for organizations, from assessing technology needs, setting up new computers and installing software to creating databases, Web development and server account management. "Basically, anything technology related," explained Donna Janz, project coordinator with ISU's IT office.
STS works primarily with organizations associated with the United Way of the Wabash Valley.
It's rewarding for the students, Janz said, because they feel appreciated for their work and they see they are doing some good.
"They may just be creating a Web page," Janz said, "and to them, it's just a simple little page, but to the end user, it's such a big thing. It makes them feel good to know that they're doing something that can help someone else."
Janz added students also benefit from applying their technological know-how in a business-like setting.
"It's a real project that someone is wanting," she said. "It's not a class project that you get a grade for and that's it, it doesn't go anywhere. You get real world work experience."
"It gave us a lot of good experience," said Jared Westover, a native of Liberty, Ind., and a December ISU graduate. "It definitely helped my working with individuals and with diagnosing different computer problems. I had never had too much experience doing that before. It also helped me communicate with people in a more business-like way.
"It gave me experience working with going out onsite and repairing any problems with their PCs, and that's really what I want to do with my career," he added.
Stacey Bitto, the STS project manager during the fall semester and another December ISU grad, said problem-solving skills, in addition to the technical skills, are also utilized.
"In class, your professor says the project needs to do this and this is how you need to do it; it's totally different from speaking with someone who says "This is what we need. Can you do it?" and then you try to find a way to make it happen," she said.
A Cauyga native, Bitto is now working in the IT department at Union Hospital.
"They spent a lot of the [job] interview talking about the internship," she noted. "In the job that I'm doing now, I'll be drawing on lots of experience [from the internship]."
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Contact: Donna Janz, project coordinator, office of information technology, Indiana State University, (812) 237-8445 or djanz@indstate.edu
Writer: Mark Gibson, ISU Communications & Marketing, (812) 237-3790 or devgibso@isugw.indstate.edu
ISU Communications and Marketing: (812) 237-3773 or http://www.indstate.edu/news
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