World Computer Exchange-P.R. opens 1st refurbishing club in Santurce school
World Computer Exchange-Puerto Rico recently opened its first refurbishing club in the Padre Rufo Bilingual School in the Santurce neighborhood of San Juan.
The new WCE Refurbishing Club lab will be installed in a storage area at the school, which has 347 students in grades 7-12, that was recently rebuilt by the Ciudadela real estate developers, school officials said.
Ciudadela and the 20/22 Act Foundation shared the building costs and the sponsorship of the WCE Refurbishing Club. The sponsorship provides the school with a flow of non-refurbished computers, tools, parts, educational content, and training.
The 20/22 Act Foundation is also sponsoring WCE refurbished computers loaded with educational content for additional schools and community centers. Each interested school or center will receive 20 computers. The first 160 computers for this project have been refurbished by WCE´s Chicago chapter and are about to be shipped to the island, school officials said.
WCE experimented with this project in schools in Illinois, Maryland, and Massachusetts, the organization said. Ciudadela and the Padre Rufo School are looking for volunteers to help with training in computer repair and also in math.
CSA Group, whose firm at the Ciudadela complex employs 150 engineers and other professionals, has agreed to recruit volunteer help to coach students in the WCE Refurbishing Club at Padre Rufo, school officials said.
A second WCE Refurbishing Club will be set up at the Josefina León Zayas High School in Jayuya, sponsored by the Kinesis Foundation.
In coming weeks, Jack O´Donnell, the WCE Coordinator of the organization’s Chicago Chapter will be visiting Puerto Rico to provide training in the WCE refurbishing process for two days at the Padre Rufo School and another two days at the Jayuya high school. CSA and Kinesis employees will take part in the training.
