The Northumberland Public Library (NPL) recently received 10 new laptop computers from the Virginia Student Training and Refurbishment Program (VA STAR) program at Northumberland High School.
The program spearheaded by teacher Jay Lightfoot, business and information technology department chairman at Northumberland High School, meets as an after-school club, reported library director Jane Blue.
The students received over 100 laptops throughout the year. Each laptop is taken apart, reassembled and cleaned up with a new operating system and new drivers. “I could tell them all day long what a computer driver is, but when they see it and actually work on it, then it becomes real,” said Lightfoot.
The after-school program allows the students to bridge the gap between theoretical and practical and for some, it even helps them make career choices, he said.
The computers the students refurbish have been sent as far away as Grenada, St. Kitts and to a school for children with autism in….
