From tutoring and peer mediation to rainforest restoration and elementary school gardens, BYU–Hawaii students gain practical experience through a wide variety of service learning projects. In IT 224, practical experience comes in the form of computer repair workshops targeted toward helping community members with their hardware and software challenges. The idea of the workshops came from the combined efforts of Tim Stanley and Paul Lupeitu’u, who now teaches the class. Lupetu’u, Information Security Officer, says that he wanted students to learn in situations “where they will get used to what they will be faced with after they graduate.” The class hosts the workshops two weeks at a time during the semester, and the upcoming workshops will mark the 11th semester for this service learning project. The workshops will take place at BYU–Hawaii by appointment Monday-Wednesday, November 15-17 and November 22-24, 2010. According to Chase Miller, a former IT student, the workshops have been a great help to community members in the past. He relates that at a past workshop, “We were able to recover everything from the hard drive of a community member who assumed that all of her family pictures were lost forever. We extracted all of her data and helped her find an appropriate way to back up her information.”
Lupeitu’u is glad to offer a free service to the community. He states that to receive the same service, typically, community members would have to drive to town and pay a minimum of $65, just to have the problem diagnosed. Lupeitu’u says, “You can’t ask for more than free!” And the price isn’t the only benefit; the workshops have proved to be a great success. Students receive practical real-world experience while learning habits of service, and community members receive a convenient solution to computer problems.
Faafetai Fatu, an Information Systems student from Samoa, says that she was a little nervous during the first workshop when she heard the professor calling her name to help a customer. However, Fatu says that “excitement filled the room when I realized the problem and told the customer [how to fix it]. Helping people fix their computers is fun learning experience. It is great helping the community while learning new skills.”
Community members who are interested in attending the workshops may schedule an appointment by contacting Sheryl Cazimero at 675-4968 or sherlynn.cazimero@byuh.edu.
Photos courtesy of Paul Lupetu'u