Line Up for College

UW-Eau Claire's Continuing Education is administering the Line Up for College (LUC) program. Funded by a grant, LUC is designed to get technology into the homes of low-income families. As part of the grant, sixth graders will be selected to receive a laptop for the purpose of aiding their education.

This year a group of 25 students from DeLong Middle School will make up the program. The students will have the computers for the majority of their academic school year.

 “The three-year program will provide middle-school students with strong academic support, familiarity with the university environment, a networks of adult mentors, and peer support that will help the students clarify their goals for a college education,” said Libby Thurston, Continuing Education youth programs outreach specialist.

On-Campus, the LTS staff is helping to implement LUC. An LTS Help Desk Coordinator, Charles Probst, helped with the purchasing of the computers and answered questions for Continuing Education. Charles expressed that this program is a very good idea for students since technology is such an integral part of society: “Technology is growing and so much information is readily available on the Internet.”

Additionally, LTS has inventoried the laptops and recorded their serial numbers to help ensure that the laptops stay with the students and to make the laptops easier to track in case they become lost or stolen.

Dell has provided the program with 25 thumb drives this year along with a commitment to provide another 25 next year. The thumb drives will allow the students to transfer information from home to the school.

Students in the program will be able to call the Help Desk with any questions regarding their computers and software. “The idea is to get technology in their hands at home,” Charles said.

A UW-Eau Claire student will be paired to each laptop recipient as a mentor. The UW- Eau Claire mentors are an important part of the program because they will help the middle-school students learn how to use the computer and software.

Julia Lehman, the lead trainer for LTS Building Information Technology Skills (BITS) is in charge of training the student mentors on the computers and software that the LUC students will be using. On November 18, the mentors attended their first session to learn about maintaining the laptops. “The mentors will learn how to remove the battery, how to keep the computer up to date, etc,” Julia said.

Julia also said that in later sessions mentors will learn how to share documents, make folders, save documents, use the thumb drive, back up their documents and other maintenance tools. The computers will have Microsoft Open Office (like Office 2003) due to the licensing restrictions.

LTS is trying to help the students develop study skills through free websites and technology. Julia gave the example of making flash cards online.

The biggest issues the middle-school students face will come from online security and networking. Julia said she hopes parents will be involved in the process and feels that parents should monitor internet access.

Julia is a big supporter of the program. She said the program is set up to be a wonderful experience for these disadvantaged middle school students. “The K-12 level is using technology more and more,” she said. The increased ability to do research with a computer and use a computer to write in middle school, provided by this program, is a big advantage. The students will be better prepared for success in high school, which will carry through to success in college.

The Continuing Education Coordinator for LUC, Mary Huffcutt said LTS has been awesome in helping out the program. Julia is helping with training the mentors and taking care of the laptops. Charles has arranged for the software support of the computers and coordinated with Dell to donate flash drives for all our middle school students, she said.  Julia expressed that LTS is pleased to be able to participate in such a worthwhile collaboration with Continuing Education.

Mary expressed the benefits and impact of LUC by saying “We are reaching out to the community, helping schools who are experiencing budget crunches but need to reach NCLB goals, helping middle school students with their educational success stories, and helping UWEC students develop leadership skills and experience in community outreach – Cool.”

LUC was kicked off  December 1 with the mentors going in to the schools, meeting, and tutoring the students.  

The Youth Outreach Specialist for Youth & Precollege Programs, Libby Thurston co-wrote the Committee on Baccalaureate Expansion’s (COBE) grant proposal that allowed for the launch of  LUC. Libby said that LUC “will continue through the end of the school year in May 2009. Since COBE has a two-year grant cycle, we will be able to offer the program from Fall 2009 – Spring 2010 as well.”