“We’re always looking for laptops”
“I’ve never had a laptop.” Those were the words of a fellow parent at a high school sports event that startled Sarah Damaskos, Marketing Strategist at Guardian Data Destruction. With those words, Damaskos swung into action, co-founding Laptop Upcycle, an organization that sources out typically out of use laptops, sees through a complete recommissioning, including a proper data wiping process, and then individually gets these machines into the hands of students. The organization also makes sure that students can maintain their machines. Linux is part of a larger picture that thoughtfully keeps the machines truly “free”, never obliging students or parents to have to commit to fees, subscriptions and so on.
In an era where high school students need a laptop to do everything from homework assignments, writing papers, math to access to source materials, many students are left trying to perform these tasks on a phone. In this podcast we learn that the special program goes beyond narrow IT issues to address hum barriers to technology acquisition, making sure that student and parent understand the laptops are simply tools to help the students reach their goals. Damaskos outlines how TR readers, ASCDI members and the whole IT community, both as individuals and as industry leaders, can help match up technology that’s literally sitting in a closet, a garage or storage, into a working asset in a student’s education.
“We’re always looking for laptops,” says Damaskos. “If you can’t fit it into a box, we’ll accept a pallet.”
Visit https://www.laptopupcycle.org/ to learn more about this charity
Visit https://guardiandatadestruction.com/ to learn more about Guardia Data Destruction