A seamless learning transition was the goal for renovating a computer lab for students to use after school in Annapolis.
Elementary school students living in the neighborhood of Robinwood now can use modern computers, such as those at Hillsmere Elementary School, at their after-school program thanks to a company that reached out to recently renovate the Robinwood Community Center.
“These are state-of-the art computers ? the computers can do everything the computers at the school can do, as well as access the Internet,” said Gerald Davis, a knowledge manager with Northrop Grumman Corp., a global defense and technology company with information services and electronic headquarters in Maryland and Virginia.
“The computers in the old lab were generations old and couldn?t run the same software the school was using.”
Northrop Grumman recently partnered with the school and community center after informal conversations began with County Executive John R. Leopold. In addition to the computer lab, the company remodeled the center?s kitchen and Head Start instructional area. It also agreed to provide mentoring for the students.
The computers were donated by Future Tech Enterprise Inc., a New York information technology provider.
“They?re nice and not old like the last ones,” said Marique Jackson, 9.
Kayle Wittington, 11, said the Internet helped to “get things I can?t go to at home.”
One such learning Web site available to students is starfall.com, which offers a lot of reading opportunities at various level by making it exciting, said Amanda Plumer, one of 15 teachers from Hillsmere Elementary who signed up as volunteers for the program, now in its third year. There are also math programs.
Teachers from Hillsmere Elementary visit the school twice a week and leave right from school around 3:30 and stay until 4:30 or 5 p.m., Hillsmere Principal Christopher Wooleyhand said.
On Thursdays, dinners are sometimes prepared for the students, and there?s always a Thanksgiving and Christmas feast around those holidays.
“Our commitment is beyond simply the renovation,” said Jack Martin Jr., the public relations director for Northrop?s Electronic Systems sector in Linthicum. “We?re looking at continuing our relationship with the community by working with the students.”
The company now has plans for arranging visits from guest speakers, going on field trips and computer-training classes for the students? parents.
Staff Photographer Arianne Starnes contributed to this report.
