Students returning to the Widener
Partnership Charter School on September 4 were greeted by new technology in
their classrooms. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the Radnor
High School Chester Community Service Club recently donated more than 60
refurbished laptop computers and other technology to the state’s first
university-based charter school.
The GSA Mid-Atlantic Region donated
30 laptop computers, three printers and a scanner, while Radnor High School
students donated 30 laptop computers and 20 MacBooks, according to Widener
Partnership Charter School Principal Darlene Davis.
“Technology is vital to learning and
the engagement of students, especially at the elementary school level,” Davis
said. “These computers will be put to good use in advancing the science,
technology, engineering and mathematics learning at the school. We thank the
General Services Administration and the students of Radnor High School for
their generous donations.”
The computers donated by Radnor High
School were the result of volunteer work that senior Evangeline Cai did at the
charter school. Cai served as a teaching assistant for the last four summers at
a reading clinic at the charter school. Her volunteer work prompted her to
start the Chester Community Service Club, which is dedicated to raising funds,
holding book drives and encouraging Radnor students to volunteer at the charter
school’s after school program. The club raised money to buy software for the
computers, and they worked with the Radnor Microsoft Authorized Refurbishers
Club to update the computers and ready them for donation.
“We want the students to take full
advantage of the computers to enhance their learning experience and make it
much richer,” Cai said, who was named a Widener University High School
Leadership Award recipient last year for her volunteer work. “Both Radnor and
Widener Partnership Charter School are really excited to have this connection
between our two communities. These are two very different communities and they
both have a lot to learn from each other. It’s a very symbiotic relationship.”
The GSA donation was related to
Chester’s role as a pilot city in the White House Strong Cities, Strong
Communities (SC2) initiative. In addition to the technology received by Widener
Partnership Charter School, the GSA donated 42 laptops to Chester High School
in September 2012.
The mission of General Services Administration
is to deliver the best value in real estate, acquisition, and technology
services to the government and the American people. GSA’s Mid-Atlantic region
serves Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Southern New Jersey, Virginia and West
Virginia.
The charter school, which serves
grades K through 8, takes a holistic approach to education that emphasizes a
low student to teacher ratio, the social and emotional development of each
student, a close partnership with parents and caregivers, and the inclusion of
music, art, drama, physical and health education and foreign language
instruction as integral parts of the curriculum. Because it is affiliated with
Widener University, the school receives a variety of supports from the
university including education faculty and students who support and enhance the
instruction of classroom teachers, and graduate students from social work and
clinical psychology who provide a range of services to the children and their
families.
No comments:
Post a Comment