After-school program teaches technical, leadership skills

Forget Best Buy's Geek Squad, Apple’s Genius bartenders or the school district’s overworked IT expert.

When computers are on the fritz at Theodore Vick Elementary School, teachers have a new source of consultation: the student-run “Mouse Squad.”

A small group of preteens at the Adelanto school, on Seneca Road west of Bellflower Street, has been training to become members of the junior technical support team since January. The Mouse Squad, which meets after school three times a week, has learned to troubleshoot common computer problems and regularly gets called out to help school employees.

“Before, I had a computer but I didn’t even know what to do when something went wrong. Now I know everything. We learned how to connect and add new printers, we learned how to see the cables, the Internet ...” Amanda Musharbash, 11, said. “We’re doing different types of modules every week. We’re catching up to the viruses and other types of computers.”

Theodore Vick is the first school in San Bernardino County and one of 120 schools statewide to launch the program, according to the MOUSE (Making Opportunities for Upgrading Schools and Education) Squad of California. The local school put up $1,000 to set up the student technical help desk and received a matching $1,000 grant.

The Mouse Squad program, a mix of curriculum and hands-on practice, aims to teach students valuable technical and critical thinking skills while helping to ensure school technology is running smoothly. The average squad supplies a school with 25 hours of weekly technical support, the MOUSE Squad of California reports.

“Basically you’re training them to be entry-level IT technicians,” Principal Julie Hirst said. “As they get older they’ve got this on their resume and it’s giving them career skills.”

The Adelanto school is also using the program to motivate students who’ve had discipline or classroom behavior problems. To hang onto their privilege of serving on the squad after school, students must exhibit good behavior in class that day.

“They’re totally excited. They’re leaders on campus,” Hirst said. “They get to go out and work on teachers’ computers so they demonstrate that they have some responsibility.”

Dylan Jimenez, 11, and Jacqueline Martinez, 12, explained their first step in helping a “customer” is getting all the details about the problem.

“We get a notebook and we write what happened first and what they did second,” Jacqueline said.

Then, before any other steps, they ensure all the cords and cables are plugged in correctly. They try to diagnose the problem, pinpointing it as a user, mechanical, software or hardware error. Most of their tasks so far have been relatively simple, said Justin Porter, 11, with students prepared to refer bigger problems to the school’s technology coordinator.

“Some teachers didn’t know where the turn-on button was, some teachers had problems where you had to reset the whole computer,” Justin said. “It feels good because they’re happy about it.”

On a recent afternoon, the Mouse Squad had a chance to dissemble a computer and identify its parts. Mouse Squad teacher adviser Leah Johnson said the program represents a “perfect blending” of teaching students to be technologically savvy and to give back to their community.

Amanda said she thinks every school should have its own Mouse Squad. “It’s a wonderful idea because at most schools their computers and printers go down so they need to have some students to back them up. It would be a perfect idea for other kids to learn,” she said, adding she’s also been helping solve her parents’ computer problems. “My dad said he might even hire me.”

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