Lake Region—Excitement runs high at South Suburban Christian School as the students, staff and parents bask in the latest wonderful blessing from God—a new computer lab.
Although getting a computer lab was high on the wish list of the South Suburban staff, they did not foresee how God would step in and orchestrate events so majestically in such a short period of time. In a fast-moving demonstration of God's power to overcome obstacles, the computer technology situation at the school was transformed from a few computers in each classroom with unreliable Internet access to a computer lab with 16 stations for students, two printers and a teacher station.
During Summer 2009, two teachers took an online class in educational technology in the classroom. One of the final assignments in the class was to write a letter to the school board convincing them of the need to increase student access to technology. Lynnette Jefferson, principal, presented these letters to the school board at the beginning of the school year. The school board then acted on an opportunity to purchase 16 computers at a discounted rate. Then came the donation of flat screen monitors for all the computers.
Finally, the most amazing part of the blessing unfolded: The school treasurer, Robert Manson, was contacted by three DeVry Institute students—Brian Hariharan, Daniel Olszewski and Florentino Brizuela—who needed to complete a senior project, setting up a computer lab for a school. The blessing was the school would not need to pay for the labor or expertise these gentlemen provided. The school only needed to supply the materials.
The gentlemen worked diligently and cheerfully for more than 600 hours over a one-and-a-half-month period to complete the lab, even staying until almost 3:00 a.m. once as they neared the deadline. Not only did the DeVry students fulfill the requirements of the class, providing the lab with the best equipment and software solutions that the school's small budget could afford, they went above and beyond the call of duty resolving issues with classroom computers and Internet connections as well as connecting the staff to the printer-copier in the staff workroom.
The DeVry students equipped the building with Wireless N connectivity and installed a NAS drive with two terabytes of storage. The students are able to save their work to their teacher's folder, which can be accessed by the staff from other locations. This allows teachers the capability of working on documents in the classroom or at home. In addition, an image was saved for each computer in the lab which enables the staff to restore a computer that may be infected by a virus. The lab also has remote viewing capabilities, which allows the teachers to monitor what students are doing on the computers from any other computer in the building. The DeVry students even wrote and printed a manual, which lists everything done for the lab, and it contains illustrated directions for tasks the teachers may need to perform.
On Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009, a special dedication for the computer lab was held. Parents, students, school board members, Ruth Horton (Lake Region Conference education superintendent) and other supporters came to see the lab, to thank God for providing it, and to hear the expectation of the students concerning the computer lab. Everyone also had a chance to get hands-on experience in the lab while completing a treasure hunt about the rain forest.
The students at South Suburban have had another opportunity to see an awesome demonstration of God's interest in and ability to supply all our needs.
For information about the school, located at 119 Chestnut Street in Park Forest, Ill., call 708-481-8909.
Rose Jones, teacher, South Suburban Seventh-day Adventist Christian School
