Penn donates used computers to Paul Robeson High School

For a high school with computers that hardly work, even hand-me-downs can be invaluable.

Penn donated around 90 used computers to West Philadelphia’s Paul Robeson High School last week. The Netter Center, which could not be reached for comment in time for publication, coordinated the donation.

Andrew Saltz, a teacher and technology point person at Robeson , took it upon himself to seek new electronics for the students when he realized that the high school’s current technology was insufficient. “I emailed about twenty businesses, schools and law firms to ask for donations,” he said. “Penn was the only one that responded.”

Paul Robeson already had connections to Penn through the Perelman School of Medicine Educational Pipeline Program, but the donation was made independently from the medical school program.

“The majority of technology here is between 4 and 9 years old. Unfortunately, the lifespan is not that long,” Saltz said.

Ninety-five percent of students at Paul Robeson are African American and 89.8 percent are “economically disadvantaged,” according to school’s profile on the School District of Philadelphia’s website. Saltz noted that many of the students do not have computers in their homes.

Kim Lent, the guidance counselor at Paul Robeson reiterated the importance of the donation.

“It is difficult to keep up with other schools that are technologically savvy when we don’t even have computers and printers that work,” she said.

The computers will also be used for Individual Learning Plans, which let students check their grades and set up yearly academic goals .

Lent said students at Paul Robeson are thrilled with the updated technology. “Other high schools have a lot of technology and our kids were frustrated they hadn’t had these,” she said.

Saltz said access to better technology means more than simply updating school facilities. “When [students] are seeing commercials for MacBook Pros on TV, they know that they’re second-class citizens,” he said. However, Penn’s donation sends the message that, “You’re worth something, you’re valuable,” he said.

Graduate School of Education Professor Linda Leibowitz, who supervises graduate counseling for students working at Paul Robeson, added that computers are helpful in the college application process and for accessing career readiness programs that make it easier to achieve post-secondary goals.

“I have two computers in my office and I have seniors here every day,” Lent said.

The high school is continuing to try to provide more technology to students. Saltz said he is looking for more ways to take old technology and make it work — he is even trying to make a Chromebook-inspired device from old computer parts.

“Ideally, computers are introduced earlier than high school, but it’s never too late to learn the use of this technology,” Leibowitz said.

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