SWAT Program Overview

Many rural schools and districts have both the space for computer labs and skilled staff to maintain computers. What is missing, unfortunately, is the funding to purchase equipment and the expertise to wire and install the labs. Working with businesses around the state, the UW@Rural Schools Program has discovered a way to ensure that children in rural schools and districts have access to well-equipped labs.

The inaugural project began last April in the Bridgeport School District with hardware donated by Preston Gates & Ellis LLP. University students built a twenty-seat computer lab at Bridgeport Middle School in Eastern Washington. Like many rural Washington districts, Bridgeport's budget is stretched thin to meet the complex needs of its population. This district, and community, where 90% of the students are Latino and 100% of the middle school students are eligible for the free and reduced lunch program, is clearly economically disadvantaged.

Mission

Our SWAT Program works with businesses willing to donate hardware and software. Once we have acquired the hardware and software, our student staff wire the labs and then configure and install the computers. This is an excellent opportunity for our students to gain experience troubleshooting hardware and networking programs, and they gain immense insight into communities which, in a metropolis like Seattle, are often invisible to them. Most important, this program brings computers and access to students in rural Washington who otherwise might not have a chance to use a computer until they reach college, if indeed they go on to post-secondary education. We are currently working with Omak to develop a similar projects, and we would like to take on about ten such projects each year.