Computer Camp Teaches Girls About Technology

Photographs and text by Ireta Kraal
JULY 23, 2001 — Three middle school girls crowd around a computer as Lisa Godbolt, a client support analyst at the College's Center for Information Technology (CIT), lifts off its casing. The three are part of a computer-technology camp for middle school girls being held this summer at the Bridge – Oberlin's community technology center.

"The idea is to make young women more comfortable with technology beyond software programs," says Godbolt."They need to know that there are women who do these things every day."

In addition to teaching participants to create web pages, download photos from digital cameras and use computer software to adjust scanned images, Godbolt demonstrated how to take apart and reassemble a computer. She also led a tour of the Oberlin College CIT to teach camp participants about careers in computing and technology. The computer camp is funded by a grant from the American Association of University Women.


Godbolt's (left) first step was to dismantle the 1999 Gateway computer. As she took things apart, she named each piece and explained how it connected with the other pieces to send and receive data and power.


12 year-old Britnei Sharrod begins putting the computer back together by reinserting the RAM.


Krystal Reno, 11 (right), watches as Ayanna Cash-Clements, 11 attaches the cord from the hard drive to the mother board


With Godbolt's help, Cash-Clements uses a screwdriver to secure the hard drive.


Sharrod slides the finishing piece into place just before the cover is put back on. After tightening the connection with the CD-ROM drive, the computer booted up just as it should. After two years in Oberlin College's computer labs, this computer, reassembled by camp participants, will have a new home at the Bridge.

Copyright 2001 Oberlin College. Article courtesy oberlin.edu.

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