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Photos: University of Texas at El Paso
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CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY | January/February 2019
2018
Fostering Tech Skills Through Community Outreach
A program at the University of Texas at El Paso is transforming the K-industry pipeline through hands-on STEAM experiences — and giving college students a chance to contribute to local schools.
Category: Teaching and Learning
Institution: The University of Texas at El Paso
Project: Tech-E Outreach Program
Project lead: Michael Pitcher, director of Academic Technologies
Tech lineup: 3DPrinterOS, Apple, Ozobot, Raspberry Pi, Ultimaker
SOMETIMES, DOING SOMETHING
for others delivers just as much impact for the doer as for the recipient. That has been the case for the University of Texas at El Paso, which reached out to local K-12 schools to provide a week-long technical summer camp for students without other options and ended up with a program that runs year-round and educates 50,000 students a year. Tech-E (“techie”) Outreach, as it’s named, has also helped the college students involved to gain confidence in soft skills, boosted their understanding of
In UT-El Paso’s Tech-E Outreach program, college students serve as mentors and guides on the side for local K-12 students.
