In a country whose booming tech industry attracts big name companies such as Dell, HP and Intel, two of the most valuable skills in the labor market are English and computer proficiency. While these may seem like the basics, they are unfortunately out of reach for countless Costa Ricans who live in rural areas, such as our border community.

Here, the average student will currently not touch a computer until his or her second year of high school. While the town still subsists on small-scale agricultural work, that will likely not be the case for this generation of students. When they enter the workforce, they will be faced with a world that has been running on computers since before they were born, and they will be expected to understand how to interact with them.

For this reason, the board of our local elementary school has solicited a donation from an NGO of 18 computers along with equipment, such as a printer and digital camera, and materials to teach computer classes. Due to their efforts, the school has been selected to receive said donation on the condition of constructing a proper classroom to house these resources. While they have secured funding from various local sources, the amount needed is great and for this reason they are soliciting collaboration from the Peace Corps Partnership Program in an effort to bridge the remaining budget gap.

This project is being coordinated by a PCV from Oregon.