Faith Tech and the University of Pittsburgh’s after-school program, TechSERVE, which provides young girls with computer, math and science skills, has just completed another session. The Faith Tech Center at St. James Episcopal Church in Penn Hills is one of several locations for this after-school program that engages young girls in computer technology and community service. Fifteen girls from Belmar Elementary in Homewood and twenty-nine girls from Penn Hebron Elementary in Penn Hills graduated from the program. The program also completed its first run at New Brighton Middle School in Beaver County. Achievement celebrations were held at both locations.
 
The girls from Penn Hebron Elementary School completed a service-learning project where they collected Thanksgiving food items for distribution to needy families in the Penn Hills community. They used their newly acquired computer skills to create flyers on PowerPoint and the girls created letters and Thanksgiving cards on Microsoft Word.
 
In New Brighton, the girls used their skills to teach elderly people in their community about computers. Each girl was paired with a senior citizen from McNitt Apartments. The girls helped their partners create email and surf the Internet. The girls also created a PowerPoint presentation on using the Internet, which they presented to the seniors.
 
The TechSERVE program will be expanding to more locations in January, including Greenfield Elementary School and other Faith Tech Centers. For more information about the program, please visit our web site at http://www.tech-serve.us/.