York student ‘narrowing technology gap,’ collecting used computers to donate to CPS schools for remote learning

ELMHURST – Grant Pinkerton is all too aware of the challenges that remote learning has provided this school year.

He also has unique insight into the disparity in resources from school district to school district. For many, that makes learning from home even more difficult.

Pinkerton is a junior at York Community High School. His mother, Jodi, is a retired principal in the Chicago Public Schools system.

“COVID really disrupted learning for everybody. Everybody was forced to move to remote learning, and you need a computer and technology for that,” Pinkerton said. “My mom is always talking to me about the problems going on in the [Chicago Public Schools] district. Some students just don’t have the resources.”

Pinkerton is working to close that gap.

Through his community project “Grant a Pathway to Student’s Success,” Pinkerton is collecting lightly used Chromebooks and donating the technology to CPS students in need to participate in remote learning. Six schools already have received close to 75 Chromebooks through the project. Pinkerton hopes to eventually donate 700 if he can enlist the help of his high school.

Pinkerton said he first got the idea for the project after watching the news one day. It was reported that students at his mom’s old school, Galileo Academy, did not have the resources to do remote learning. It was reported that a student had to share a Chromebook with three of his brothers, and on some days that student couldn’t go to school.

Pinkerton turned around in his living room and saw his older sister’s old Chromebook sitting there unused.

“I thought since we had one there must be so many others out there not being used,” Pinkerton said.

Pinkerton talked to his Advanced Placement Language and Composition teacher, drafted a letter to ask for donations of computers and posted the letter to an Elmhurst community Facebook page.

“We were looking for any kind of donation,” Pinkerton said. “At first, our target audience was families that had leftover technology that they were not really using and we could donate to people that could use the resources. We put it out on Facebook and got a lot of responses.”

Pinkerton said he received close to 450 responses on the Facebook page. Businesses emailed him asking if they could donate new Chromebooks. Lakeside Bank has donated 15 new Chromebooks, and another small business has contributed to the project. Pinkerton has gotten responses from neighboring communities such as La Grange and Hinsdale. He even received an email from a family in Texas who had moved away, still had their child’s old Chromebook and asked if they could ship it to Pinkerton.

“It started out with a narrow view, maybe we can collect a couple from graduating seniors to try to help out and give resources back to CPS,” Pinkerton said. “We started broadening our view as the letter got more responses. A lot of them were coming from people who have had their child graduate and the computers were left at home and unused. A lot of them are coming from businesses. We’re trying to build out and expand the project so it has a more lasting impact. We’re trying to connect the two communities to have a long-lasting relationship.”

The need is great.

In April, it was reported by WBEZ that only 146 of the 500-plus schools in the Chicago Public School district had a device for every student. The district distributed more than 128,000 computers in the spring and another 18,000 in the weeks leading up to this school year.

But many schools ran out.

In September, the Chicago Tribune reported that Simeon High School emailed parents informing them that the school had exhausted its inventory of computers.

Pinkerton said he initially reached out to 10 CPS principals and identified 150 students who were unable to engage in remote learning because of a lack of resources.

Pinkerton delivered the first batch of 64 computers Thanksgiving week and met personally with the principals. All were grateful for the opportunity to provide resources so their students could struggle less with remote learning.

Pinkerton’s initial goal was to collect 100 Chromebooks. Now he has designs to expand the project. He plans to contact York Principal Shahe Bafdasarian in January to try to get the Chromebooks from all of the more than 600 graduating seniors and donate the computers to CPS.

As he reflects on his own challenges with remote learning, Pinkerton is hopeful that he’s helped kids whose struggles are great.

“That is the entire reason that I created the project,” Pinkerton said. “Me as a student in remote learning, I already struggle – and I have a working Chromebook. I can’t imagine the struggles those students go through on a day-to-day basis. If I could slowly narrow the technology gap in the two communities, it would help a lot.”

Those willing to donate are asked to complete the form at https://forms.gle/o916cu3BvnWg3UYq6. For information, email grantpinks@gmail.com.