‘Vikes’ Inn’ gets upgrade
By JOHN F. MULLER Special to the Daily Press
SAMOHI — For one local nonprofit organization, school isn’t just about papers, problem sets and grades. It’s about teaching students the skills to succeed in life.
However, getting the tools required to teach those skills is often easier said than done.
Project ECHO, a program that teaches more than 500 public high school students leadership and life skills through in-class exercise and on-campus businesses, received a boost Tuesday. USC’s Marshall School of Business donated a pair of computers and a printer to Santa Monica High School’s chapter of the project, which stands for Entrepreneurial Concepts Hands-On.
“There still may be thousands of useful hours that can be used for individual students who could really use these computers,” said Richard Schreinert, the chief of staff of the Marshall school’s academic information services. “Thousands of hours may not be a lot for us (where there are a lot of users), but it could last a whole year for students here. It just makes sense for us to give it to people who can use it.”
Over the last two weeks, the Marshall school has donated 37 computers, 18 laser printers, four monitors and two VCRs, all refurbished, to four local organizations: The Story Project, a Culver City based after-school program for at-risk youth aged 12-15 years; Pomelo Drive Elementary School, a Los Angeles Unified School District Elementary School; the Evangelical Free Church of Walnut; and Project ECHO.
Project ECHO’s goal is to provide innovative and effective classroom-based opportunities for diverse groups of high school students to learn about the free market economy. At Samohi, students run “Vikes’ Inn and Cafe” snack bar and student store. The previous computer students used at the student store was still running Windows 95.
Proceeds generated through the student run businesses are distributed to the students in the form of scholarships.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 19, 2004. Read the original PDF.