Funding, Grants & Awards

100 North Carolina Students Take Home Desktops

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 10/26/15

One hundred students in North Carolina recently took home refurbished desktop computers as a result of the "Geek-A-Thon" charity event.

The Geek-A-Thon is a partnership between the Kramden Institute and the MetLife Foundation, which provided $25,000 in funding. For the desktop giveaway, teachers in the Raleigh area chose 100 students, more than half of whom are the children of veterans or current service members, who could most benefit from the refurbished computers.

"Building on the success of last year, over 250 MetLife volunteers took part in the Geek-A-Thon, refurbishing a record-breaking 400 computers, and loading them with an Ubermix operating system and the latest in educational software," according to a news release. "One hundred of the refurbished computers were donated to North Carolina school children. The rest will go to the Kramden Institute to be donated as needed."

"I can't wait to use my computer for Web sites like Khan Academy," said Saul Alto, a student at Barwell Road Elementary in Raleigh, in a prepared statement. "It's a learning Web site I can use to continue to improve my grades and earn points. I'm also looking forward to using it to access ABCYA, another learning Web site that also has games."