Students Devote Time to Technology
By Jenny Kuhl
Ann Young, Kalle Jones, and Chrissie Rakes.
photo by Jenny Kuhl
Who would have guessed that students maintain the 175 computers located throughout the school. The seven students behind this are the TARs. These Technical Aid Resources are a group of students who spend their spare time maintaining the network and fixing and programming the computers.
The TARs consist of five seniors: Molly Cuddigan, Jill Leise, Eileen Maziarz, Joanna Quigley, and Chrissie Rakes, and two juniors: Kalle Jones and Ann Young.
The group is lead by Mr. Bruce Esser, director of technology. Ann Young, junior, said, "Mr. Esser is a great guy, he is like a mentor to us all." Mr. Esser arrived at Marian five years ago. In those past five years there has been many changes in t echnology. Since his arrival, the school has been connected to the world, via the internet, each student is entitled to a personal e-mail account, and technology has been integrated in many classes.
These seven students devote much of their time to being a TAR. In fact, the group works all year long. They spend an average of eight hours a week maintaining the computers. "A lot of time is spent cleaning up the computers and installing new program s," said Kalle Jones, junior. This year they also have the job of putting the Catholic Voice online.
They are also required to work a minimum of 20 hours a week during the summer. This past summer they added 25 new computers to Etherhaven and installed computers in many teachers' rooms. "We were very busy putting At Ease in the computers in 211," sa id Jones.
The TARs try to get the rest of the school involved. This includes guaranteeing every student an e-mail account. At the beginning of the year they visited all of the freshman homerooms giving them the information on opening accounts. This was somethi ng new that they started this year.
If you have any computer questions you can send them an e-mail at, yourmom@marian.creighton.edu. If you are interested in helping the TARs or getting involved in computer work there are Webteam positions open and you can contact Ann Young at annay@mari an.creighton.edu.