Some Naperville-area high school students are leveling the digital divide through their computer refurbishing group, the Power Up Project.
What is the Power Up Project?
“We collect, refurbish, and donate computers to help out our local community. So we take computers that would be otherwise unused or thrown away by different businesses and individuals in our community and then we bring them here. We reinstall the operating system, upgrade components, and then we outreach to different nonprofits and organizations in the area and we find out who can benefit from our computers,” said, Jai Gupta, president of the Power Up Project.
The Power Up Project was founded in 2018 by a group of Naperville North High School students who were looking to combine their love of technology with philanthropy.
It’s since expanded to include students from Naperville Central and Neuqua Valley high schools as well, with 15 teens now taking part.
The Power Up Process
The process begins with reaching out to potential donors for unused PCs, laptops, and accessories.
“The way that we get our computers is that we do research on local IT companies, we do advertisements on places such as Nextdoor to find individuals, and these places usually are able to fuel Power Up by donating large amounts of computers,” said Kyle Wang, the outreach director of the Power Up Project.
The group has received donations from places like 5 Point Solutions and the Aurora Public Library. The team picks up the computers and accessories themselves, then takes the donations to Gupta’s basement where the refurbishment begins.
“Some of them are broken and we really have to break up the computers, go inside and restore parts, but then other computers, we just need to clean up, install an operating system, and prepare it for the newest donation,” said Wang.
After the refurbishing process is complete, the team finds new homes for the computers. Recent recipients include the Naperville Youth Club, Warren Township Teen Center, Literacy DuPage, and Plant Chicago.
The Power Up Project’s goal is to donate 100 computers every year, which Gupta says the group is on target to exceed in 2024.
“I think it’s important in our local community because something like this didn’t exist. There’s a couple of national organizations, but we’re really the only ones that are targeting local businesses and getting computers from people that otherwise would not have been able to donate,” said Gupta.
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