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Industry Club students get hands-on PC experience

Warren PC’s Brian Garges, left, shows Eisenhower Middle School Students Conner Younger and Abigail Wilson how to properly set up a network cable.

Five seventh-grade students from Eisenhower Middle School recently got a chance to build a computer tower and set up an internet network at Warren PC Repair.

Industry Club members Evan Melton, Mitchell Rossman, Gavin Labowski, Abigail Wilson, and Conner Younger along with their instructor Eric Shotts spent an afternoon working with Warren PC’s Brian Garges and Joe Saltsman.

Garges showed Wilson and Younger how to properly connect a network, while Saltsman aided Melton, Rossman, and Labowski with the tower construction.

Garges, who owns Warren PC, taught Wilson and Younger how to strip a network cable and connect the cable to the jack. The group ran into a small problem when they realized they had the incorrect patch.

“It gives them practical application experience,” Garges said. “It shows them a problem that they would encounter in the field. But they were really fast learners.”

Garges said he had been setting up networks for “two or three” years. Warren PC sets up networks at businesses all over the area, including larger jobs such as hotels.

Younger and Wilson both said that it was their first time setting up a network. Wilson also said she enjoyed the challenges that setting up a network brings.

“I could see this being a career option for me,” she said. “I really like it and it’s a good thing to know how to do.”

The tower construction group had a little more experience. Melton and Rossman said they had put together a tower “a few times” before. Labowski hadn’t worked on a desktop tower, but he said he works on his laptop “all the time.”

The group ran into a small snag when a tiny screw that held a plate in would not cooperate. Saltsman fetched a magnetic screwdriver that solved the issue.

The newly built computer will be used in Mr. Shotts’ technology class at Eisenhower. The parts for the PC were part of a grant the Industry Club received through the Warren Forest Hi-Ed’s School to Work program.

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