Since its inception four years ago, Rollins SIFE teams have won awards at regional competitions each year. One reason is the high quality of the projects, including projects in foreign countries. One such project, started in Bulgaria in 1998, involves the creation of a computer school. A Crummer School SIFE team traveled to Nova Zagora, a small town in central Bulgaria, and prepared a business plan for a school that would serve not only the town population but could also travel to nearby villages whose schools have no computer resources. Having completed the business plan and found the project to be feasible, the team decided that it would try to locate enough laptop computers to get the school started.
Laptop computers enable the school to be portable and move to different locations as needed.
The students are now actively seeking donations of 486 or older Pentium laptops that are no longer in use. Many such machines may not be Y2K compatible and are hard to sell, but a donation to Rollins College SIFE is tax deductible. The students believe that there are hundreds of old laptops lying unused, if only they can locate them. So far they have not had much luck. If you or someone you know is interested in donating to this worthy project, contact Serge Matulich at ext.