Schools Give Students a Career Head Start with Help Desk Opportunities

“They do it all,” says Erin Sheevers, the district’s CTO. “We recently switched wireless providers, so they’ve been key in troubleshooting that and new service set identifiers. They’re able to answer all of the questions teachers have, and it’s because they’re trusted and valued.”

Not far away, in New Paltz, N.Y., the Ulster Board of Cooperative Educational Services’ Young Professional Help Desk program, also known as Tech Connect, offers similar opportunities within an already tech-rich environment. The program is so popular that Kathy Landers, a Cisco-certified career and technical education teacher for the Ulster BOCES, has requested instructional support to add more seats in the 56-seat program. Students receive college credit for their work, which focuses on technology problem-solving as well as long-term projects.

Student Help Desks Save on Labor Costs and Impart Technical Skills

Bethlehem started its program in 2012 with 14 students. “At that time, there were a lot of budget cuts,” Johnson says. “But the budget for technology was growing, and we had more devices coming in. We had to find a way to support all of that while maintaining the IT department’s size, which wasn’t enough to cover everything.”

With more schools transitioning to one-to-one programs in recent years, K–12 technology leaders are concerned about the sustainability of those extra devices. Last fall, CoSN released a new report, ”Navigating Student Device 1:1 Sustainability,” which explores the value of student-led tech support. 

“Engaging students in the technology repair process not only saves labor costs but also offers educational benefits, like college credits and certifications,” the report notes.

As examples, the report points to the New Mexico Public Education Department and New Mexico Regional Education Cooperatives Association, which launched a statewide student-run help desk. Students resolve support tickets within their districts and through the statewide call center while gaining skills and completing technical certifications.

LEARN MORE: Schools share strategies for addressing the coming federal funding cliff.

The Bethlehem and Ulster BOCES programs take a no-holds-barred approach to access and engagement for students, exposing them to virtually every support call or troubleshooting request that comes in. That includes everything from renaming tablets and building monitor stands to repairing Chromebooks and solving connectivity challenges, and much more.

Bethlehem Central School District has invested heavily in its program, building out a “genius bar” help desk station in the central lobby of Bethlehem High School, where students create support tickets. An adjoining glass-enclosed clean room provides space for the students to disassemble and repair Chromebooks and other devices.

“We’re saving a little bit of money because we do all of our repairs in-house. We’re spending money on training and certifications because you have to become certified to perform Chromebook repairs,” Sheevers says. “The investments are worth it for our technicians. And all of the students in the district benefit from the high school help desk because they’re able to fix everything in a timely manner, and we can get the devices back out sooner.”

The district is building out a similar help desk station as part of its middle school library renovation and expanding the program to include younger students, Johnson says.

High school students must apply to the help desk internship program; 32 were accepted for the 2023-2024 school year.

Bethlehem Central is a Google district, so students primarily work on Chromebooks, but they also answer the phones. The district equips every classroom with ViewSonic boards attached to PCs. Whenever teachers have problems with their setup, students visit the rooms to troubleshoot. They also assist with copiers and printers throughout the building.

DISCOVER: Three ways to extend the life of Chromebooks.

Help Desks Prepare Students for College and Career

As technology’s ubiquitous presence has grown to enhance job functions in every industry, Johnson has noticed shifts in the interests of the students who apply for the help desk internships.

“One student was into fashion and jewelry and had a project that combined her love of jewelry-making and technology,” he recalls. “She was able to use one of the first 3D printers to print jewelry. She went on to work in fashion, but a lot of our students take the typical route, where they go to the Rochester Institute of Technology or Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study software or electrical engineering.”

Prior to joining Ulster BOCES, Landers worked at IBM for 22 years, running firewalls and gateways and managing a data center. She has served as an enthusiastic and supportive coach to every student she’s taught in her 16 years with the program, says Julianne Ross-Kleinmann, an instructional data analysis and technology specialist for the Ulster program. She also notes the importance of a woman serving as a respected mentor in a traditionally male-dominated field.

Of the 56 students enrolled in two sections, Landers says, about six girls typically participate each year. “We need to get out to the middle school because I don’t see many girls come to the program,” she says. “They can absolutely do it, and it’s fun.”

Given the nature of the programs hosted within the BOCES facilities, student help desk participants gain exposure to a wide variety of cutting-edge technology: laser printers for engineering and manufacturing courses, robotics technology for programming courses and a 3D human anatomy system for medical courses. All of those tools require support along with a varied mix of more typical Apple, Google and Microsoft devices.

“I received an email the other day from a former student,” Landers says. “He’s now at IBM and thanked me for the start that he got here. So, I have to be confident that most of these students realize the advantage our programs give them.”

READ MORE: Seventy percent of students at this Texas school are choosing CTE electives.

Successful Help Desk Programs Require IT Teams to Be Flexible

Since September 2023, help desk interns at Bethlehem Central have handled 500 separate device repairs, Johnson says.

Like Landers, he often hears from former students. One is now a college intern who is writing code for an aerospace program at GE.

The most important piece of advice Sheevers and Johnson share is to be flexible and trusting.

“To have the help desk open all the time, you must have student staff available,” Sheevers says. “You have to be flexible. You have to trust the kids.”

Students sign confidentiality agreements as part of their training, further emphasizing the critical importance of data privacy and security.

“One really understated aspect of the help desk is the community,” says Zoey McCarthy, a senior in Bethlehem Central’s program. “Even if you aren’t as active as other people, you are either learning from your peers or interacting with students who come in that you would never have interacted with before.”

When she graduates, McCarthy says she hopes to study data science.