Thanks to a collaboration between Spring Grove High School and Spring Grove Communications, funding was secured to launch a community help desk for technical support. This forward-thinking initiative, officially named Spring Grove Digital Assist, will provide technology assistance to residents and students.
Gina Morken, Spring Grove assistant superintendent, explained that the project is part of the Activate Rural grant the school received in partnership with Spring Grove Communications. Her role was to ensure youth voices were included in community planning. Last year, the school introduced the Design Lab elective, where students worked on projects both in school within the community. Last year the students collaborated with community mentors including representatives from Spring Grove Communications, the Economic Development Authority (EDA), and the person leading the Activate Rural grant. Jacqui VanMinsel from Spring Grove Communications suggested a community help desk to the Design Lab. The idea for a community help desk stemmed from a Spring Grove Communications board meeting. The board was looking for ways to give back to the community. After working on the project over the past year, it took hold during the second semester of the 2024-2025 school year.
Morken explained the vision of the community help desk as, “Youth helping older people in the community with technology like connecting with Zoom.”
Last year, Morken and VanMinsel submitted an Innovation in Service Learning grant application to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) grant. According to MDE, nearly $700,000 in Innovation in Service-Learning grants was awarded to 16 districts, charter schools, and educational organizations to initiate or expand student service-learning opportunities in partnership with community organizations. Spring Grove High School received $50,000 for four service-learning projects: developing and maintaining a community help desk, researching and starting a new E-sports league in the community, organizing a series of events at the Spring Grove Cinema, and designing a 3D model of the city.
Morken expressed concern that Spring Grove students are busy with homework, extra-curricular activities, and work, so they probably will not have time to volunteer to man the help desk. She said they may need to pay the students. At the October 2024 school board meeting, Morken confirmed that the grant could be used to pay the students.
Spring Grove senior Jacob Hernandez was hired to provide technical support. He is the perfect person to staff the help desk as he plans to study cybersecurity at the University of Northwestern in St. Paul, Minn., this fall, where he will also play soccer. This summer he will be working around his work schedule at Wold Strawberries.
Hernandez said, “I’m just excited to bring this to the community and help the people that really need it, by helping them, they’re really helping me and propelling my future into what that may hold. Only time will tell.”
Hernandez is available Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 3-6 p.m. in the Student Center at Spring Grove Cinema, 167 W. Main St., to work with students and residents one-on-one. The help desk office is located on the second floor. Residents with mobility issues don’t have to worry about climbing the stairs as Hernandez can assist them on the first floor of the cinema. Clients can also email their questions to SGAssist@springgrove.k12.mn.us.
According to the flyer, residents can get help with pesky pop-ups, login assistance, password reset, enabling security features, malware and virus scans, basic computer setup, Windows updates, other device updates, and training tutorials on apps.
VanMinsel shared, “We did some prep work by going through with our IT guys from Spring Grove Communications and kind of went through a list of what they see on a normal basis with customer questions and concerns. And just reviewed with Jacob his comfort level with dealing with those tech questions and also reviewed some others that he hadn’t been exposed to yet with our internal IT guy here, Mark Reis has been quite willing to assist and answer questions and be a resource. Answering questions, troubleshooting, but if it gets to a level that it’s like a repair, then Jacob’s going to refer them back across the street to Spring Grove Communications to schedule a repair with our technicians.”
What are the future plans for Spring Grove Digital Assist? VanMinsel said, “It definitely has a finite amount of time. I’m very hopeful that we can figure out a continued funding source so that we can make this an annual project to work with the cinema, school, and Spring Grove Communications. Optimally, it would be wonderful to have it be an all-year-round project.
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