The North Augusta Chamber Foundation is tying one of its programs to the chamber’s 75th anniversary to help Aiken County students.
The foundation is raising funds for the program that targets high school students to prepare them for a career after they graduate. The foundation’s Dell Tech program is a partnership with the Aiken County Public School District (ACPSD). It provides high school students with IT certification and hands-on experience.
Isaac Kelly of Aiken Staffing Associates and chair of the foundation told ABD the program began in 2020 with North Augusta High School as the flagship.
“We had to get an instructor in place. We had to pay for the certifications. We had companies donating their Dell computers to be repaired by the students,” he explained. “So, they’re coming out with not only two years of experience, but a certification that’s by one of the largest computer manufacturers. They could literally come out and either work for a local IT company or work for themselves. They could be entrepreneurial with it.”
The program has spread to three additional high schools, but Kelly said this effort is to collect funds to expand to the four remaining high schools. The goal is to raise $75,000, a nod to the chamber’s anniversary.
“We’ve got a lot of cyber security going on,” said Kelly, “But that’s only a small piece of the puzzle. If we can get people and students exposed to the computer side, they could go to work for Ford, if they have the mindset and the understanding and the capacity to work on Dell technology, not only troubleshooting software, but also hardware.”
The program complements the foundation’s mission to provide educational opportunities for youth and the workforce.
Expanding the Dell program to all high schools may also lead students to explore additional educational opportunities at the school district’s Career and Technology Center (CTC) or Aiken Technical College.
“The foundation’s goal this year is to raise that money so that we can get it into the other four high schools. Because number one, it’s the low-hanging fruit. It’s so simple, it’s stupid, and you can quote me on that part,” he quipped. “And the North Augusta Chamber and Terra (Carroll, chamber president and CEO) and her vision to work with the schools and the students. She brought that to the table, and we’ve been doing it now for six years.”
Kelly said businesses can elect to sponsor a student’s certification or designate it to be used for a high school not currently part of the Dell program.
“If 100 small businesses were to donate $100 to the chamber Foundation, that would be my challenge, because all of a sudden, you’re at $10,000, and that gives us a good running start,” Kelly said. “The businesses here that want to see our schools produce people and students that can come out of high school and go straight to work with certifications. That’s the goal, and that’s the goal of the foundation.”
A link for donations is available on the North Augusta Chamber’s website at: www.northaugustachamber.org/the-foundation/
