![\"Five](\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2018\/12\/nonprof-it300x200Eastside-300x200.jpg\")
The program benefits both the students and the nonprofit groups. 51ÁÔÆæ students, mostly from the School of Information Studies and Peck School of the Arts, get the opportunity to work for a semester with real world clients and earn credit.\u00a0 Agencies, which often have only one or a few people on staff, benefit from free IT expertise.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout three-quarters of the requests we get are for website development or redesign,\u201d said Adam Hudson, instructor in the School of Information Studies and founding member who leads the day-to-day operations of Nonprof-IT. \u201cSome of them have not been able to do that for 20 years, and that\u2019s such a critical resource for a nonprofit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the program started in fall 2014, 61 nonprofit organizations have received IT assistance and 200 students have participated in the program.<\/p>\n
Once a semester, Nonprof-IT contacts Milwaukee-area organizations that might need its services and connects them with a team of students. The students, who are guided by volunteer mentors from the local business community, meet with the clients and determine solutions to their technology needs \u2013 whether it\u2019s a website, building a database of volunteers or donors, developing content for social media or doing technology assessments.<\/p>\n
If the project is too small to occupy a whole team for a semester, Sam Goerke, a graduate student who works in the Nonprof-IT office, heads out to lend a hand on those small-scale projects. Last summer, for example, he worked with an agency that just needed help getting its printers connected. \u201cWe try not to turn anybody away,\u201d said Hudson.<\/p>\n
During the fall 2018 semester, 36 students worked with the AIDS Resource Center, The Parenting Network,\u00a0Ko-Thi Dance Company, Eastside Senior Services, Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative, Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful, EconomicsWisconsin and the\u00a0 Fondy Food Center.<\/p>\n
Eastside Senior Services, which provides transportation and other services to help older people stay in their homes and connected to the community, was grateful for the help this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith only minimal guidance, Giamo (Rivera) and his team have done excellent work for ESS, building an easy-to-use, Google-based information system and website that ESS staff and volunteers will be able to use to track all aspects of ESS\u2019 operations much more efficiently and productively than they have been able to do in the past,\u201d said Christopher Hanks, a member of the organization\u2019s board.\u00a0\u201cGiamo and his team have been especially good at listening and coming up on their own with ideas well-suited to ESS\u2019 particular circumstances,\u00a0limited budget and management challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c51ÁÔÆæ is to be commended for making this kind of program available to benefit not only its students but the Milwaukee community as well,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Students appreciate the opportunity to put some field experience on their resumes, as well as learning about community resources. Hudson said. They can also learn to communicate well with clients \u2013 \u201cavoiding \u2018technobabble,\u2019\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Rivera, a senior in information sciences and technology, was familiar with working with nontechnical people in his paid internship on the IT help desk at Milwaukee College Prep. However, he said, the nonprof-IT project helped him improve his skills. Working with a group of students that included a graphic designer, Colby Wilkerson \u2013 \u201cin my opinion, the MVP of the project\u201d \u2013 the team was able to not only redesign the organization\u2019s website and marketing materials, but also to help find better, more cost-effective ways of managing data.<\/p>\n
\u201cI assumed the role of project manager. I\u2019m good at laying down the road map for all the tasks,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cAs a student, this project really helped me develop those skills further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Junior Marsurice DeVan has worked with both 9to5 Wisconsin and Grandmothers Beyond Borders, which helps grandparents raise children orphaned by AIDS.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gained a lot of real world experience and practice in working with a team rather than just by myself,\u201d DeVan said. \u201cIt was great to take what they (the clients) were telling me and put it up on the screen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s Nonprof-IT program provides benefits for everyone involved: Information technology students get real-world experience and local nonprofit groups get free help with their websites and technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":835,"featured_media":65411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174,200],"tags":[249,250],"section":[142,139],"display_categories":[],"related-coverage":[260],"uwmnews-feed":[167,344,347,164,165],"class_list":["post-65410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-news-in-brief","tag-community-engagement","tag-student-success","section-computer-science-technology","section-science-technology","related-coverage-community-engagement","uwmnews-feed-alumni-association","uwmnews-feed-arts-architecture","uwmnews-feed-community-engagement-professions","uwmnews-feed-arts","uwmnews-feed-information-studies"],"yoast_head":"\n