October 2, 1998 - "This is such a great thing for our kids," said Principal Marcia Parker as she watched a steady stream of computer hardware flowing through the front door of Turner Elementary in Southeast Washington, DC. "Particularly our sixth graders are going to have a whole new world of research to explore on the internet." Transportation, installation and setup of the new machines was carried out by a crew of some two dozen volunteers from Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis. Their efforts capped off a summer-long rewiring and retrofitting effort carried out by BEA staff.

Technology transfer has long been a topic of special interest to the U.S. Department of Commerce, but the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Commerce agency that produces the national and international economic accounts of the United States, put a new twist on the term on August 8 when it donated fifty refurbished desktop computers to the school. The transfer was the first of its kind by BEA under President Clinton’s Executive Order 12999, encouraging the use of excess federal equipment and volunteer services in connecting classrooms to the internet. The donated machines, no longer capable of efficiently running the sophisticated software that BEA relies on in its own research, now provides the majority of Turner classrooms with direct Internet access.

BEA Director Steve Landefeld, Deputy Director Rosemary Marcuss and Chief Information Officer Alan Lorish (GITSB Champion for IT Learning), were on hand to celebrate completion of the sometimes complex process necessary to bring the transfer about. "The pride I felt in seeing all of us working together for such a worthwhile cause is definitely a highpoint in my career", said Landefeld.

The newly completed facility provides Turner and its 700 students, drawn primarily from the surrounding Douglass, Congress Heights, and Shipley Terrace neighborhoods, a long sought increase in processing power and Internet research capability. From the looks on faces at the end of the day, this BEA initiative also provided the type of technology transfer that all involved felt was deserving of a personal stamp of approval.

Contact: Brian Callahan

Phone 202-606-9906

brian.callahan@bea.doc.gov

Related Resources

Computers for Learning--If you need computers for your school, register here. Federal agencies use this site to where to donated their used computers.