With their eyes directed upwards towards a PowerPoint presentation projected on the screen, members of the newly established Computer Building Club are instructed on the different parts of a computer and their functions. This knowledge will help students properly construct their own desktops. 

The idea for the club was first brought up by co-founder and junior Aiden Melkin. He had built a desktop of his own during the pandemic and really enjoyed doing it. Seeing this, his brother proposed the idea of starting a club at school to educate people on this subject, which he thought was a great idea. Melkin then proposed the idea to his friend and co-founder junior Tamir Krasna, who was also interested and very knowledgeable on computers. 

“I think he actually asked me in shul … and I was like that it is an interesting idea,” Krasna said. “I have thought about starting clubs before, but I never actually went through with any of them.  … I am passionate about what it’s going to be, I always love teaching people whenever I can.”

After they agreed on establishing a club, they ended up speaking with guidance counselor Melissa Gartner, Dean of Students Roslyn Landy and Director of Instructional Technology Ginger Thornton to gain approval and a budget. Additionally, they needed to recruit students to join. 

“For me, it was always weird walking up to a random teacher who I haven’t spoken to,” Krasna said.  “Originally, I was not fully comfortable with it, but seeing that people are actually okay being approached and actually showing interest in the club, I think I became a little more open to it.”

With the official establishment of the club, junior Adam Goldfarb joined Melkin and Krasna as a co-founder. Although specific aspects of the curriculum are subject to change, they have a general idea about what they want to cover. 

“At first, we’ll teach about computer components and stuff that is really in technology … the essential components that are in that kind of technology,” Melkin said. “… Once everyone has a grasp of that stuff, we will build desktop computers. We’ll get these different parts like the processor, graphics card … and then we’ll teach them how to build the computers.”

Before they build computers, however, they will help students research what parts they need to buy and where they can get them for an affordable price. As of now, Goldfarb will be spearheading this project.

“Adam is then going to start teaching them what to look for,” Krasna said. “… What websites are better, which ones to stay away from. A lot of people, especially when they start, might jump straight ahead to Best Buy, for example, because it’s a relatively easy store [even though there might be] 20 other stores that are better.” 

With plans to build desktop computers, they discussed what they might do with these computers once they are built.

“We are thinking about donating them to people who need computers … if that does not work, we could come up with other ideas [such as ] raffling them off and donating the money to charity,” Melkin said.

The computer building club had their first meeting on Oct. 11 during lunch, which was attended by 20-30 students, including junior Josh Kelner. He seemed overall pleased with how the meeting went, even though he found the lecture to be a little less interesting than the visual demonstrations.

“I think so far it lived up to what I thought it would be,” Kelner said. “We learned about the main parts of a computer, and they brought in a model for us to look at to demonstrate what they were talking about and did a presentation, so I thought it was well done and I got to learn a lot that I didn’t know before.”