Chance Makes 2 Teens Pioneers

Michael Joseph, 15, was eager to spend his summer vacation volunteering at Saddleback Community Outreach in Laguna Hills.

“My parents wanted me out of the house,” he said with a rueful grin.

On his first day, he began mopping the floor of the center’s food pantry, where items are given to needy Orange County families. He quickly realized he wasn’t made to mop.

“I could barely move the thing,” he said. “It was like 50 pounds.”

But Michael, who weighs only about as much as two mops, applied plenty of muscle in another arena, and he ended up being more useful to the organization than anyone had ever imagined.

Last winter, the center’s executive director, John Rooney, decided to set up a computer learning center. It would be a place where unemployed people could come to learn computer skills, making them more employable.

A Costa Mesa medical equipment company donated several computers to Saddleback, but some were outdated and others broken. Rooney, who knew Michael from church, recalled that the youth was a computer whiz and asked him to see what he could do with the dilapidated equipment.

Michael called in Tuan-Huy Ngo, 15, his classmate at Santa Margarita Catholic High School. After more than a month of exacting work, the learning center--which now includes six computers outfitted with Powerpoint, Excel and Word programs--is ready for students. It opened Monday, with the two boys among the first teachers.

“We took apart the mother boards, hard drives, CPUs and power strips,” Michael said.

When they needed spare parts, the pair dug around in an Anaheim “computer junkyard” called Silicon Salvage.

“It was really frustrating,” said Tuan-Huy, whose green braces match his partner’s. “But even with all the frustrations, it was worth it, when they finally turned on.”

Vernice Harper, 49, an unemployed single mother of two teenage boys, is among the first students.

“I really need good pay, at least $15 to $20 an hour,” she said. “But most good-paying jobs require you to have computer skills.”

She said she gets by with the help of $600 a month in public assistance, most of which goes to rent, bills and food. Harper’s car broke down last week and she can’t afford to fix it. She hopes the training will help her gain financial independence.

Rooney, who worked with computers for 15 years, worked with a trainer from the city of Irvine to help design a curriculum. Students will learn keyboarding and programs by following a textbook and using interactive tutorials at their computers. The volunteer instructors will be on hand to help with lessons.

Students will be awarded certificates after they prove their proficiency in each program, Rooney said. “It will be one more thing they can put on their resumes.”

The lessons, however, aren’t completely free. Students must sign a contract committing them to an hour of community service for each hour they spend at the center.

The center’s students aren’t the only people learning there.

“I never spoke to adults before,” said Tuan-Huy. “Now I know how to.”