Youth Technology Corps at ETHS

Evanston Township High School Every week

Students don't just build robots.
They build themselves — and then they help build their community.

A student-led community at ETHS. A place to belong.

A crowded YTC work session: older students leaning in to guide younger students as they rebuild desktop computers together.
Students teaching students at a YTC computer-rebuild session.

Every week at ETHS, students gather to design robots, rebuild computers, and teach each other how.

Built by students. Run by students. With the occasional mentor along the way.

Some arrive curious.

"Being consistent matters. I've learned that change is good when you let yourself grow."
— Lilly · joined YTC to explore something new

Some arrive shy.

"People were really shy at first, but now you can see improvement. Inside the club, change is good."
— Chris · ETHS

Some arrive convinced they already know what they're capable of.

"Here people expect something from you. Not pressure — responsibility. And that makes you want to show up."
— Arvin · ETHS

Then something happens

One day, someone asks you for help. And you realize you know enough to give it.

"When I taught someone how to fix a computer and later saw them helping another person, I felt proud. It made me see that what we learn here grows, because we share it."
— Chris, ETHS
Learned itAn older member taught Chris to rebuild a computer.
Taught itChris taught a newer student the same skill.
Watched it spreadThen he saw that student helping someone else.

Most leave having discovered they can do far more than they imagined.

Rooted in Evanston

This chapter belongs to Evanston.

And this is what's happening right now.

Robotics, coached by Georgia Tech

Starting in fall 2025, YTC students are led in robotics course training by students of Georgia Tech's engineering school.

Refurbishing, advised by Drexel

Students get refurbishing advice from the students of TechServ at Drexel University.

Overseeing the global expansion

ETHS oversees the expansion of global YTC programming in Nigeria, Pakistan, Mozambique, and Namibia.

In person, in Evanston

Students work face-to-face with middle schoolers inside Evanston — including teaching at Camp Kuumba.

Namibia, July 2025

A team of ETHS students flew to Namibia and met, in person, the students they had virtually tutored — teachers and learners, finally in one place.

The chapter's full history — senior-center computer labs, the Katrina mission, the African Initiative since 2009 — lives on the Students page →

A student's journey

Meet Furqaan Idrees.

The model isn't a theory. Follow it through a single student — from the day he earns his first computer to the day he trains the teachers who train the next.

1

Learn

Evanston

Furqaan earns a computer of his own the YTC way — refurbishing and donating machines to families at Camp Kuumba.

2

Teach

Evanston

Mastery becomes mentorship. He teaches incoming freshmen to refurbish while learning the Arduino robotics curriculum himself.

3

Lead

Ethiopia · virtual

By junior year he oversees YTC's engineering instruction of students at Haile-Manas Academy in Ethiopia — teaching teachers, across borders.

4

Repeat

Namibia · in person

In July 2025 he flies to Namibia to meet the students he'd taught only over a screen — the circle, closing and beginning again.

The learner becomes the teacher becomes the leader. After graduation, Furqaan trains the teachers of the same Camp Kuumba families whose computers he refurbished as a freshman. And in his own words: "It's like the club has generations. Leaders change, but the idea stays."

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Students

There's a seat with your name on it.

Come once. Bring a friend or don't. Nobody will ask what you're into — they'll ask what you want to build.

See what students do