Start of our 10th year – January 2026

Hope IT welcomes the new year, and look forward to what this may bring.  This is the 10th year of Hope IT.  We are grateful for all the partnerships and students that we connected with over all these years.

There is so much going on, we made a longer newsletter this time.  (And that may occur a few times again in the next few months as well.)

1. 1. 1. Soldering Extra Session in early December
      2. A high schooler volunteered with Hope IT for 60 hours from October to early January.
      3. Our upcoming “Stories with Data” starts this Saturday!!

Below are the details:

Soldering Extra Session: 

• • On the first Saturday of December, even though we usually take this month off, we just took pleasure to offer an extra one-day session to solder LED lights on Christmas ornaments. 
  • This is sort of a continuation of the Robotics course, making circuits permanent by soldering the LED lights.
  • 2 students from the Door of Hope came.
  • The students learned how to be careful with the hot soldering irons.  Notice the smoke in the first picture below.  They don’t actually hold the ornament…there are “fingers” that keep the ornament still.
  • They both finished 2 ornaments (see the picture above).
    • The first was a snowman that was easier.
    • The Christmas tree ornament was much harder, with many more LED lights to solder.
  • The students got to take these ornaments home, and remember that they created these themselves.  There is a battery and an on-off switch, so the LED lights flicker while it is on.  It was just fun.

High School volunteer putting in 60 non-paid hours for Hope IT

• • From October to early January, Ian – a high school volunteer – put in 60 hours of non-paid hours to help out Hope IT.
    Ian is a senior at Arcadia High School.  He took an optional elective course titled “Work and Career Readiness”, that had a requirement to spend 60 hours in an internship.  Ian chose Hope IT for his internship.
  • He spent 4 weeks assisting the Hope IT team to run the Robotics course in October.  See the picture below of Ian at the Robotic course.   As we had such a large number of students, we needed the help.  Ian had experience with Robotics, and assisted in 2023 with Hope IT had a Robotics course only for the Door of Hope.
  • Most of his hours was spent working on website building, for a group called Temple City Coalition, which provides lunch and community for the unhoused in Temple City. The Hope IT team provided the connection, and guidance on what to do.
    • Temple City Coalition needed help with their website, as it was not updated over 5 years.
    • He learned how to make changes in Weebly.
    • He spent 40+ hours working on an alternative, creating Temple City Coalition’s website entirely in WordPress, without taking our Hope IT WordPress course.  He had to learn WordPress skills all by himself.  He pulled in all the pictures/images, and re-create all their blog posts.
    • The last picture below shows the Blog page where Ian created all of the posts, and brought in so many pictures for each blog post.
    • This allows Temple City Coalition to decide to move to a WordPress platform.  They can also see it is possible for high schoolers to assist them with their website updates.
    • Ian’s work could provide an opportunity for an additional paid internship for a Hope IT student this year, if Temple City Coalition decides their best path forward is to use WordPress (which is one of the courses Hope IT will teach next month.)
    • In Ian’s words, “This job was my first real professional internship, and with it, I’ve learned what it’s like to work in such an environment…the technical skills I picked up are ones I’ll definitely carry with me.”
    • Thank you Ian!!

Next upcoming course, Stories with Data:

• • This is an on-line course where students begin to learn how to make the data tell a story, on what going on.
  • We create grids, line, bar and other charts.
  • Oh, and there is some math involved…oh my!  Basic statistics on totals, means, medians, modes, maximum, minimum, and other statistical concepts.
  • This is a job-ready skill that once students get good at, will serve them well in a tech job…or any job for that matter.

We look forward to these next few months!

Peace,
–Mike Veerman
Hope IT team lead

Hope IT is thrilled to see 6 students at our Robotic course this month, see the above picture.

Here’s a glimpse of the students.

• They are all from the Door of Hope.  (All students in our Saturday courses last school year were also from the Door of Hope, so you can see a strong partnership here.)
• The ages range from 12 to 19 at the start of the course. (2 students celebrated birthdays on the next Sunday after we started.)
• We have 5 boys/young men, and 1 girl.
• 4 are still in middle/high school, and one is in college, and another is deciding next steps.
• What is great to see is, the students are helping each other, taking turns, as they work in pairs.  They wired up a circuit to make an LED light up, then added a button to enable turning the light on and off.  The exercise gives them basic familiarity,  comfort and intuition with electrical circuits.
• In Week 2, we added programming to make these LED lights flash.
• We also have one high school volunteer, assisting others to learn.  With the large course, we needed the help!

Hope IT is grateful for our partner and friends at Pasadena-based Barnabas Robotics, which creates Robotic kits and classes for all ages of kids; we purchase our Robotic kits from them.  We appreciate their team and work, and benefit from their knowledge.

We look forward to the rest of this month to finish up this Robotics course.  It is just fun!

God bless.

Peace,
–Mike Veerman
Hope IT team lead

2 students in paid internships – May 2025

Hope IT connected with two students in the last 4 months, for the WordPress course, as well as paid internships.  We also have another course coming up in June.  Below is some of the highlights.

Websites are fundamental, the base of other technologies.  This does not seem cutting-edge these days.  But all industries like banking, air traffic control, sports and so many others are built on websites.  But how about underserved high school students gaining skills to create their own websites, and then getting paid for using those skills, to help faith-based groups?  That is what Hope IT is all about.

WordPress course in February:

• We had 2 students for the Door of Hope for the on-line WordPress course.
• They learned to edit text, add pictures and videos, and also use the vast number of pre-created web pages from the Astra theme.  When combined, these simple skills allow students to control the content and appearance of the web site.  The 2 pictures above and below show the  student’s web pages they created.
• WordPress is very powerful, and there are already a large number of free tools to just add to, style, and add functionality to your website.  These are called plugins, and the students added plugins to easily shape their web pages, track visitors, edit what visitors see in search pages for their web pages, and learn how to backup their websites.
• WordPress is used in more than 40% of all websites!!  That half a billion websites..and potential customers.   If you know how to use WordPress, you can change many websites!
• Hope IT was able to provide each student with their own website. This gives them the hands-on practice and experience to realize they can really create, manage, and maintain a website.  At the end of the course, they created their own blog.
• The Scriptural reflection was around the Word of God, as we focused on expressing our ideas using WordPress.  This allows us to know God’s creative power in creation, God’s speaking to young people like Samuel, and speaking to the prophets like Jeremiah and Johan, to care for people.

Paid Internships:

What comes out of the WordPress course is a natural progression of getting paid to use those skills.  Shortly after the WordPress course, the internship was in April.  This was the first time Hope IT had 2 students in internships.  This was a stretching experience for the students, as the work was for real organizations.

• Partners
  • BridgesUS has been an internship partner for a second year now.  It worked out well for them, as they were going through many changes with their website, so they needed the help.
  • Hope IT has another new partner – CHOA (Creative Housing Options in Arcadia).  This is a volunteer group in Arcadia, advocating for housing, and they need help in their blog, keeping up their email blasts.
  • The Door of Hope was the partner in on-boarding and paying the students.  Naturally, as the students are from the Door of Hope network, having the Door of Hope on-board them, and for the students to use their pay check system was helpful, as there was already a lot of trust between the non-profit and the family.
  • Knox Presbyterian church financially supports Hope IT, so funds are available for Hope IT to fund these internships.  Students get paid using skills they learn.
• Pre-internship steps:
  • The students obtained the required work permits from their school
  • The students had to fill out an on-line application, having them express their interest in the internship, and confirming they understand the sacrifices and responsibility required.
  • Lastly, the students went through an interview, verbally communicating their thoughts on why they wanted to take on the internship, and answer questions on possible challenges they may face.
• Internship
  • The students were paid $17.50 per hour, and worked up to 20 hours over 4 weeks, averaging 5 hours per week.
  • They worked remotely, and received assignments both through meetings with their intern manager, as well as via email.  The interns had to show up on time for meetings, and communicate to their managers on progress of assignments, and any questions they had.
  • Hope IT also scheduled weekly check-ins with them, to handle any questions or misunderstandings that may occur.  The goal is to assure they are successful in the internship.

Hope IT is grateful the internship worked well.  There was a lot of coordination on the Hope IT team side.

June course – Solving Mazes with the Python programming language:

In June, Hope IT is offering our Python programming course, having students help a virtual robot solve mazes…getting better each week.  This is an in-person course at Knox Presbyterian Church, and Hope IT is recruiting students at this time. The Python language is used so widely (and not taught much in high schools), so this is a key time for students to use this multi-purpose language.

Hope IT is grateful to work with underserved students, and see how they gain skills, confidence, and even see glimpses of God’s love.

God bless.

Peace,
–Mike Veerman
Hope IT team lead