For better or for worse life in 2024 is deeply dependent on technology. This is especially true of the life of a student, and I don't know if there is a single class that you may take at MATC that will not require the use of a computer for at least a portion of your schoolwork. For this reason the FAST Fund has partnered with Digital Bridge to ensure that students who do not have a laptop are able to easily acquire one for their education!
Students who are interested in obtaining a laptop as a part of this program are asked to simply fill out the FAST Fund application as you would for any other need, (you can find the link on our website, as well as here,) but be sure to check "yes" at the end when they ask if you are needing a laptop for school work at the end of the application.
These laptops are not the newest, coolest, smallest, or otherwise most exciting laptops ever. Please know this before applying! Additionally these laptops are not equipped to be used for rigorous programs for game development, or some of the advanced software necessary for interior design. For students needing the necessary requirements for these types of programs, we ask that you complete your school work in one of MATC's on campus computer labs!
The laptops that we give are yours to keep! They are yours for schooling, and should work perfectly for basic applications like the Google Suite, or Microsoft Office. I'm not your mom, and I also think it's cool if you want to use this laptop for basic entertainment like watching Hulu or Youtube... It's your laptop!
A final note about Digital Bridge: According to their website "Digital Bridge is a non-profit organization dedicated to making electronics and internet service accessible to everyone. Whether you’re with a business or other organization, we’ll take your aging technology for free, refurbish what we can, and give it to those who need them through our community partners."
This is a great cause if you, like me, have specific anxiety about the world we live in being crowded by aging technology, pollution, and environmental consequences of consumerism. If you have an old laptop you want to donate we encourage you to do so. You can even bring it to the FAST Fund office.