The One Laptop Per Child organization has announced it is launching an internship program to send graduate and undergraduate students to Africa to help out with creating educational opportunities for children in African nations. Dubbed OLPCorps, the program will outfit up to 100 student teams with 100 OLPC XO laptops and up to $10,000 to cover operating expenses, and the teams will spend nine weeks in an African nation working directly with community and education partners to integrate the XO laptops into children’s primary education.
OLPCorps “represents a determined effort by One Laptop per Child to engage university students worldwide in bringing an education revolution to children living in some of the most remote places on Earth,” said OLPC founder Nichola Negroponte, in a statement. “By empowering students from a multitude of countries and cultures to act as agents of change, the belief that all children have a right to quality education—regardless of where they happen to live—will spread across the globe.”
The student teams will rendezvous at an orientation workshop in Kigali, Rwanda from June 8 to 17; after that, they’ll spend an additional nine weeks in “an African nation” getting the OLPC notebooks into childrens’ hands and local educational systems.
To be eligible to participate, applicants must be at least 18 years old by June 1, have appropriate passports, visas, and immunizations, and a currently enrolled university student; team members attending the Kigali workshop must be proficient in English, and the minimum team size is two. OLPC has posted a FAQ page with more information.
