Lincoln Laboratory prepares Marshallese students for IT careers
The demand for information technology (IT) professionals continues to grow globally. In geographically isolated areas such as the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) — a chain of islands and coral atolls located in the Pacific Ocean — schools, health facilities, businesses, and government organizations are particularly in need of IT professionals. To help develop local IT talent, Lincoln Laboratory staff stationed at the Kwajalein Field Site on Kwajalein Atoll in RMI run a 10-week internship program for RMI residents interested in pursuing further education and employment in computer or science-related fields. The Laboratory has contributed to the development of radars and optical systems and conducted field measurements on Kwajalein for more than 60 years, serving as the scientific advisor to the Reagan Test Site at the U.S. Army Garrison – Kwajalein Atoll (USAG-KA).
"We launched the IT internship program in 2008 as a way to give back to the community through technical education," says Mark Smith, leader of the Kwajalein Field Site. “With increasing options, such as Starlink, for connecting remote islands, skills in networking and IT are becoming more important than ever in these previously isolated parts of the world. We aim to provide the RMI students with practical skills they can use to pursue their career goals and contribute to their country’s innovation and growth.”
Supported by Lincoln Laboratory Community Outreach and USAG-KA, the summer program focuses on networking, computer system administration, and IT-related troubleshooting. Each year, Laboratory staff recruit a few candidates age 21 or older from neighboring islands and atolls to bring them to Kwajalein for hands-on instruction and mentoring. The College of the Marshall Islands (CMI) helps spread the word about the opportunity and offers their campus classrooms on Majuro and Ebeye for staff to conduct interviews. Interns do not require prior experience, and they receive room and board, transportation, and a weekly stipend. Upon program completion, each student is eligible for a $1,000 scholarship to continue their education.
Interns take apart and rebuild computers, install operating systems, configure networks, create and manage virtual machines, and troubleshoot instructor-broken computers. This interactive work is complemented by technical talks from Laboratory staff members and tours of radar, air traffic control tower, weather station, and other facilities to show IT at work in the real world. Laboratory staff help the interns prepare a final presentation showcasing what they learned to USAG-KA commanders, RMI leadership, and local Laboratory staff.
Since 2018, interns have also completed a service project in which they deploy IT solutions in their communities. One of the first projects installed IT equipment at a local hospital to sustain patient recordkeeping in the face of power outages. Other projects employed IT to make classrooms more accessible for students who are deaf or visually impaired or have special-education needs.
For the 2024 summer internship, associate staff member Christopher Edwards and IT staff members Brian Comperchio, a cybersecurity manager, and John O'Rourke, a systems administrator, served as the program's technical advisors; Ranny Ranis, a technical assistant, instructed the three students who interned this year.
"I learned how to build a computer, and I really enjoyed doing that," says intern Alina John, who is majoring in nursing at CMI. "I now want to take both [nursing and IT]. Both of them are my dreams."
"When I was on Majuro, I didn't have any experience regarding IT-related subjects, and I didn't understand how computers work," says intern Junior Billimon, a business management major at CMI. "But I came here open-minded and willing to learn. Receiving a certificate [for program completion] is a huge accomplishment."
Even for the one intern who had former IT exposure, the internship still proved worthwhile in confirming his interest and inspiring future plans.
"I've been working in an IT role at the RMI Public School System," says intern Riem John, who majored in liberal arts at CMI. "Now, it [IT] is something I want to continue to do with the schools at Ebeye. I plan to go back to school and continue to work with the RMI government after I graduate."
For their service project, they installed 13 networked computers at one of the schools on neighboring Ebeye Island. These computers will provide a portal through which teachers and students can access online teaching and learning tools.
"Ebeye has lots of school systems but insufficient resources to go around," O'Rourke explains. "This school did not have any type of computer lab, so they were thrilled to be getting one."
Besides gaining an educational experience, the students got to step onto a military base for the first time and enjoy life on Kwajalein. With their Laboratory program hosts, they partook in bowling, kite surfing, fishing, and other activities.
More than 30 RMI residents have completed the IT internship program since its inception. Graduates have gone on to pursue additional education at CMI, University of the South Pacific in Majuro, and University of Hawaii, and through Cisco certification courses. They have also obtained employment as network, IT, and computer technicians at the Majuro National Weather Service Office, RMI National Telecommunications Authority, CMI, RMI Finance Department, Ebeye and Wotje schools, Ebeye Hospital, V2X (a local logistics support contractor for the U.S. Army), and Allied Telesis (a telecommunications company). Nearly one third of the Laboratory internship graduates have gone on to work at local schools, businesses, and government departments.
"Working with the RMI students and introducing them to IT concepts and skills that are in high demand has been an honor," Edwards says. "We look forward to seeing them take the next steps in their education and become future IT professionals or provide IT support in their community."
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