By Addi Bracco

December 2025

The light sound of tapping fingers and troubleshooting conversations fill the space in the C200 hallway as iPad screens flicker on and off, cables are organized, and student workers learn to navigate frozen devices and broken technology. Here, real-world problem-solving occurs to ensure technology issues are nothing more than small setbacks in one’s day. 

The newly-launched SPOT (Students Performing Optimal Tech Work) Desk instituted at Thomas Jefferson High School does the majority of its work during the school’s Personalized Learning Time (PLT) hours. The SPOT desk was created to assist the current technician staff at the school by empowering student workers to tackle tech issues with the new rollout of school-issued iPads and MacBooks. The SPOT Desk gives students the opportunity to learn lifelong skills while using their knowledge of technology to give back to their community and assist the two adult technicians that help the entirety of the West Jefferson Hills School District.

Consisting of one head technician, two assistant technicians, and numerous student workers, the desk makes the perfect area for everyone in the building to receive help and advice. When asked why she pushed for the program to be brought here, Dr. Jennifer Kassimer, Director of Technology and Innovation at TJ, stated, “I feel like kids need a reason more so than just sitting at a desk and working on projects that maybe might not mean so much… [and] budgets are tight so we need help and we need workers and so it was a perfect fit.”

In just a few short months, the SPOT desk has become a hub for collaboration and learning, and not only a place for malfunctioning devices to be fixed, which is exactly what Kassimer had envisioned for the program. 

Kassimer taught for twenty years where she worked beside students every day until she decided to make the switch to a technology administration role. Although she loves the role, she missed interacting with students and, as the Director of Technology and Innovation, she has seen how much of a responsibility the two current professional technicians, Bryan Nigut and Douglas Bricklemeyer, carry. This inspired her to create the SPOT desk as a way for her to interact with students again and for the technicians to have assistance. After proposing the concept to administrators, she began recruiting students by email and was able to form a group of ten talented student workers who have a passion for technology and helping others.

Up to this point, the student workers have absorbed as much knowledge, experience, and information as they can while working with the adult technicians — this being a pivotal reason as to why tech tickets are being resolved faster than they were in the past. 

So, what do students gain from this experience? They gain numerous life skills that can help them currently and when they are employed down the road. They are asking questions, networking, and problem solving daily while learning much more throughout it. Junior student worker Ryan Hausman states, “I felt it was a really great opportunity to take, especially as a resume builder.” 

Similar to Hausman’s experience, Jack Costa, a fellow junior student worker, has also has been using this opportunity the fullest, noting "I'm hoping to start a new program to help new students by giving them a person to rely on when they have questions about their iPad…I’ve never been a new student but I know it is definitely a problem to a kid who doesn't know how to use an iPad.”

With having such success so far, it sparks the concept of what the future will look like for this program. According to Kassimer, she "would love to have this become a credited class in the future… also would love for it to be a work release position that could go to other buildings." With such grand hopes for the future, the program should continue to grow.

Students who are experiencing technical difficulty with their iPads can seek help during PLT A and B Monday through Thursday in the C200 pods. 

Students who are interested in working the SPOT desk can reach out to Dr. Kassimer via email at jkassimer@wjhsd.net and work with her through the process of becoming a student worker. As interest grows and the benefits of the program become evident, it is hoped that the SPOT can be more than just a tech-help center and become a class where students learn fundamental skills and possibly even serve as an internship senior students can take advantage of. 

In a time where technology drives education forward, the SPOT Desk provides students with essential skills while keeping TJ ahead of the game.