When and why was this program created?

What was originally known as ExplorNet's ComPuter Recycling, or CPR, began in 1997 in six pilot sites across North Carolina. The idea was to help schools provide valuable job skills to students, while providing a cost-effective way to get multimedia computers into classrooms, libraries, and community centers.

While learning a highly marketable skill, students at participating schools repaired and upgraded donated computers or built new ones. Some provided tech support in the school, thereby enabling other students to benefit from the latest technology. As these students moved into the workplace, communities benefitted by being able to provide companies with more technologically savvy employees.

Created in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction with funding from the North Carolina General Assembly, the program expanded rapidly across North Carolina. Federal funding improved the program and helped spread it into the Dakotas, Mississippi and Arkansas. In 2000, a foundational course in Networking was added to the offerings.