One room. Six members. 36 meetings a year. The Student Technology Committee (STC) meets every Tuesday during X-Period to help peers use technology and help them see how these resources can shape their education. This year, the committee has set its sights on becoming more involved with the student body and working on collaborative projects that benefit the greater community.

“STC really understands what it means to use the technology that we have from a student perspective. They can also translate sort of like both directions, so they can provide the student perspective to the administration in the tech department,” STC advisor Kate Lockwood said. “As new technology becomes part of SPA, STC can help educate students about that technology, how to use it, and how to kind of incorporate it into the tools that you have available to you.”

STC is smaller compared to other elected selected groups, which helps them create a close-knit community. The group is composed of Lockwood, chair Evan McCarthy, secretary Rishi Bhargava, freshman representative James Welsh, sophomore representative Lorenzo Good, junior representative Humza Murad and senior representative Ben Chen. Despite its small size, STC marks itself in the community through behind-the-scenes roles that take in student perspectives and create new opportunities to enhance the learning experience.

STC is a liaison between the student body, the tech department, and the administration. “[Although] nothing that STC does is going to completely revolutionize anybody’s experience at SPA, we tend to do small things that make people’s lives easier or better,” Welsh said.

Everyone who comes to STC has different strengths and the group tackles projects by sharing the work and delegating so every individual has an assignment that falls in their wheelhouse. This allows STC to create a more collaborative learning environment as various members share their diversed levels of knowledge and experience to the group.

“Having people who know varying things about technology means we can think of simpler solutions which tend to be better. Having more diverse opinions leads to better solutions,” Welsh said.

One of STC’s biggest successes this year was the Spartan Daily, primarily led by Good, Bhargava, and McCarthy. The Spartan Daily is a software extension featured on common space smart boards that displays a breakdown of the day, including block schedules, X-Period activities, lunch menu, etc. The Spartan Daily brings convenience and spirit to the community by presenting key information in an easily accessible way.

“The student newsletter was kind of like a black hole,” Lockwood said. “Most advisors read it on only Monday, but students typically don’t see the things that come out during the week.”

This project is completely student-led from the design process to execution. The STC crew programmed the Spartan Daily through GitHub, pulling data from various sources and condensing all the important announcements into one neat extension.

“It’s not a requirement at all to know how to program to be on STC. And honestly, a lot of the programming they did isn’t necessarily something that they learned in class, but kind of like picked up because they had projects that they wanted to work on,” Lockwood said.

In addition, STC also takes in student body feedback and constantly looks for opportunities to shape people’s lives at school. After receiving feedback that many students see the Design Lab as unfamiliar territory, STC has decided to host a series of monthly educational workshops on utilizing the school’s resources. The first session will be held on Apr. 11 in the Design Lab and will focus on using laser cutters. The goal is to expose students to various facets of the school’s technology and get them excited about the resources available to them.

“[With the laser cutter workshop] we’re doing necklaces and keychains. We are also doing luggage tags for those who will be traveling during spring breaks. But you know, another one could do is like you can super easily laser cut earrings. We have all the things for a 3D Design and once you get the hang of it, you can design almost anything,” Welsh said.

STC strives to incorporate evolving technology into the everyday life of the SPA community and help others engage with unique resources and opportunities.