As Park Tech adviser Jacob Utities reflects on the importance of Park Tech, he said unlike other school activities, he believes the club provides an environment where inclusion is a priority.

“It is really cool that (Park has) a club where everyone is included. The job of the leaders of the club is to make sure that people who are new or younger are included, as well,” Utities said. “(Park Tech) is very different from, say, a sports team or something like that, where the bottom rung kids don’t really get as included with everyone else. For (Park Tech), everybody is a big group of friends, everybody is nice to each other and it gives kids a place to be.”

Senior Garrett Briggs, who has been a member of Park Tech for the last three years, said while the club works to fix computers, if there are not computers to fix, Park Tech remains a space where students with the same interests can connect.

“Our main goal is to help customers and get their computers working again, (however), whenever we don’t have a computer we just hang out and play games. It is more of a hang-out area than an actual place to fix computers,” Briggs said.

According to Briggs, Park Tech offers to fix any computer except Apple computers.  

“Anyone (can be a customer). Literally anyone who comes in and needs a computer fixed can be helped as long as it is not an Apple (product),” Briggs said. “We don’t deal with Apple because it is hard to not break those products.”

Junior Mahamed Mahamed said he enjoys being in Park Tech because it draws in a variety of students.

“It’s an interesting club to be a part of because there are different kinds of people that just want to help and like technology.”

Utities said while it is not mandatory, he encourages students to take A+ Computer Tech before joining the club.

“A+ Computer Tech is a great class to take for the club because you are going to learn how to build and fix computers which is what we do, but then again a lot of kids (in Park Tech) have not taken that class yet,” Utities said.

According to Utities, as the year comes to a close, Park Tech has two goals: to supply funds for an end of the year party and recruit more girls.

“I think a lot of girls think to themselves that (the club) is a boys club or that for some reason they would not fit in, which is complete garbage,” Utities said. “It would be nice to get more females, but otherwise we want to get next year’s leaders ready to go and make sure that we make enough money to have a big party at the end of the semester. The kids enjoy that.”

According to Utities, Park Tech meets Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday after school in room B117.