The Students Helping Students program provides WSU Vancouver students with free IT support from their peers and allows them to practice applicable technical skills for their future careers.
This story was originally published in Vol. 33, Issue 6 (February 2023)
Students Helping Students is a student-led program under the WSU Vancouver IT department that allows students to provide their peers with free technical support services, such as troubleshooting and hardware repair.
Ryan Hanrahan, DTC graduate and IT support technician, co-founded Students Helping Students in 2018 as a student employee for the IT department. Hanrahan said he was motivated to create this program because he noticed that many of his fellow students faced technical issues with their hardware.
“We started [Students Helping Students] because we really saw a need for students to be able to bring in their personal devices for tech support,” Hanrahan said. “Before this program, IT didn’t really work on students’ personal devices.”
Through the program, student employees can work hands-on with other student’s computers, an option not available before the Students Helping Students program. Patti Paris, IT’s operations support services manager, said that students with technical issues can fill out a form to relinquish student employees of liability, allowing them to provide free hardware support that would have cost students in the past.
“Before [Students Helping Students], if a student came in and they were having problems with their computer, we weren’t allowed to touch it. We could stand over their shoulder and tell them which buttons to push, but we weren’t allowed to touch them because of liability,” Paris said.
According to Paris, the program can spend up to $100 on replacement parts in student’s devices. She also said that Students Helping Students will begin to offer wellness checks – running diagnostics, checking for viruses and providing device maintenance advice – in the spring.
“Students are paying for this, so they should take advantage of it. It’s a service out there for them, so we’d love to see more people taking advantage of it,” Paris said.
Adam Dvorak, tech support coordinator and the direct supervisor of Students Helping Students, said that the program is a great employment opportunity for students who are working to build their proficiency in technical support.
“We’ve had some pretty successful graduates leave working here. We have graduates that work for Zoom now … when students work for us, get a good internship and [put] both of those on their resume, I think it’s a really good combination for success,” Dvorak said.
According to Dvorak, every student working for the program is paid for their work by the school. Students who qualify for a Work Study Grant can receive additional benefits from the program.
Oscar Langarica, a sophomore computer science major and Students Helping Students employee, said that working with the program has been a great learning opportunity.
“I think it’s a good learning experience, [you can] further your knowledge on computers. It also helps with teamwork and communications,” Langarica said.
According to Langarica, meeting and working with students in the program has helped him with his major.
“My favorite experience is actually just working with other students from different years, and kind of getting their perspective of different majors and [my] major. I’ve worked with juniors and seniors in the [computer science] program, so I get to hear [about] some of the stuff that I’m going to be looking forward to in my future career as a [computer science] major,” Langarica said.
Students Helping Students is located in VCLS 214, and is open during regular school hours. Students Helping Students appointments can be scheduled by calling 360-546-9770 or by reaching out through email van.student.help@wsu.edu.
Norman is a senior majoring in Integrated Strategic Communications and Digital Technology & Culture.