Jacob Komar
Jacob Komar was born on June 6th, 1992. He is best known as the founder and creator of Computers for Communities, a non-profit organization that takes computers from the community, refurbishes them, and redistributes them to the needy community – all this at the age of 9 years.
Early life
Jacob Komar was born in Hartford, Connecticut but raised in Burlington, Connecticut. His father, Andrew Komar, is an administrator at a school district and his mother, Alicia Kozuch, is a database consultant. Komar is the oldest of siblings; he has a younger sister, Ana Komar.
Komar first got his hands on a computer when he was 2 and a half years old. He had an old DOS laptop which he used to play his Mario game. Since then he learned more about the computer just by experimenting. He was never really taught. He learned to program computers at age 5. His family got a Gateway 2000 in 1997 and it had Windows 95. His mother used to teach computers at a local school and taught him the basics.
Education
Komar skipped kindergarten and attended Lake Garda Elementary School from first to third grade. He then attended Talcott Mountain Academy from fourth to sixth grade. He then attended Tunxis Community College full-time for a year. Afterwards, he started attending the University High School for Science and Engineering at the University of Hartford. During high school, he was involved in many different types of extracurricular activities. He was the co-founder and captain of his school’s FIRST robotics team, “The Dragons.” He was also Class Treasurer, a lead in the “Mouse Club,” and a part of his school’s National Honors Society. Komar received his high school diploma in June 2008. Surprisingly when he was in high school, he was also simultaneously enrolled as a college student at the University of Hartford majoring in Computer Engineering. While in college, he participated in his local chapter of IEEE and continued to mentor a FIRST robotics team. Komar will graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering in May 2009.
Recognition and Awards
Komar has received a plethora of awards. For his efforts, he became the youngest of ten “National Honorees” in The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. He is also the state winner of The Prudential Spirit of Community Award. He was selected from a group of 24,000 youth volunteers across the country. He won $5,000, a gold medallion and a trophy for his school. In addition, $250,000 in toys, clothes, and other products were donated in his name to needy kids in his area. In 2007, Komar earned himself a spot on a bag of Doritos, which comprised one of the rewards for winning what’s known as The Brick Award in the community building category. Other awards which he has received include the Christopher Reeve Scholarship Award, Points of Light Award (National Winner), Kohl’s Department Store “Kids Who Care” Award (Regional Winner), Angel Soft “Angels in Action” Award (National Winner), Davidson Young Scholar Award. He was also named Magic Maker of the Year by the 3rd Street Community Foundation located in San Diego, California. Komar has also won first place 2 years in a row in the Connecticut Invention Connection. For the first year his topic was, “Don’t be SAD – A Cure for Seasonal Affective Disorder,” and for the following year, it was “Frost Fighter – Refrigerator Alarm.”
Computers for Communities
Jacob Komar is best known for the program he started when he was 9 called Computers for Communities. The program first started when Jacob found out that one of the local grade schools was going to throw out 30 of their old computers to make room for new ones. Jacob knew that there were kids in his local town who did not have computers in their home. So he came up with the idea of refurbishing the computers and giving them to people who were not lucky enough to have one. Jacob always had a serious love for computers could not imagine anyone not having one in their home. To get the program started Jacob contacted social services and asked them for a list of homes who have children and do not have computers. With the help of Social Services Jacob was able to take all of the 30 computers, install them in homes that did not have them, and show the members of the household how to use them.
Since then Computers for Communities has grown and since their start with the original 30 computers, has distributed over 1,000 computers to those who need them. Following the start of this program Jacob recruited some of his classmates to help him refurbish the computers. During this time he was attending a high school which specialized in math and technology, so it was easy to find willing participants. So once he had their help he they were able to fix up 100 machines in a matter of a couple months.
Jacob has since expanded his program to include prisoners with the creation of the Cheshire Correctional Institution Prisoners IT Skills Program. After meeting someone who worked in a prison in South America, Jacob had the idea of allowing prisoners to help Computers for Communities cause. Computers for Communities now trains inmates at a high security prison in Hartford, where Jacob is from, to refurbish computers so they can be distributed to schools throughout Hartford Connecticut.
In addition to computer refurbishing and distribution Computers for Communities also has a couple other programs. The first of these is their IT Community Support Project, a collaboration between the University of Hartford and Computers for Communities, which is a 3 year project where students in the Hartford Public Schools are given hands on technology training in an after school program. The goal of this program is to give students the proper training so that they may be qualified to get internships with local organizations and corporations in the IT field. Ultimately this programs goal is for students to be capable of providing tech support center run by students.
References
4. Brick Award Winner: Jacob Komar, 1, Howstuffworks.com, accessed October 8, 2008.