Youth Technology Corps

Chicagoland · Where the network took root

Homegrown.
Connected to the world.

YTC’s expansion was cultivated in two
Flagship Global Learning Centers.

Morton East created the founding method. ETHS made it its own. Together, they built communities, crossed borders, and brought the world to Chicago.

01 · Evanston Township High School · Since 2009

The ETHS YTC group

A shared template.
A new reach.

ETHS replicated the template and rooted it in Evanston’s community. Students refurbished computers, served local partners, and deepened the student-to-teacher model: experienced members prepared others to take responsibility and lead.

The club also became a hub for international Fellows. They saw youth leadership in practice and carried the idea home, while ETHS students taught across Africa. Local service and international teaching grew together, each giving students new reasons to learn and contribute.

YTC at ETHS ↗

02 · Morton East · Cicero · Since 1998

The Morton YTC group with computers and a robotics project

The founding method.
The first connections.

At Morton East, students learn robotics and refurbish donated computers for families, schools, and community organizations. A student who rebuilds three computers for community use earns a refurbished computer of their own. Service gives technical learning a purpose—and created the method that powered YTC’s first expansion across Chicago.

Those relationships also reached Mexico. Beginning in 2000, computers, cultural exchanges, and shared teaching connected Cicero with Durango. Morton helped build the robust Mexican network that continues today, turning a local club’s work into lasting partnerships across borders.

Visit the Morton East club website ↗Follow the Morton–Mexico partnership →

Partners, service & reach

Two centers. Different routes outward.

Selected relationships across the centers’ histories: local teaching, donation recipients, and partnerships that carried the work farther. These are not all current club locations.

Where the work reachesETHS · EvanstonMorton East · Cicero
The growth modelStudent teaching met local leaders from abroad.

Evanston service developed student instructors. International Fellows adapted what they saw, built partnerships at home, and connected new classrooms with the teaching network.

Community relationships became a network.

Refurbishment and local instruction led to new Chicago clubs. Family ties, equipment deliveries, and recurring exchanges then sustained the bridge to Mexico.

Local partners & donation recipients
  • Camp Kuumba and participating families
  • Oakton Elementary families and Family Focus
  • Curt’s Café
  • Jacob Blake Manor and Ebenezer Primm Towers
  • First United Methodist Church of Evanston
  • Evanston Community Foundation
  • City of Evanston youth programs

Computer donations, youth learning, and technology help for older residents.

  • Morton East’s own classrooms
  • Cicero Youth Commission
  • Cicero Boys & Girls Club
  • The Children’s Center at Grant Works

Computers, community labs, and instruction for younger learners.

Across Chicago & the U.S.
  • New Orleans, Louisiana: computers for Christian Unity Baptist Church and Adinkra NOLA School, with student instruction.
  • Chicago: a community computer lab through Kizin Creole.
  • Atlanta, Georgia: Student Makers at Georgia Tech joins as a college mentoring partner.
  • Chicago: Lake View and Curie were early chapters in the founding program’s expansion.
  • Tampa, Florida: equipment delivered through the Philippine Cultural Foundation for distribution to Philippine communities.
  • Exchange connections: Morton College, UIC, Northwestern University, and Chicagoland host families.
Across borders
  • Donation connections: Haiti through Generations of Hope and the Haitian Congress to Fortify Haiti; equipment prepared for El Salvador; Ghana through Proswrites Foundation.
  • Teaching and Fellows network: Ethiopia, Namibia, Mozambique, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, and Sierra Leone.

Partners increasingly teach and equip one another. Their current activity is recorded in The Network Now.

  • Mexico: the Durango / COBAED school relationship grew through computer donations, exchanges, and robotics teaching.
  • Philippines: historical equipment support through the Florida partner.

Explore how the Mexico network developed its own local leadership and programs.

Sources: the two club sites and YTC’s historical location and donation records. Relationships are summarized without disputed equipment totals; a donation destination is distinct from an operating program.

Looking ahead

Where we’re laying the groundwork.

YTC is pursuing further expansion in Namibia and developing connections in Pakistan, Iraq, Colombia, and Kenya.

These are development efforts, not an announcement of five new operating programs.

See current program updates →

Two centers · A shared community

Together, they bring
the world to Chicago.

Visiting students, educators, and Fellows become part of the community here. Chicago’s students encounter new perspectives in their own clubrooms—and build relationships that continue long after a visit ends.

Students sharing a meal during a YTC exchange visit at Morton College
Shared time during a YTC exchange visit at Morton College.
The Chicago–Mexico exchange story →

What local growth taught us

A new program needs roots of its own.

Work across Chicago’s schools and community centers taught YTC what helps a program last: a local partner that owns the work, students prepared to succeed one another, and shared teaching resources backed by reliable support. The Global Alliance carries those lessons forward as partners build programs in their own communities.

See how the Global Alliance grows →

Build the network with us

Help us build the capacity behind the next classroom.

Give your expertise, your time or your financial support. Help local leaders and student teachers connect the next classroom to the YTC network.

See how to support YTC Start a conversation
Fund

Underwrite curriculum, technology, communications and core capacity.

Volunteer

Bring technical, creative, legal, fundraising or operational expertise.

Serve

Join the board or an advisory group prepared to govern responsible growth.

Learn

Contribute as an intern while building a portfolio of meaningful work.

Partner

Connect a college, university or employer to mentoring and applied projects.