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Sixth-grade computer whiz is school's tech chief Monday, May 5, 2008 By Greg Rayburn Stephens Media SHERWOOD - Some boys love sports. Some even like the dirt. But Sherwood 11-year-old Jon Penn's passion is the computer. "I have loved them as long as I remember," said Jon, a sixth-grader at Victory Baptist School, which has about 180 students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. Jon's skills are so advanced, he is the school's computer network administrator. He has held the title since August, when the school's former computer technical chief moved away for another job opportunity. "We were a week from opening school, and a lot needed done," said his mother, Paula, the school librarian. She and Jon attended a school board meeting in August to make a presentation on what could be done to modernize the computer system. "The computers needed to be networked," Penn said. "We had 60 computers given to us in 1995 which were used at the time." Board President Mike Patterson remembers the presentation well and noted how Jon was smart, gifted and articulate. "His mother and Jon started making the presentation, and it ended up that Jon did most of the talking," Patterson said. The presentation quickly turned into a verbal overload with language too advanced for board members to absorb. "We have several professional people on our board," Patterson said. "We've got CPAs, engineers. We finally had to say, 'Jon, bring it down to our level.'" The board liked the plan to modernize Victory Baptist's computer system, and Jon went to work. He created a centralized computer network, linking all of the school's computers on a server, set up e-mail addresses for all the teachers and created a content computer filter to weed out inappropriate sites. He also set up a virus protection system and e-mail Pam spam protection - some teachers had been getting 300 junk e-mails a day. Patterson said some school parents and supporters who have a lot of computer know-how have reviewed Jon's work and have given it high marks. "They have told me they are amazed and can't believe he set up what he did," Patterson said. Jon's appointment as network administrator happened after he developed a reputation for being a computer troubleshooting whiz kid. Robin DeVore, the property manager at Sherwood Self Storage, said she knows Jon's parents and told the family she was having trouble understanding some of her software. DeVore said Jon was quick to volunteer to help. "He helped me figure out how to use the program," she said. DeVore said Jon helped her fix a major problem with her home personal computer. "My system crashed, and I lost important documents and many family photos, which were digital," DeVore said. DeVore watched Jon take her computer apart piece by piece and put it back together, and he helped her retrieve her pictures and documents. "I don't know what he did, but he did it," DeVore said. School Administrator Marilyn Raymer said she consults Jon when computer problems arise. "He's pretty amazing," Raymer said. "And he's very humble. It hasn't gone to his head." Penn said she's proud that her son uses his computer knowledge and passion to help others, such as setting up the school filtering software to protect his classmates from dangerous Internet sites. "There are kids his age who use their computer knowledge to be hackers and do things that hurt other people," Penn said. DeVore said she believes Jon will accomplish something special someday. "I believe someday we might see him work for NASA or somewhere like that," DeVore said. She said she's amazed at his maturity level. "When you talk to him, you forget you are speaking to a child," DeVore said. Jon probably will be home-schooled after he finishes the term at Victory Baptist and will take advanced online courses, Penn said. When he reaches high school age, he probably will attend a public high school, she said. Jon said he loves computers but not all aspects of how they are used. "I don't play computer video games," Jon said. "I don't have time." |
