West Middle School tech team members Isaac Riffle, sitting, and Sam Brixius, standing, show off a YouTube tutorial they made to help students use the school library’s checkout system. Isaac, an eighth-grader, and Brixius, a seventh-grader, are among seven students picked to serve on their school's technology support team, which enlists tech-minded students to assist peers with their school-issued iPads and email accounts, among other tasks.

Apple stores have “Genius Bars,” with blue-shirted helpers — or rather, geniuses — on hand to assist frazzled and tech-weary customers.

West Middle School has its own version of the Genius Bar, except these geniuses aren’t paid for their work. They’re not even old enough to drive. They don’t wear uniforms, and instead of a sleek Apple store, the “staff” operates out of a classroom tucked away inside the school library.

But the students who fill these roles at West see their youth as a positive.

“I’ve been using technology for most of my life — ever since maybe the age of 5, I would say,” guesses Jacob Haney, a seventh-grader.

Jacob, 14, credits his father with first getting him interested in computers. But he’s also learned a lot since joining West’s student tech team last fall, and Jacob says the program has made him even more excited about the tech field and the career possibilities therein.

He thinks of this year’s tech team as the “first generation” at West, at least in its current form. After cutting similar programs years ago because of state funding woes, the Lawrence district brought back the concept last year with the implementation of its 1:1 initiative. The rollout of district-issued iPads and MacBooks in Lawrence’s secondary schools over the last two school years has ushered in this new era, district spokeswoman Julie Boyle said in an email.

Boyle said “formal” student tech teams now exist at all six secondary schools in the district, each with its own teacher sponsor. Charley Forsyth, who teaches social studies, oversees West’s crew of seven tech-savvy teens and tweens. The students basically serve as customer service representatives for their peers — helping them with their iPads, teaching new students how to use their school email accounts and other troubleshooting tasks.

During advisory periods four days a week, they operate out of their office inside the library, where other kids stop by for walk-ins.

“As this is a first-year thing, we’re still trying to figure out how we can best serve middle school populations, both the tech team members and the school,” Forsyth said. “It should be a positive thing for everybody, and I think it has been.”

He sees a lot of progress in his current team members, who had to fill out applications for their “jobs.” The students attended a field trip and received training before the start of the fall semester, when they officially got to work. Forsyth expects that process, or at least the application portion, to become a “little more intense” next year, with current members being asked to reapply for their positions.

“The state of Kansas and education in Kansas has said, ‘We want to focus on soft skills.’ And I think that things like the tech team allow kids real-world examples of, ‘This is how I help someone, and this may be what it’s like in a job,'” Forsyth said. “Obviously the technology’s going to be different, but they’re still going to be working with people — people who are frustrated, people who don’t know what they’re doing, people who aren’t even sure what they’re asking.”

Those most likely to become “frustrated” with technology might be the adults at West, rather than students who, like seventh-grader Jacob, have quite literally grown up with the internet. Though the tech team members might help with on-the-fly stuff during classes, most of their walk-in clients are other students. (Teachers aren’t able to leave their classrooms so easily, for obvious reasons, Forsyth points out.)

He’d like to see more foot traffic from teachers next year, with perhaps an expansion of services offered. Forysth also hopes to involve tech team kids in training for the district’s rollout of a student information system next fall, among other goals.

After spring break, tech team members (with their teachers’ permission) will attend a district-sponsored training session with Apple employees, a development Forsyth finds “really cool.”

His students agree.

“I always loved playing video games and working with technology before, and doing it now, I know how to fix more stuff,” says Sam Brixius, a seventh-grader.

The 12-year-old has also learned quite a bit from her teammate Isaac Riffle, who at age 14 already has designs on a career in tech.

Isaac, an eighth-grader, says the application process to the tech team helped prepare him for entering the workforce someday — which he hopes is very soon.

“My dad has been in the IT field for the past 25 years, and I’ve just really been inspired by that,” Isaac says. “I’ve loved tech all my life, and I would gladly want to spend every day working with it.”

If he’s allowed to apply to Free State High School’s tech team next year as a freshman, Isaac says, he will.

If Free State’s tech team functions in a similar fashion, those students might be among the first Isaac meets when he starts high school in the fall. At West, the tech team helps new and returning students check out and turn in their iPads at the beginning and end of the school year.

That social interaction is a good thing for all involved, Forsyth said.

“Maybe the middle schooler who is super interested in tech is also not the middle schooler who is boisterous and outgoing and used to talking to people they don’t know,” Forsyth said. “So, they may know a lot about the tech, but they may not have many of those communication skills or customer service skills.

“I’ve seen huge growth in some of our students, just in how confident they are and their ability to just say, ‘OK, let’s problem-solve this,'” he added, “as opposed to just sitting back at the beginning of the year and maybe not going for it.”