Information Technology Biography
of Kent Sinkey
While Living in Sagada.
November 1, 2003 until April 11, 2005

On November 1, 2003 I arrived in Sagada and have been residing here every since. The first thing for me was to install a satellite antenna so I could have access to the internet from my home. Having done that I set up a small home network with 2 computers and eventually expanded to 4 computers, all of which can have simultaneous access to the internet. 

In December, 2003 I started working with two faculty members from St. James’ High School in Besao (Mr. Roger Gawidan and Mr. Alfredo Gallardo) on their electronic yearbook and web site. I worked with people who came to my home every Saturday until the project was completed shortly after graduation in April 2004. I was able to donate the necessary funds to and purchase a Domain Name and hosting for one year for the new web site. 

This site can be found at http://sjhs-besao.com. I believe this was the first High School in the Mountain Province with a totally owned web site. We also burned 100 CD’s with the electronic yearbook and sold them to students at cost, PHP 20 each. 

Also in December 2003 I cleaned viruses on the computers at St. James High School and upgraded the software on all their computers. There were two computers with problems and I swapped some parts so at least one of them worked well. 

During May of 2004 I worked with Mr. Phillip Fiar-od at St. Mary’s School in Sagada to clean up all 11 computers at the school. We ghosted disk images to the six computers that are networked together for the computer lab. This process saved about 25 to 30 hours of setting up each computer separately. 

Also during May of 2004 I worked on the computer at St. Theodore’s Hospital to upgrade the software and remove viruses. 

When classes started at St. James’ in Besao and St. Mary’s and Sagada National High Schools in Sagada in June 2004, I offered my services as a consultant to the schools if they were interested in electronic yearbooks and web sites. All three schools accepted my offer and during the 2004-2005 academic year I have been working with the faculty and students of these schools. 

Hopefully, after graduation this April, there will be 2 more schools with wholly owned web sites. Working with these people has made it an exciting year for me.

In September 2004 I offered the Mayor of Sagada, Mr. Roberto Baaten, my expertise to remove viruses and upgrade software on the computers owned by the Municipality of Sagada. He accepted this offer and I completed my work about a month later. I also made several recommendations for the Mayor to consider, but as of this writing none of them have been put into place. 

During this period of time many individuals have requested that I look at their computers and solve whatever problem they might have. There was only one that I couldn’t do anything with; my recommendation was to buy a new computer. People from the schools in Besao and Sagada come to my home to use their e­mail and my internet connection. This I provide to them free of charge. 

One of the things lacking in the schools is a digital camera for taking pictures for their new yearbooks. I have been at all three schools many times to take pictures for them. I also lend the camera to faculty members and selected students when I’m not available to take the pictures myself. 

In early March of 2005 I decided to train one third year student at Sagada National on how to be a computer technician. This, in my mind, is like a scholarship. We invited students to apply with an essay on why they would like to be chosen to take the course. Six students wrote essays and I picked the best three. Then Mr. Joseph Caligtan, one of the teachers from Sagada National, and I interviewed the remaining three. It was very hard to choose from the two top students so I picked the best two and offered the course to both of them. We started the classes on Saturday, April 9, 2005. The classes will run for one full year until their Graduation in April of 2006. Part of the course will be for them to build a computer from scratch, based on what they learned in the course, and then donate it to Sagada National High School. 

I am also starting a computer recycling project in conjunction with this class which will also involve St. James’ High School in Besao. We are forming a small group of people to collect non-working computers in Sagada and Besao in order to fix them and sell them at no profit. Any money made will go for parts needed to fix computers. I’ll affix two pages explaining this project at the end of this document. The project papers are only in the draft stage at this time, as you will see. 

At the 2005 Graduation Ceremony at St. James’ High School on April 8, 2005 I was proud to be introduced to the audience and asked to say a few words. I also was asked to present the Computer Literacy award and Journalism awards. I’m very pleased to be able to say my relationship with St. James’ goes back to July 2002 when I donated PHP 20,000 to the school to help in the completion of the library. 

I am extremely happy to be living in Sagada and using what energies and the resources I have to contribute to the technological assistance and education of those in Besao and and Sagada. In my life, I have rarely felt the "rewards of giving" as I feel them at this time. As long as I am able I will continue in these and other new endeavors.