Hercules resident Sheila Suela and a group of students have a vision to help the elder community fight cyber fraud and educate them on information technology by providing classes through the Information Technology Club activities.

This is one of the main goals that the newly launched Contra Costa College club hopes to accomplish.

“We want to make the senior community become aware of cyber security and fraud,” Suela said. The club has various plans to reach out to the community.

“We will bring workshops to people who want to learn and we are also setting up study groups to learn C++ (computer language),” she said.

The formation of the IT Club continues a revamping effort of the Computer Technology Center by computer science professor Francis Reyes.

Reyes and a group of students launched the start of the IT Club on March 8 in CTC- 132.

The club also hung a Cisco Networking Academy banner in the lobby of the main entrance of the CTC.

Reyes said that because he is a certified Cisco technician, the campus is certified to be a Cisco Academy.

He said the banner will make the club and its possibilities visible to a campus where students don’t look for extracurricular activities.

“The campus needs to know about us because we plan to attend IT conferences with the club for free,” Reyes said, “compete in IT competitions and there are students who are really interested in this but have no idea that they can do these things at CCC.”

The club will also serve as the foundation for a network of IT professionals.

“When communities of people who are interested in the same thing are together, they grow stronger,” he said. “We also want to help out the community to open up an IT shop on campus.”

Reyes said when real people who have real problems with their technology come to be serviced by the students in the club, those students will be getting hands-on experience.

Computer science major Devander Ball Singh said he is excited about the club because he sees it as an internship opportunity.

“I will become more familiar with computers and work hands-on and learn how to do the job right,” Singh said.

He said he also wants to gain experience that he can put on a resumé to help him be a better candidate for jobs.

“Until now, I didn’t have a lot of experience with computers, but this club is very helpful.”

He said the club is a stepping-stone toward a career in the IT field.

Business major Lina Yanguas shares Singh’s feelings toward the club, although she is in it for the knowledge and experience.

“I am not going into the IT field, but I am very interested in what I am learning here with computers,” she said.

She said she wants to major in business, but the classes she has taken with Reyes have taught her a lot about computers so when she attended the interest meeting for the club she was hooked.

“Now I am the secretary of the club,” Yanguas said.

The most interesting thing will be how they spread the word about computers by showing people how to do the work, she said.

Reyes said the IT Club is still in the process of choosing a permanent name, which will be decided during one of their meetings.