Cyndi Loza

It was hard not to cry at Libby Booth Elementary School Tuesday when

10 sixth-graders were presented with new personal computers.

“Don’t cry,” Mayor Bob Cashell said to Booth Principal Stacey Ting-Senini, who cried, “because you’ll make me cry.”

The Hewlett-Packard computers were given to the Booth sixth-graders who successfully completed the Kids-Class program, coordinated through the national engineering consulting firm PBS&J. The computers, complete with six months free Internet service from Charter Communications, were presented as a surprise to students at the program’s graduation ceremony on Tuesday.

“When they were bringing out those computers, my jaw just dropped,” said Aryana Del Rosario, 12, of Reno. “I was so happy, I screamed.”

During the 10-week program, Booth sixth-graders were taught various engineering disciplines including roadway and traffic design, field and survey analysis, construction management and structural design. Their lessons included planning and building bridges on computers and field trips to local bridges.

“I think it’s really fun to be in the program,” said JC Anne Hancock, 12, who wants to be either an architect or a forensic analyst. “It teaches us about bridges and architecture, and we usually wouldn’t get to learn about that in normal classes.”

Cashell said he’d love to get more programs like this in every Reno school.

“These types of programs are what makes a community,” Cashell said. “There’s other schools right now that are going to be very envious of what’s going on in this program. They don’t have this, and this is what we need to have in all our schools.”