Based in Portland's Interstate Corridor, the ONE LINK FOUNDATION is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to bridging the gap between advanced technology and union-track trade careers. Through our Project-Based Learning (PBL) model, we provide underrepresented youth with laptops, physical hardware, and hands-on instruction.
At the ONE LINK FOUNDATION, we don't just teach software; we teach the physical reality of the internet. Our curriculum is designed as an escalating journey that mirrors the evolution of modern technology. Before a student ever writes a line of code, they must understand the power that fuels it. We begin by stripping away the mystery of electricity. Students learn the vocabulary of the low-voltage trade, calculate loads, and physically build a 3-Kilowatt Portable Power Station. Only after they understand the flow of electrons do they open their laptops, strip away the graphical interface, and learn to command a computer via the raw terminal, culminating in formatting the very hard drives they will use to build their servers.
In the next phase, students take those formatted drives and their newfound electrical safety knowledge to physically assemble and configure a headless Raspberry Pi NAS server. They map the network drops and configure the routing, learning the physical and logical architecture of a local network. With their local infrastructure established, we push them to the 'edge.' They build microcontrollers, an AI assistant ("Jarvis"), and LoRa off-grid communicators, learning the physics of Radio Frequency (RF). This naturally evolves into assembling and flying autonomous drones, forcing them to calculate high-discharge power limits and signal wavelengths.
Finally, we take their local creations to the world. They deploy their servers to the live cloud, set up VPNs, and learn to defend that infrastructure against cyber threats. We are actively structuring our curriculum to serve as a recognized pre-apprenticeship pipeline into the Oregon Limited Energy Technician (LET) program. By integrating mandatory math, safety, and NEC code requirements—and by deploying our students into the community to execute real-world networking and cabling installations—our students don't just graduate with a portfolio of cutting-edge tech projects. They graduate as highly competitive, experienced candidates fully prepared to enter registered LET apprenticeships and build Portland’s technological future.