Jake Yates High School students received a big surprise in time for the NCAA Final Four Championship games.
AT&T teamed up with Compudopt to provide more than 100 laptops for the student for free.
This is part of AT&T’s ongoing national effort to bridge the digital divide in the city’s underserved communities.
According to the FCC, an estimated 21 million people nationwide don’t have access to the internet, devices or skills needed to benefit from the online world.
“The digital divide is more than just having a device, but it’s having the knowledge and the confidence to use that device proficiently,” AT&T’s Corporate External Affairs Director Charles Stein said. “The uses of those devices could be for education, for workforce development, and also for entrepreneurship.”
The laptops come with a 1-year warranty and digital literacy resources which Stein says will help students and families access the internet in a safe way. They teach digital literacy basics such as how to write an email, how to operate online safely, and how to participate in video conferencing.
“This will be my first laptop. I’ve never had my own,” Jack Yates High School senior Damion Lewis said.
Sydney Torry is another senior at Yates who hopes to pursue her law career at Prairie View A&M University.
“Once we enter college, we are going to need our computers for coursework, to contact our professors, and other things,” she said.
