Silicon Harlem opens digital learning lab with AT&T and NY Urban League
NEW YORK -- A new learning lab opened Tuesday at Silicon Harlem, offering the latest technology to local kids through a major donation from AT&T, which aims to bridge the digital divide.
Gleaming screens invite teens to try a new skill in the lab. From augmented reality to creating code, the nonprofit has teamed up with AT&T and the New York Urban League to offer opportunities for kids to explore careers in tech that often do not reflect diversity adequately.
"We want to change that, and that's the reason you all are here," NYUL president and CEO Arva Rice told the lab's first visitors, "because we want to make sure that when it's time for you all to apply for those jobs, that you'll be the first person to get them."
The goal is to shift the students' primary interest in using electronics from entertainment to education.
Showing off skills with the center's own drone elicited excitement as pilot Henze Gustave explained how he worked with Walmart to develop its delivery fleet.
"At the end of last year they needed 15,000 pilots for five locations," Gustave told the group. "Now they've grown to 30 locations, so you can do the math on that aspect."
Gustave and the Drone Cadets will teach kids at the learning lab how to fly.
The lab is the first of its kind in the city, part of a $2 billion commitment by AT&T, which also aims to raise awareness about the federally-funded Affordable Connectivity Program, offering rebates to eligible families.
It is estimated more than 240,000 New York City children live without access to the internet at home.
"It's a really big gamechanger," AT&T Atlantic region president John Emra said, "and frankly, there's not enough New Yorkers who are eligible for the program who have signed up, so we really want to get people to do that."
The company has opened four learning labs in other areas of the state in the past year, and now plans to expand throughout the boroughs, bringing free broadband access to a neighborhood near you.
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