Apple’s effort to help open the Propel Center (rendered above) is its latest effort to help bring technology to poor communities.
Apple
Apple is opening a developer academy in Michigan, and helping to launch an educational center in Georgia, as part of its its $100 million “racial equity and justice” initiative announced last year. The two projects, designed to work with Michigan State University in Detroit, and historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) in Atlanta, are aimed at helping typically underserved communities.
In Atlanta, Apple’s helping to launch a project called the Propel Center, aimed at offering technology skills and education to students at HBCUs. Apple said the project, will establish two grants to help faculty build curriculum, research and lab space. It’ll also fun 100 new scholarships.
Later this year, Apple said it plans to open a developer academy in Detroit. The program is designed with Michigan State University to help support black entrepreneurs and coders. It’ll be free for students.
“We are all accountable to the urgent work of building a more just, more equitable world – and these new projects send a clear signal of Apple’s enduring commitment,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook, in a statement.
The move is the latest way Apple’s attempted to help bridge what’s known as the digital divide, where more than 18 million people don’t have access to high-speed internet. Many low-income students and households can’t afford computers and tablets powerful enough for remote learning and work.
