Providence high school students receive free mobile devices thanks to Sprint initiative

FROM LEFT to right, Alvarez High School students Danielle Garcia, Charmin Aquino, Matthew Silvia and Principal Zawadi Hawkins take a moment to celebrate after the students received free wireless connections and mobile devices on Jan. 27 as part of the Sprint 1Million project. / COURTESY PROVIDENCE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
FROM LEFT to right, Alvarez High School students Danielle Garcia, Charmin Aquino, Matthew Silvia and Principal Zawadi Hawkins take a moment to celebrate after the students received free wireless connections and mobile devices on Jan. 27 as part of the Sprint 1Million project. / COURTESY PROVIDENCE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

PROVIDENCE – Thanks to the Sprint 1Million Project, 250 Providence public high school students received free mobile devices and wireless service.

According to a press release from the Providence Schools, the devices and wireless service will help students keep up with their school work from home.

The pilot program kicked off Jan. 27 at Dr. Jorge Alvarez High School. Mayor Jorge O. Elorza, PPSD Superintendent Christopher N. Maher and local Sprint executives attended the event, which delivered 125 devices to the Alvarez students. An additional 125 students from the Juanita Sanchez Educational Complex also received devices.

The 1Million Project is a multiyear initiative to foster academic success for 1 million low-income students across the country by providing them with reliable connectivity to complete their school assignments from home.

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The Providence Public School District, with more than 24,000 students, is the largest school district in Rhode Island; it operates 41 schools.

“We know that students who have access to technology after school leverage that technology in countless ways in order to explore their world and to engage in active learning,” Maher said in a statement. “The students who have limited access to technology, unfortunately, can be left behind on the wrong side of the digital divide. Sprint’s incredibly gracious and forward-thinking gift today has helped many of our lower-income students bridge that divide. Now they have the tools they need, when they need them.”

The release said 5 million U.S. families with school-aged children lack internet access at home, and 70 percent of teachers assign homework requiring web access, creating a “homework gap” putting these students at a disadvantage academically.

“The statistics are staggering, but even more powerful are the stories we hear from disadvantaged students about their efforts to find connectivity to keep up with their school assignments when they don’t have home internet access,” Gabriel Torres, Sprint’s regional president for New England, said in prepared remarks.

Providence is one of 11 1Million Project pilot markets that include Brockton, Mass., Chicago, Dallas, San Diego and other cities. The pilot program will run through the end of the 2017 school year. Feedback will be used in preparation for a nationwide program rollout at the start of the 2017-18 school year. Schools and school districts who want to apply to the program can visit www.sprint.com/1millionproject for information.

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