OVERLAND PARK, Kan. and
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Sept. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- As schools
across the nation kick off a new school year, the 1Million Project
Foundation is collaborating with Teach For America to help reach
more high school students who need access to reliable internet at
home. Beginning in July, the two organizations set off with a goal
of reaching up to 10,000 students, a portion of the 115,000 high
school students the foundation plans to enroll during the 2019-2020
school year.
In the United States there are
more than 5 million families that do not have reliable internet
connectivity at home. With 70% of teachers assigning online
homework and assignments, this creates a great homework and
achievement gap for students. This disconnect leads to dramatic
inequitable outcomes during significant years of a student's life.
Having access to the internet means more time to learn, imagine,
create, accomplish, and graduate.
The collaboration, led by Teach For America Kansas City, will
work with Teach For America corps members who teach in high schools
in Charlotte-Mecklenburg,
Chicago, Detroit, Miami, New York
City, Oklahoma City,
Tulsa and Washington, D.C. as well as statewide in
Arkansas, Connecticut and Washington. Teachers will help identify those
high school students who don't have internet access at home and can
most benefit from the program. Each participating student will
receive a free wireless device and 10 GB of high-speed wireless
data per month from the 1Million Project Foundation.
The 1Million Project Foundation announced in 2016 by former
Sprint CEO and current Executive Chairman Marcelo Claure at a town hall event with
President Barack Obama, has one
clear mission to help high school students reach their full
potential by closing the achievement gaps created by lack of
internet access at home. The foundation works with more than
200 school districts across the country to administer the
initiative. In its first two years of operations, the 1Million
Project Foundation has connected more than 226,000 students across
33 states.
The foundation looked to work with Teach For America Kansas City
and the organization's national network because of its reach in
schools throughout the country that serve students who often lack
critical resources, including cellphones and hotspots to be used
away from school.
"We're excited about the broad reach Teach For America Kansas
City and the national network of Teach For America teachers in our
high school classrooms brings to our program," said 1Million
Project Foundation President Doug
Michelman. "We strongly believe that classroom teachers and
others in high school environments are best positioned to help
identify students who need our help, and to encourage those
students and families to enroll in our free program. This
partnership will help us reach our goal of distributing devices to
one million students across the nation faster."
"We are thrilled to work with the 1Million Project Foundation
because we share the conviction that all students should have
access to an excellent education. Internet and mobile connectivity
have become foundational to ensuring that students from all
backgrounds can access, analyze and apply the infinite information
found on the web," said Teach For America- Kansas City Executive
Director, Chris Rosson. "Our
teachers are thrilled to be able to leverage this resource as
another way to get their students the opportunities they
deserve."
About the 1Million Project Foundation
The 1Million
Project Foundation will help 1 million high school students who do
not have reliable Internet access at home reach their full
potential by giving them mobile devices and 10 GB of free
high-speed Internet access per month. Today's learning environment
requires 24/7 internet access in order to study, learn, explore and
complete school work from home. Students who cannot connect when
they leave school are at disadvantage, and their chances of staying
on track in school are greatly limited. By working with school
districts across America, the 1Million Project Foundation seeks to
remove a significant hurdle in these students' lives by ensuring
they have the same access to the internet as any other student so
that they too have a fair shot at achieving their full potential.
For more information, visit www.1MillionProject.org.
About Teach For America Kansas City
Teach For America
Kansas City works in partnership with urban communities in
Kansas City to expand educational
opportunity for children. Teach For America was founded in 1990 and
came to Kansas City in 2008, Teach
For America Kansas City recruits and develops a diverse corps of
outstanding leaders to make an initial two-year commitment to teach
in high-need schools and become lifelong leaders in the effort to
end educational inequity. Nationally, Teach For America is a force
of nearly 60,000 alumni and corps members committed to profound
systemic change. From classrooms to districts to state houses
across America, they're reimagining education to realize the day
when every child has an equal opportunity to attain an excellent
education.
About Sprint
Sprint (NYSE: S) is a communications
services company that creates more and better ways to connect
its customers to the things they care about most. Sprint
served 54.3 million connections as of June
30, 2019 and is widely recognized for developing,
engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the
first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; leading no-contract brands
including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost
Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international
push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone.
Today, Sprint's legacy of innovation and service continues with an
increased investment to dramatically improve coverage, reliability,
and speed across its nationwide network and commitment to launching
a 5G mobile network in the U.S. You can learn more and visit Sprint
at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.
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