Connectivity they’ll rely on: Claflin College’s tech revolution

For many college students attending faculty, a dependable web connection is one thing they’ll rely on. For college kids attending Claflin College, a small Traditionally Black Faculty and College (HBCU) situated in rural Orangeburg, South Carolina, dependable broadband entry was greater than a problem, it was impacting the college’s potential to ship a high-quality training, and residents in surrounding communities didn’t have dependable entry to necessary on-line providers similar to training and healthcare.

Broadband challenges in rural South Carolina

Orangeburg has a inhabitants of round 13,300 residents. 21.9% of households are with out Web entry, 14% of residents lack a smartphone, laptop, or pill, and greater than 34% of Orangeburg’s residents reside beneath the poverty line. For college kids attending the college, they discovered connectivity was intermittent at greatest and sometimes non-existent in dormitories or on the yard. The COVID-19 pandemic additional highlighted these points, revealing a myriad of challenges the varsity confronted in educating its college students remotely.

“Once I first arrived at Claflin, we had been in the course of what you’d name a broadband desert”, mentioned Dr. Arthur Physician, dean of scholars at Claflin College. “Our college students had been struggling to have entry to educational sources, but in addition, simply with the ability to be a related campus neighborhood, there have been some struggles.”

Born and raised in South Carolina, Dr. Physician is aware of firsthand the connectivity challenges going through the area, and as a life-long educator he knew the affect the shortage of broadband was having on his college students’ potential to realize a high quality academic expertise and entry alternatives similar to internships and jobs.

A mannequin partnership

When the chance to work with Cisco and its ecosystem of companions to incorporate Pupil Freedom Initiative to deploy 5G/LTE providers on the campus and within the surrounding neighborhood, Dr. Physician knew it will be transformational for the Claflin College Campus, its fast neighbor South Carolina State College and close by residents.

“We partnered with Cisco to launch an formidable pilot program that may permit us to essentially join our campus neighborhood in methods we’ve by no means been related earlier than, not solely impacting our college students and our directors, however a close-by HBCU. And most significantly, the Orangeburg neighborhood that we’ve been entrenched in since 1869.” mentioned, Physician. “Bridging the divide is extra about individuals. It’s about with the ability to join them and Wi-Fi is on the core of that. As a society that’s geared by know-how, with the ability to have Claflin related with the Orangeburg neighborhood by means of this partnership is transformative.”

The pilot program, supported by Cisco’s Nation Digital Acceleration program funded a non-public 5G community for Claflin College, with the intent of addressing the connectivity divide for each the campus and the encompassing residential neighborhood that lacked high-speed web entry, lots of which couldn’t afford the service.

Along with deploying 5G/LTE, Cisco carried out a NIST evaluation to make sure the varsity was eligible to obtain vital Title IV funding and donated $1.7 million in tools and providers as a part of its IT modernization program. Cisco can be offering coaching to the varsity’s IT workers, plans to supply upskilling by means of its Networking Academy and applied a scholar assist desk to offer neighborhood help. Claflin hosted the inaugural Cisco Cyber Safety Resilience workshop on their campus designed to coach college students for jobs within the cyber safety discipline.

Securing a brighter future

The partnership between Claflin and Cisco has develop into a mannequin for HBCUs throughout the nation. For Claflin college students, the long run is vibrant. They now have entry to extra educational alternatives than ever earlier than and might reliably connect with residence and different help techniques. Instructors and directors can present mandatory sources to college students, each in particular person and remotely and connectivity to the local people and neighboring establishments might be drastically improved. This sustainable mannequin will help the college and neighborhood properly into the long run.

“I see myself each day in our college students. And it actually has allowed me to be passionate concerning the work that I’m in a position to do. Once I’m right here late at evening or on the weekends, it actually simply makes me smile to see that they’re having an expertise that they’ll look again on as one which’s been constructive and impacted them in an amazing manner.”

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