<p>Dr. Kevin Starks: Our team knew that there was a critical need for all students to have equitable access to connectivity.</p>
<p>Dr. Jennifer Norrell: Absolutely.</p>
<p>Dr. Kevin Starks: So we reached out, right? And we wanted to know how we could help bridge that gap. So through our partnership, we were able to connect over 3000 students.</p>
<p>Dr. Jennifer Norrell: Well, the partnership was tremendous at one of our most challenging time, we were able to utilize T-Mobile as a huge resource. And again, this wasn't planned. I guess you really figure out how good a partnership is when you have to go through something where you have no idea where you're going and no idea how to get there and no planning and preparation time. And so I think that best defines the partnership because that was like that for the entire country, for the entire world. And so to form a partnership under such circumstances really speaks to, I think, the quality of both organizations.</p>
<p>Dr. Kevin Starks: Well, we were able to address the needs of the district by providing free devices with unlimited data at a low cost and really proved to be a trusted and reliable partner.</p>
<p>Dr. Jennifer Norrell: It was number one priority for our board of education. Again, our board of education, many of them are graduates of our same school district. I've not met a group of more committed individuals and our board president, those were her exact words. You get whatever is needed to make the education happen. And that's been their consistent theme since the start of the pandemic. It was their theme pre pandemic. But again, you really get to test all of those theories and what you think about people and what you think about companies, when you go and partnerships, when you go through something that we've all been through the last two years.</p>
<p>Dr. Jennifer Norrell: And they were willing to put the resources where they needed to be. And they too were impressed that we were able to get the deal that we did. And not just that we signed up for three months, but that we were able to engage multiyear. Because we knew that, even when we came back, there was the unknown. But also when is it ever a bad idea to have students connected to the internet, to do homework, to do research? And so this is something that we hope that we can continue.</p>
<p>Dr. Kevin Starks: T-Mobile's education initiatives are helping to connect millions of underserved student households at no cost to them. We offer solutions that meet the district's needs at no cost at all to students and families. With the expanded reach and capacity of T-Mobile's nationwide network, we're able to make reliable, dependable connectivity truly accessible to students, including those in underserved areas, such as rural America where, get this, 1.7 million households are still lacking high speed internet service today.</p>
<p>Dr. Jennifer Norrell: Yes. Yeah. I can imagine that. And you have in most districts, no one district is completely homogenous. Districts are very, very different and you have different needs depending on the family. Even families that already had internet were asking for our hotspots because every internet is not the same. And so even if you're not totally rural with no connectivity, wait till there's four laptops all day.</p>
<p>Dr. Kevin Starks: Absolutely, so that under connectivity, right?</p>
<p>Dr. Jennifer Norrell: Yes, absolutely. Yes. Yes.</p>
<p>Dr. Kevin Starks: And so we're really excited because, all in, since the start of last year, we've connected more than 3 million students across the entire country.</p>
<p>Dr. Jennifer Norrell: Wow. I thought we were just special. This partnership was just an EA thing. Well, you certainly made us feel special.</p>
T-Mobile Finds a New Way to Connect with the Students of East Aurora School District 131
When times were at the toughest for the East Aurora School District 131, students were at risk of losing connectivity to their online classes; T-Mobile stepped in and formed the perfect partnership providing hotspots to thousands of students. In this chat, Dr. Jennifer Norrell from EASD 131 and Dr. Kevin Starks from T-Mobile discuss their collaboration and how they work together to help students.
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