Across the nation, the back-to-school-season is in full swing. At Comcast, we have been doing our part to help promote Internet Essentials, which offers low-income families the tools they need to get their kids online so they can do their homework. As we’ve been saying over and over again, we can think of no more important back-to-school supply than home Internet service.
Last week, I was at a resource fair for African American families at the San Francisco public library. There, I met a young girl, DeVanee, and her mother. DeVanee, who is 10, was asked to give a few remarks at an event with Mayor Ed Lee, San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Richard Carranza, former principal and Alliance of Black Educators President Emily Wade-Thompson, and dozens of community organizations and partners, who were there to celebrate the start of a new school year with a family breakfast and resource fair. The auditorium was packed. It was standing room only. Up on the stage, DeVanee spoke confidently into the microphone, barely referring to her written remarks, and welcomed everyone to the event. She was totally amazing. I wasn’t that poised and confident when I was 10 years old, but she inspired me and everyone else in the room to believe that given the right tools and the right mindset, there’s no limit to what a young person is capable of doing. I have no doubt that there’s no limit to how far DeVanee will go in school and in life.
That core belief, that anyone can learn anything, is the basis behind our new partnership with Khan Academy. Khan Academy offers a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere, in subjects from math to biology to art history. To use it, all you need is Internet access, and that’s where Internet Essentials comes in.
The Internet is a transformative technology. It has the unique ability to level the playing field, so that no matter what zip code children live in, no matter how much money their parents make or the color of their skin, they can use this potentially life-changing technology to do better in school, go to college, and get a good paying job.
–by David L. Cohen, Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer in Community Investment\
For more information, please visit www.InternetEssentials.com.
