ConnectingUS

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Sterling Williams Jr. was retired from the U.S. Airforce, bored, and looking for a fulfilling way to spend his time. “When you’re retired, there’s only a few things you can do: dig a garden, watch TV, cut the grass, or bowl, and I can’t [bowl] anymore,” said Williams, 62, a Sinton, Texas resident. But his niece suggested something else: going to college. Williams was intrigued but concerned about keeping a flexible schedule. Between picking his niece up from school and waiting for appointments at the Veterans Affairs (VA) clinic, the idea of commuting back and forth for classes seemed like a significant obstacle. Then he learned South Texas College would give him a laptop and hotspot to attend classes remotely.

Interview is translated from Spanish  Ten-year-old Miguel is putting his new digital literacy skills to an unexpected use: writing stories about his need for a brother.  “It is boring only having sisters,” Miguel, who has four sisters, explained. 

The Forest County Potawatomi Community of Wisconsin had been generating electricity to run its community center using solar panels for years—they just didn’t have an accurate way of tracking their energy usage.   Thanks to an Internet for All grant from NTIA, they now do. 

Robert Davis, 28, was working in construction but looking for a new career that would still provide the outdoor work he craved.

Dalia Calderon was ready to quit college, for the second time. She had returned to Mercy University after a 20-year break, but the combination of online classes and an ancient laptop was proving to be too much to bear.  “I said, ‘I don’t know how I can finish school. I'm just going to drop out - I’m already old,’” said Calderon, 47, who lives in the Bronx. “That’s when I got an email that said they were loaning laptops. I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’”