ConnectingUS

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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.’” 

Robyn Johnson found out the hard way just how little her Internet bandwidth could carry when COVID-19 struck. Her bandwidth hit its limit when her high school and elementary school-aged children tried to attend classes online while she instructed classes of her own as a fourth-grade teacher at the Eagle Butte, South Dakota elementary school on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe reservation.

Phashad Williams is taking the first steps toward putting a new spin on his grandfather’s legacy. Williams’ grandfather Harold Cottrell was the first Black line supervisor for an electric company in Oklahoma and was also one of the first Black Journeyman in the state.

Gabriel Tahy lives in the middle of Navajo Nation – surrounded by mesas and close to the family members who help him learn more about Navajo culture and traditions. But living on the reservation has meant sacrificing connectivity to the Internet. When you’re on the Rez, a lot of things become less convenient – one of the things is cell phone reception and 5G service,” said Tahy, 33, who lives on Navajo Nation land near the border between Arizona and New Mexico. “But it’s home.”

Deanna Burnette never gave much thought to the quality of her Internet service. Then she moved to a new house in the middle of the pandemic with startlingly slow service.