Education Edition - 1736 Magazine, Fall 2019

Enoch Tarver partner Ed Enoch, from left, works with Cornell Harris of Richmond County Technical Career Magnet School, and with
fellow partner Ed Tarver during the annual Students2Work program, which gives Richmond County schoolchildren a two-month paid
internship sponsored by area employers. [CONTRIBUTED]
and drug checks and are also required to attend 32 hours of
soft-skills training before their work experience begins.
Over the last two years, local employers have invested
nearly $500,000 in employing students through the
program. Employers have noted that the program builds
recognition for their company and their sector to promote
future recruitment. It has also given them an important
glimpse into the next generational cohort, Generation Z,
and how these young workers will impact their business.
Digital Inclusion: In 2018, an initiative was developed
to quantify the number of students in the Richmond
County School System that do not have home internet.
This effort was important due to the district’s interest
in rolling out their 1:1 Initiative which aims to provide all
students with a personal device and to ensure that all students
have the opportunity to learn the use of technology
for their education and skill development outside of the
classroom. To the knowledge of the Chamber and RCSS,
this had never been done before in the state of Georgia.
After an extensive research period, heat maps were
created with data points for both existing broadband
infrastructure and home subscription and it was
determined that approximately 4,000 students in the
school system do not have access to the internet in the
home environment. What was additionally clear from
the maps, was that 30% of the students were clustered
across just five census tracts opening up opportunities
for geographically engineered solutions for free wi-fi.
On Aug. 1, the Chamber and RCSS hosted the first
of its kind, The Augusta Digital Inclusion Summit. The
Summit brought together the business community, the
Board of Education, the Augusta-Richmond County
Commission, telecommunications carriers and others to
begin the conversation on the importance of technology
equity for all citizens and the opportunities for public/
private partnerships to improve access. A Task Force of
volunteers from the Summit will continue conversations
on leveraging existing technology assets to close the
gap and raise awareness of the need for abundant free or
low-cost resources to families and their children.
Telling The Story: Tools for parents to navigate the
abundant opportunities available to students offered
by the Richmond County School System and to put the
right information into the hands of high influencers has
been a priority of community’s desire to champion the
district’s continuing success.
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