“I want to be the first Mexican President! And I’m going to search up George Washington and Barack Obama, so I could get information on how to become president.”
This was 10-year-old Leo Mireles’ enthusiastic response at last night’s festivities designed for the many young guests in attendance—complete with a party DJ, bounce house, basketball competition, chicken tenders, mac-n-cheese . . . and high-speed internet access.
On Thursday, November 17, local youth throughout Bryan, Texas, and their families gathered at the new facility for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Brazos Valley (BGCBV) to celebrate the installation of an ultra-fast and secure fiber-optic network. The Club also received 15 new Google Chromebooks laptops made possible by Broadband for Good.
Using Our Superpower for Good
Broadband for Good is our first ever social impact program developed to advance our purpose, Building Gigabit America, while answering the fundamental question, “How do we take our fiber technology, our superpower, into the communities we serve and do good?” By using our fiber technology and resources to connect more people to the digital society, the program represents our commitment to accelerating digital inclusion.
“Our program will support organizations working to bridge the digital divide and address other critical needs. The ambition for the program is to stretch our imagination of what’s possible with the power of our technology,” said Nick Jeffery, CEO and President of Frontier.
Rhonda Watson, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Brazos Valley,
with Veronica Bloodworth, Chief Network Officer for Frontier.
We selected the BGCBV in Bryan as the first community to benefit from the program because of its mission to build prepared future leaders by providing a safe place to learn, grow and play. The organization supports more than 1,500 youth in the area. “By offering our members high-speed internet for online tutoring and help with homework, we can ensure the speed of the technology during after-school and summer programs is at least equal to the experience our members have at school, because academic success is key to our youth’s future,” said Rhonda Watson, CEO of BGCBV.
Powering Big Dreams and Great Careers
The wonder and joy was infectious as kids and their parents congregated in the new computer lab to start using the hi-tech resources that could be vital to their future success. Leo Mireles was not shy in sharing about his dreams to be president “when I grow up.” Christynn Arzate, a 15-year-old with ambitious dreams of her own said, “I can look into colleges and scholarships that could be available, and how to achieve the degrees that are needed in order to get to my career.”
Helping Communities Thrive
With the strength and reliability of our fiber-optic connectivity, members of the community in Brazos Valley will be able to use the Club’s parking lot to access the internet as well. “Many of our families in the community and our kids here at the Club don’t have internet at home . . . This new partnership is benefitting the community in more ways than one,” said Watson.
Read further coverage of the event by KBTX here.
*All photos are courtesy of Specialties Photography
