Lane College partners with Apple to provide Technology and Creativity to the community

JACKSON, TN (WNBJ)-

Apple's historically black colleges and universities C2 program has accepted lane as its newest partner.

C2 stands for coding and community. The initiative is designed to empower HBCU's to expand technology and creativity experiences within their institutions and broader communities.

Apple has gifted lane with three mobile technology laps,

“There will be Ipads, MacBook air computers, the little carts to transport the computers and Logitech crayons so that the children or anyone that’s working on it can draw things,” says Dr.Melanie Van Stry.

Lane college will offer new classes to their students utilizing the new gear. They will also partner with local schools and the Jackson-madison county library to offer classes for children.

Michael Davis is a junior computer science major at Lane and he is excited about the opportunities the technology upgrade will bring,

“all our stem programs really needed something like this but it's very excited that we’re expanding and we’re getting more programs so that students can do a lot more stuff and take a lot more class that we are interested in and want to do.”

Davis says that he wants to be a software developer so the new coding classes and equipment through the partnership will be perfect for his career.

Dr. Melanie Van Stry applied for the grant from Apple back in July,

“We were very excited; we were not really expecting that we were going to get the grant so this is an awesome opportunity for lane college and for the Jackson community.”

Tennessee state university in Nashville has the same program with apple and will provide coding training for the faculty at Lane.

Apple has shipped the equipment and Lane is eagerly awaiting its arrival

Faculty at lane say that opportunities could begin as soon as next month for students and for the community.