ATLANTA (February 28, 2023) – Atlanta Technical College (ATC) has been named a recipient of the Biden-Harris Administration’s “Internet for All” Initiative through the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program (CMC). ATC will receive $2.9M over the two-year grant cycle and is one of three institutions in Georgia and the only technical college in the country to receive this impactful award.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it has awarded more than $175 million to 61 colleges and universities as part of the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program (CMC). These new awards cover colleges and universities in 29 states and four territories.

The Atlanta Technical College “Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program” (ATC-CMCPP) project aims to align programs, initiatives, and services to ensure student success and to meet community and industry needs; improve institutional infrastructure for leadership and accountability across all functions of the College; and build a sustainable business model for resources and industry partnerships. Through this grant, the College has four Programmatic Outcomes:

  • Increased Wireless Access Connectivity on Campus (main and south)
  • Increase Student Laptop and Hotspot Lending Capacity by 200
  • Implement Senior Citizen Digital Literacy Project Serving 200 Participants and Providing them Laptops and Hotspot (Integrity Transformation Community Development Corporation Community-based Partner)
  • Third-party Implementation and Broadband Evaluation

“Atlanta Technical College will expand our technology services to our students, who are our priority stakeholders, and who continue to impact their communities and the surrounding region economically. It is a great time to assist our communities with becoming digitally literate when oftentimes our residents are left behind,” said Dr. Victoria Seals, ATC president.

ATC will improve its broadband and wireless infrastructure and will also increase the IT Department’s staff capacity by engaging consultants to ensure that the project is implemented with the highest quality within the grant period. “It took the pandemic for people to realize that millions of students don’t have proper Internet connectivity when away from campus. This award will help mitigate the challenges our local communities face dealing with the digital divide,” stated Robby Gulri – Co-founder Seva Security & Cloud Technology Advocate.

“We are thrilled that Atlanta Technical College has been awarded the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program funding from NIST and look forward to seeing the direct results to the local community of leveraging better broadband for local economic development, job creation, enhanced educational opportunities, and workforce development” said Stephen Stewart – Smart Broadband CEO.

A full listing of the 61 colleges and universities receiving awards is available on InternetForAll.Gov.