Apple's HBCU coding, creativity initiative comes to Elizabeth City State University

ECSU students say the partnership will bring new opportunities for them and their entire community.

“I was excited,” ECSU senior Benny Baker said. “The impact that this will bring to rural communities, HBCUs, is immeasurable.”

The partnership will send nearly $80,000 in hardware and software to the school.

“The opportunity it brings for our students is that our students can now get trained with the latest and greatest technology, especially with Apple’s platform, and they will learn how to develop apps,” said ECSU Dean of Science, Aviation, Health and Technology Kuldeep Rawat.

Professors said with these tools, students from ECSU would be in prime position to find jobs in computer science, a near $6 trillion industry that hasn’t fully tapped into minority talent.

“There’s a huge underrepresentation in the IT field,” Rawat said. “We have a very low percentage of minorities who are in the IT field, a very low percentage of women who are in the IT field.”

Along with the new tools, Apple will also be sponsoring coding clinics for local schools and the entire community.

That’s what excites some students like Elizabeth City native Benny Baker the most.

“The versatility it brings is very important,” Baker said. “Students in high school will no longer wonder what they’re going to do, they will no longer have to decide between going to the military or having a dead-end job.”

While the program is starting off at ECSU, Baker hopes it will become a springboard for the entire region to become its own coding hub.

“This’ll give us the opportunity to venture out, and become more than what our community previously showed us we could be,” Baker said.