Smartlink Donates Devices to Baltimore City Students to Enable Distant Learning

 

Donation of laptops and tablets will benefit underserved students that have been without technology, unable to attend remote classes and complete their homework.

 

For Immediate Release: June 22nd, 2020

 

Media Contacts: Lisa LaPlaca – cell: 860-966-6674

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ANNAPOLIS, MD. (June 22nd, 2020) – Smartlink, a national telecom services and staffing company headquartered in Annapolis, donated new android tablets and pre-owned laptop computers to fifty middle school students who attend the National Academy Foundation (NAF) school in Baltimore City. 

 

Since the school launched distant learning due to COVID-19, NAF teacher, George Roycroft, became increasingly frustrated by the lack of resources many of his students had available to communicate with their teachers, attend remote classes and complete their schoolwork. The seventh-grade teacher reached out to Smartlink, a privately held company supporting the entire network lifecycle nationwide to ask for help for his students. 

 

“I don’t think any district was prepared for this,” noted Roycroft. “Not having the amount of technology needed for students to be successful during online learning has been a real challenge. Some students’ only option is to try to complete their work on their phones. Some families have multiple students across multiple grades, all trying to do work on the same computer. It just doesn’t work.”

 

Smartlink launched a Keeping America Connected campaign in effort to further develop, deploy and maintain the networks that enable all technologies the nation depends on during the challenges of COVID-19. “Working with George to get these devices in the hands of the students who desperately needed it was an opportunity we couldn’t ignore,” said Jason Campbell, Smartlink’s Chief Operating Officer. “For 20 years Smartlink has been in the business of fueling the networks that keep us all connected. There’s not a better way to celebrate this effort than to give young students the ability to keep learning.”