Project purpose: the paul quinn college (PQ) quinnite community digital learning center project will address the lack of infrastructure and technology support in the institution and in the surrounding…

The Paul Quinn College was awarded a $5,999,354.36 Project Grant from the Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration under the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program (CFDA 11.028). The grant will support two key initiatives. First, it will enhance the College's internal IT infrastructure by establishing a full-service IT department to develop and maintain campus systems and provide student and community technology support. Second, it will leverage the upgraded infrastructure to create the Quinnite Community Digital Learning Center, a full-service learning and support hub offering IT education, training, certification courses, and loaner laptops to College students, local K-12 students, families, and community members. Additionally, the National Forum for Black Public Administrators will conduct program evaluation for the grant. The funding will address technology gaps facing the College and surrounding Dallas communities through infrastructure development and expanded digital access and skills training.

Project purpose: the paul quinn college (PQ) quinnite community digital learning center project will address the lack of infrastructure and technology support in the institution and in the surrounding anchor communities and in the anchor communities. Paul quinn college seeks to remedy the problem and resolve the crisis by strengthening IT staff expertise to serve both the college and the anchoring communities to address this serious need. This grant funding will allow the college to enhance their on-campus IT infrastructure and to create the quinnite community digital learning center (the learning center), a full-service community IT and digital mastery center. Activities: this project is comprised of two activities. First, paul quinn college will enhance its IT infrastructure. This project will facilitate the development of a full-service IT department to serve existing users and projects and help build the next phase of the university's digital learning infrastructure in support of the college's applications. Recruitment efforts are currently underway for a new director of information technology (director). The director is responsible for the design, implementation, and maintenance of the internal IT infrastructure. Second, a community digital learning center (the learning center) will be built offering a full-service IT learning and support center, and loaner laptops open to paul quinn college students, k-12 students from kipp south OAK cliff charter school and disd haynes global prep international baccalaureate academy, their families, and members of the surrounding community. Outcomes: the intended results of this project are twofold: 1) create a full-service IT department with key positions to develop and maintain campus infrastructure and offer hands-on IT training and help desk support and services to students and community members and 2) leverage the campus infrastructure to establish the quinnite community digital learning center to serve the surrounding highland hills community with IT education, training and support. The program will offer certification courses to community members through PQX in programming languages and business software mastery. Beneficiaries: this project is intended to serve paul quinn college students, faculty, staff, and the surrounding anchor communities of highland hills and south OAK cliff areas of dallas, texas. The upgrade to the campus IT infrastructure will benefit the students, faculty, and staff while the learning center will become a connectivity hub by providing IT education, training, and support for the anchor communities. Subrecipient activities (if applicable): the national forum for black public administrators (nfbpa) will conduct program evaluation. This includes: assessment design, administration, analysis, data reporting, and community engagement and communication.