Late this summer, NTCA’s Josh Seidemann and I were approached by the University of Michigan's School of Information about lending some of our thoughts, expertise and guidance to a course of students who were going to spend the semester focused on rural broadband issues.
I loved that they chose this topic, obviously, and I was delighted that a group of students in Ann Arbor, Mich., were willing to spend their semester focused on issues central to the rural citizens of the state. Their desire to join was even more impressive because I bet that only a handful of them were from the truly rural portions of the state.
Josh has spent time this semester checking in with the class, as students have been tasked with group work to determine the impact of broadband on workforce development. He’s also been busy connecting them with subject matter experts from NTCA's own membership, including a number of our Smart Rural Community (SRC) Advisory Council members who are so well positioned to share their insights on why robust broadband really does have impacts on healthcare, education, precision agriculture and economic development.
Despite all of that, Josh could not have been more gracious in passing the baton to me last weekend when he was presented with the opportunity to head to campus to do a short presentation on broadband and meet with these students to hear more about their broadband projects. And, as an "amazing" point of coincidence, this lecture was one day before the Big Ten (Big Eighteen?) football game between Northwestern University, my alma mater, and Michigan, Don and Leah's law school home. It's seldom a contest, but the idea of heading to a college football game where Don and I could politely root against one another was too much to resist.
The class itself was divided into five teams of about six students each, most of whom actually seemed to make it to a Friday class. Each team had a different focus: one on how students with access to broadband at home actually perform better in the classroom and on long-term earning potential, another on how local farmers use broadband in the field and for their business, another on what telehealth can mean for those in rural communities and so on. There was nothing more fun than having them quote back NTCA members’ comments and work to me, even noting the work NTCA itself is doing in all of these spaces. One of the groups asked if NTCA would consider putting together a toolkit that could be distributed to educators to encourage more interesting and active use in technology (Josh and SRC, take note!). I did have to chuckle a little bit when one group proposed creating pamphlets to promote the use of broadband within a community sector. I asked if any of them had ever even read a pamphlet (“not really,” was the response), so we talked about creative ways to meet intended audiences. If it was their generation, for example, maybe short videos would do the trick instead.
As I reflected after leaving the classroom, I found myself completely rejuvenated. These kids were smart, interesting, interested and really committed to being problem solvers. That is exactly what this country needs, and I was thrilled to find it alive and well on a college campus.
Sadly, that euphoria did not carry over to the frigid football field the next day, but Don completed his annual trip to “The Big House,” and I was happy to be one of the few purple-decked fans in the crowd. There's always next year.