Chinese Tech Giant Expands Educational Opportunities In America

Chinese technology behemoth Lenovo is helping American students learn more about mobile software development.

Lenovo announced a new agreement with the National Academy Foundation in the United States to bring a robust mobile app development curriculum and delivery program to NAF academies in the United States. The two organizations will provide curriculum and technology to provide exposure and encourage interest among high school students in science, technology, engineering and math.

This program, now called Lenovo Scholar Network, builds on a successful 2012 pilot where high school students from five NAF IT academies across the United States created and launched apps, some of which are now available to the public on Google Play.

As part of the program, NAF students from 10 IT academies across the United States will participate in mobile app and entrepreneurship courses intended for the project-based competition. Academies will be selected by NAF through an application process, and selected institutions will be announced in September 2014. The competition tasks students to design and develop a mobile app and business plan for taking the app to market, which measures critical college and career readiness skills.

Lenovo will provide PC and tablet devices to each of the 10 participating schools to aid the students and teachers in implementing the curriculum. The products include PC devices for student development and coding collaboration, and Lenovo tablet devices for the testing and viability of the mobile app. These Lenovo devices will also enable the students to develop their marketing plan and strategies to bring the app to market.

The National Academy Foundation is a network of career-themed academies that open doors for underserved high school students to viable careers in the United States. NAF academies focus on one of five career themes: finance, hospitality & tourism, information technology, engineering, and health sciences.

Loading...