First students graduate from Apple Education program in Montgomery
A graduation ceremony has been held to honor the first participants in the Apple Foundation program.
Ed Farm is a collaboration with the State of Alabama, Apple, Alabama State University and Alabama Power. It is an eight-week course to equip adult learners with skills in app design, coding and digital literacy.
ASU will serve as an Ed Farm hub for future innovation and learning.
Many of the graduates from the program showed off their latest apps they developed from what they learned. One app called Code Craft uses AI to give feedback on digital advertising. Another called Pantry Belt helps food insecure people find local food pantries wherever they are.
“There is truly some amazing transformative work here in the state of Alabama. This is going out as a national moment, a national thing for us here. There aren’t too many people who are putting things together that brings the type of individuals from public and private sectors together that work on these types of problems and do it the right way,” Waymond Jackson, the president of Ed Farm, said.
“The solutions you just witnessed from every single one of our groups are more than just code and design. They are the answers to real problems facing our communities. They are the proof of what happens when you combine access, mentorship and a purpose-driven mission,” Devin Hudson, an Ed Farm innovation instructor, said.
The next phase of Alabama’s statewide workforce innovation efforts will focus on the Black Belt and rural areas of the state.
