Norfolk State University has announced a new partnership with Apple to provide every student with a 5G iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, Apple Smart Keyboard Folio, and AirPods Pro. NSU, the largest HBCU in Virginia, will also deploy MacBook Pros and iMacs to select students and design labs.
In a press release, Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of education and enterprise marketing, said that Norfolk State is taking a “bold step forward” by providing students with equal access to Apple devices.
In addition to distributing the iPad Pro and accompanying accessories to all students, NSU will also distribute MacBook Pro and iMac devices for students based on their majors as well as for design labs for learning coding and app development with Swift. In total, NSU will deploy over 6,000 Apple products this year.
“At Apple, we believe that education is a powerful force for equity and opportunity, and that technology can empower all students to be creative and collaborative as they look ahead to their future careers. By providing every Spartan student and faculty equal access to our innovative products, Norfolk State is taking a bold step forward, and we can’t wait to see what the University community will accomplish.”
Norfolk State University is one of many universities deploying Apple products this year. Others to have announced deployment include Virginia Union University, New Mexico State University, University of Nevada, Reno, and Cal State University System. Notably, NSU is the first Historically Black College and University to “facilitate a campus-wide deployment of these Apple products to all students and faculty in a first-year program.”
As part of the initiative, Norfolk State will utilize a full-time Apple Professional Learning Specialist, engineering services, and project management. The university will also provide MacBook Pro notebooks to students based on their majors or courses in addition to iMac desktop computers that will be in an innovation design lab for students to learn coding and app development using Apple’s curriculum and Swift, the powerful and intuitive open-source programming language
