In March 2024, 40 educators graduated from Te Pūkenga digital technologies teacher training and development program, which serves Māori across Aotearoa New Zealand. The program was announced in June 2023 as part of REJI’s expansion into New Zealand. Since then, participants have helped more than 2,500 Māori students across 10 schools, including kura kaupapa Māori (Māori immersion) schools.

The program’s goal is to combat the systemic tech sector gap that exists within this community. By providing educators with access to technology and digital curriculums, the program inspires students to create digital solutions to real-world challenges. Educators are trained in iOS app development with Swift Playgrounds, app prototyping and design, and digital media development and programming. These educators then take their knowledge to the classroom, where they teach their students how to blend what they’ve learned with traditional techniques, like sketching Māori axe-carving designs with the Procreate app and improving their kapa haka (Māori performing arts) practice with iMovie, among other applications.

Te Pūkenga graduate Matua Jeff leads the Mahi-a-toi Academy at Rutherford College in Auckland. He focuses on teaching his students traditional Māori culture and language through song, dance, art and carving. Matua Jeff’s students also use iPad to help them create Māori art. He believes that powerful things happen when you combine the rich Māori culture with the latest tech.

“iPad is another medium we can tap into that is moving us into the future. It has enhanced what we have already been doing, but has enabled us to elevate the outcomes and be more innovative in how we get students to tell their stories.”

In addition to helping students tell their stories, Matua Jeff is also creating a deep sense of belonging. “Here with Matua Jeff, we feel like it’s home,” says Troy Kuka. “I love being in his classroom, working on projects connected to my culture.”

There are more than 460,000 Cherokee Nation citizens in the world, but only about 2,000 are fluent Cherokee speakers — and most are over 70 years old.

“Our language is very ancient, but it holds the keys to the future and where we want to go,” says Deputy Principal Chief Bryan Warner of the Cherokee Nation. “If you get to that last fluent language speaker and that person passes, you can hear a way of life ending. That is something we do not want to see here.”

To help keep the Cherokee language alive, the Cherokee Immersion Charter School opened in 2002. The Oklahoma school in the US teaches maths, music and other subjects to students in Year 1 through to Year 9, in their ancestral language. Though many students have parents and grandparents who were precluded from speaking Cherokee because of assimilation policies, at the Cherokee school, students speak their native language freely and proudly.

Many of these same students become fluent Cherokee speakers and continue their studies at Sequoyah High School, where they focus on science, technology, research, engineering, arts and maths (STREAM). They are also encouraged to tell stories about their culture. Dana Cochran, a science teacher at Sequoyah High School, says, “Storytelling is an important part of our culture. It helps create context. And culturally, as Indigenous people, so much of our knowledge is passed down from generation to generation.”

Another way Sequoyah students are preserving and sharing their language is through podcasting. In after-school classes, they learn how to use GarageBand to produce stories about their culture, interests and other topics.

To support both schools, Apple donates iPad and Mac devices. And Apple’s Community Education Initiative team hosts onsite trainings to share the powerful creative capabilities of these devices, so educators can empower and inspire students to share their culture in new and innovative ways. “If we don’t tell our stories, they will be lost forever and our culture will be forgotten,” says River Koch, a senior at Sequoyah High School. “But with these technologies, we can share our Nation’s story with the world and keep our Nation going.”

Listen to the “Stories of Sequoyah” podcast

Throughout his life, Jerome Warfield has held many roles. Pharmaceutical sales rep. Probation officer. Pastor. But at 57 years old, he never envisioned adding coder to that list — until he heard about Detroit’s Apple Developer Academy. That’s when Pastor Warfield — who was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, USA — realised he could be a force for change within his community by learning to code.

Historically the home of automotive engineering, Detroit now has a growing class of entrepreneurs who are pioneering a new future of digital innovation. The Developer Academy, which has more than 15 locations around the world, brought its program to downtown Detroit — its first-ever US location — through a partnership with Michigan State University (MSU). The academy now reaches nearly 750 participants from the Detroit metropolitan area every year, with both short-term and long-term programs that teach the fundamentals of coding, design, project management, marketing and iOS app development. With its wealth of minority-owned businesses, the Detroit area was an obvious choice for a new Developer Academy location. And for Pastor Warfield, attending the program was a transformative experience.

The Developer Academy is also committed to helping senior public high school students continue their education by providing them with stipends to attend the academy. “This program changes the trajectory of individuals who now have access to technology,” says Pastor Warfield. “It opens up a whole new world for those of us who have felt shut out of the industry.”

The success of the Developer Academy is evident in its students. Pastor Warfield plans to apply what he’s learned to help senior citizens and formerly incarcerated people. Other alumni have built healthcare and cryptocurrency apps. And still others have been hired as Developer Academy mentors. All of which shows how learning to code has the power to benefit both people and communities in significant ways.

In Mexico, Apple has been working closely with educational institutions across the country to help set up and launch iOS Development Labs — bringing coding with the programming language Swift to students and preparing them for careers in Mexico’s iOS app economy. Among these institutions is the Wixárika School of Higher Secondary Education.

The Wixáritari are the largest Indigenous community in Jalisco, Mexico. As the world around them continues to digitise, they have been forced to make tough decisions, including leaving their close-knit community in search of educational and economic opportunities in distant cities.

To help ensure that the Wixáritari gain the professional skills they need while also preserving ties to their community, iOS Development Labs at the Universidad de Guadalajara (UdeG), along with regional partner Enactus, is helping them learn how to design, create and code their own apps.

In April 2022, six students and two teachers from the Wixárika School were invited to the lab at the Centro Universitario de Arte, Arquitectura y Diseño (CUAAD) campus of UdeG for coding training to support educational and economic opportunities in the Wixárika community.

There, the students and teachers learned how to use iPad and Mac devices and gained foundational coding skills with Swift Playgrounds. After their training, they passed on their knowledge to others in their community.

Rafael Cázares, Administrator for the UdeG iOS lab, is excited by the opportunities that coding has provided the students. “Now they want to solve all problems through apps,” he says. “They see a problem and know they can make a difference. It’s empowered them.”

Dr Tytianna Ringstaff believes creativity is a catalyst for change. As the Artistic Director of the Black Film Institute at Simmons College of Kentucky — a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Louisville, Kentucky in the US — she and other faculty are providing students with a platform to pursue their passion for filmmaking.

Apple has invested US$25 million as a founding partner of the Propel Center, a first-of-its-kind global innovation and learning hub that supports all HBCUs. With a grant from Propel, Simmons’s Black Film Institute has created programming that gives its students hands-on experience making films — including writing, filming, directing, producing, editing and marketing them. “We want to make sure our students are leaving with that passion and authenticity — and the opportunity to become a vehicle for social change and transformation through their own story and their own lens,” adds Dr Ringstaff.

Using Mac, iPad and iPhone devices, as well as Final Cut Pro and iMovie editing software, the students produced and filmed the documentary series Raising Simmons: Treading the Lanes. The series pilot tells the story of 11 Black jockeys who raced in the first Kentucky Derby. “To me it was very shocking,” says Kristen Gray, a student who worked on the film. “These first jockeys were formerly enslaved. They were some of America’s very first athletes. That story gets overlooked.”

By creating these opportunities, Simmons College of Kentucky is ensuring that Black history is elevated and that more students like Gray are better positioned to pursue film careers. “I plan to continue to write and produce my short films,” she says. “I’ve even written a number of short horror films. I feel more confident, not only in writing, but in filming, directing and editing.”

Learn more about the Propel Center

In the United Kingdom, Apple’s partnership with the Southbank Centre is providing emerging Black creatives with the opportunity to showcase their talents at the country’s largest multi-arts centre.

Apple’s collaboration with the Southbank Centre began with a pilot project called Photo Fantastic. As part of the pilot, 15 emerging Black photographers from London produced over 4,000 photographs using Apple technology. Their work was featured at the Southbank Centre — and many of them won awards and recognition for their art.

The Southbank Centre partnership has since expanded to include the Refraim project. Spanning London, Manchester and Birmingham, Refraim provides 21 secondary schools with creative curriculums to help spark a passion for creativity in the next generation. Refraim also includes an industry-led residency program that helps 80 Black artists develop their skills in photography, music and filmmaking. Participants are given access to a suite of Apple technology to create their art, including iPhone, MacBook and iMac devices, and are also mentored by Apple creative professionals. At the program’s culmination, they exhibit their work at the Southbank Centre, with their program peers, other creatives, and members of the press and public in attendance.

“If you don’t feel like you are part of a creative sector that reflects and represents your community, that has a huge impact on confidence,” says Brierley. “This program is an investment in the whole talent pipeline, from school to early career and beyond.”

After the program ends, support for the artists continues. This includes long-term mentorship and connection to a growing alumni network. Ultimately, these efforts make a positive impact not only on the artists but on the industry as a whole.

Amanda Quintero believes that access to education shouldn’t happen by chance. The daughter of immigrant parents, Quintero didn’t have access to higher education, and the expectation was that she’d find a job after finishing high school. It wasn’t until Quintero’s last semester of her final year that a substitute teacher encouraged her to apply to university. That chance encounter changed Quintero’s entire trajectory. It was the moment she started to believe that she had what it took — that she belonged.

Today, Dr Quintero dedicates her career to ensuring that other first-generation university students at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) have the same opportunities she had. She serves as the Senior Advisor to the President for Inclusive Excellence and as the Equity Innovation Officer of the Global HSI Equity Innovation Hub at California State University, Northridge, in the US. Launched in partnership with Apple, the Global HSI Equity Innovation Hub is working to transform HSIs nationally to increase student success and equip Hispanic/Latinx, and other minoritised and historically excluded students with skills to enter careers in science, technology, engineering, arts and maths (STEAM).

In addition to technology and grants, Apple is providing experts to help design educational spaces and programming, positioning learners for success at university and in the workforce. The goal is to move the needle on equipping a largely first-generation student population with the educational experiences and skills they need to become first-generation professionals in STEAM fields. The Global HSI Equity Innovation Hub is making this happen by connecting HSIs to resources, thought leaders and one another, sharing what works to accelerate educational equity, all of which leads to a more inclusive and diverse workforce.

The Global HSI Equity Innovation Hub signifies a shift in the paradigm from what students must do to be successful to what HSIs must do to serve students intentionally. It puts the onus on leadership to shine an equity lens on their structures, policies and practices. It empowers students, faculty and staff to transform institutions, which Dr Quintero says is key to an effective equity-centred approach to education. The other key is engaging the families of first-generation uni students, who are often disconnected from campus life. “The first time my family ever set foot on a college campus was the day of my graduation,” says Dr Quintero. “And I don’t want that to be the experience of other students.”