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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, she and other faculty are providing students with a platform to pursue their passion for filmmaking.

Apple has invested $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 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 digitize, 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 2023, 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.”

There are around 450,000 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 teaches math, music, and other subjects to kindergarten through eighth-grade students 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.

To support the school’s efforts, Apple donated iPad and Mac devices. And Apple’s Community Education Initiative team hosted an onsite training to help members of the school staff learn how to use iPad devices to make impactful learning content. The school is also expanding opportunities for its students through coding.

“Coding makes more possible,” says Deputy Chief Warner. “I imagine the day someone says to me, ‘Have you seen this new language app? It’s from a student who started out at our school. They developed it.’ There are tears that can be shed for many different reasons, but those tears would be joyful because I believe that our ancestors would be happy.”

Throughout his life, Jerome Warfield has held many roles. Pharmaceutical sales rep. Parole 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, realized 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 U.S. 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 public high school seniors 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 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 center.

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 Reframe project. Spanning London, Manchester, and Birmingham, Reframe provides 21 secondary schools with creative curricula to help spark a passion for creativity in the next generation. Reframe 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.

Dr. Amanda Quintero believes that access to education shouldn’t happen by chance. The daughter of immigrant parents, Dr. 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 Dr. Quintero’s last semester of her senior year that a substitute teacher encouraged her to apply to university. That chance encounter changed Dr. 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 college 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. 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 minoritized and historically excluded students with skills to enter careers in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM).

In addition to technology and grants, Apple is providing experts to help design educational spaces and programming, positioning learners for success in college 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-centered approach to education. The other key is engaging the families of first-generation college 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.”