As teachers struggle to find ways to engage classrooms split between virtual and in-class attendance, locally-based technology company Hotwire Communications answered one Coral Springs teacher’s call.
On Wednesday, February 10, some of Hotwire’s most accomplished executives, engineers, and technicians spoke to students at Ramblewood Middle School about topics pertaining to the technologies that shape their lives, answered questions, and gave them a virtual tour of the company’s Network Operations Center. Students were even engaged with a practical exercise, where a Hotwire technician demonstrated how fiber cables were spliced, and gave students the opportunity to splice the cables themselves.
The educational event was made possible by Ramblewood teacher Susan Mejia personally reaching out to Hotwire Communications. While recognizing that younger students are technically inclined as a result of growing up in a digitally dominated world, Ms. Mejia also understood that they often tended to take everyday technologies such as Wi-Fi for granted and lacked a comprehensive understanding of how they functioned.
Hotwire arranged for Nerupa Imam, Hotwire’s Senior Program Manager, Jeff Lawson, the Senior Director of Network Engineering, and Richard Lyda, the company’s Wi-Fi architect, to virtually call in and give a high-level overview of what fiber optics is, how it works, how it’s installed, and more.
A key point they made to students was: this isn’t your parents’ telecommunications company. Contrary to what some might believe based on the name, telecommunications is so much more than telephone services, encompassing a robust and exciting range of technologies. With a shift in recent years towards fiber optics (a shift Hotwire anticipated almost 20 years ago when the company deployed its first fiber network in 2002), telecommunications companies are literally creating the infrastructure that will connect our communities as they become smarter, safer, and more efficient.
Carl Lender, Hotwire’s Regional EVP, and Joshua Simmons, Coral Spring’s Vice Mayor, an elected member of the Coral Springs City Commission, and Hotwire Communications’ newest account manager, attended in-person to talk to students about what Hotwire Communications does, and how the company’s services impact the residents of Broward County in ways both big and small.
According to Ms. Mejia, the educational visit was a resounding success with her students, who found themselves most impressed by hearing the diverse career opportunities that telecommunications offers, and the different and often unconventional paths some Hotwire employees took to become some of the most sought-after professionals in their industry.
“Hotwire is proud to help inspire the next generation of tech professionals,” said Carl Lender, Hotwire’s Regional EVP. “It’s important to make sure students understand all the opportunities that are available to them in STEM fields. We hope some of the students we spoke to feel excited and encouraged to pursue academic and professional careers in the sciences, because they might just change the world doing it.”
To learn more about how you can bring this Virtual Learning experience to you community or school – contact Karla Thatcher at [email protected]