Miami-Dade Public Schools Recognize AOL Latino.

AOL Latino was recognized with an Education Awards for Exemplary Service (“EDDIES”) by the Miami-Dade County Public School System (MDCPS). The Award is given to a business or corporation for its outstanding contribution to the schools during the academic year.

AOL Latino in partnership with MDCPS pioneered a free computer literacy program in October 2004 targeted to parents of elementary and middle school Hispanic children in 48 schools throughout the system. The objectives of the program were the following:

– To empower Hispanic families with technology.
– To educate them about the convenience and advantages of having a computer at home with access to the Internet.
– To educate them about the important tools the Internet provides that can help improve their children’s performance in school.
– To further involve parents in their children’s education.

The program, which offered as an incentive, the opportunity to win the recently launched bilingual AOL® Optimized PC was extremely successful attracting more than 2,400 parents to the classes.

Mark Greatrex, Executive Vice President of Access Marketing for AOL said, “At AOL Latino we share the same goal with Miami-Dade Public Schools which is to empower Hispanic families with the advantages of technology and the Internet so that their children can perform better in school and improve their opportunities. We are very proud to have successfully implemented this program with MDCPS and look forward to the upcoming school year to continue this partnership and take this pilot program to other school districts across the country.”

The EDDIES were held at the Radisson Hotel in Downtown Miami and also recognized contributions by educators, principals as well as volunteers.

Frank Bolaños, President of the Miami-Dade School Board commented, “We are grateful to AOL Latino for their interest and the initiative to bring these much needed resources and courses to our classrooms, we are looking forward to the continued growth of this great partnership.”

The program was developed by C-Com Group Inc. Luis Gonzalez, President of C-Com Group, Inc. said, “We are proud to have created this community marketing initiative with AOL Latino to bring together government and the private sector in benefit of Hispanic families in South Florida.”