Mission: Education | Rural broadband

MONCLOVA, Ohio — Monclova is a township in rural Lucas County. The drive in provides views of trees, fields, some urban sprawl, and maybe some commercialism. But what you can’t see from the street is the internet divide that affects some people in this community, including student Claire Curtis, who will be a junior in the fall.

“Everything we get comes last, I wanna say. It’s just also in the middle of nowhere, so we have really slow, bad service,” she said.

Curtis recalls this being a struggle especially during the height of the pandemic in 2020, when classes were shifted to a virtual setting.

“Trying to stay connected and on Zooms, I would constantly get booted, because of the internet issue. It was slow. And then with everybody now using [the] internet, because we were all home, it just instantly went dead, breaking. I got in trouble for many attendances,” Curtis explained.

Recently, The White House — well aware of how much of a challenge this is for Americans all over — announced funding to connect everyone, regardless of geography, to reliable high-speed internet. It’s a goal Curtis says she’ll believe once it’s accomplished.

“I won’t believe it until I see it because we’ve been promised this for years and nothing’s changed. In fact, I feel like it’s gotten worse over the years.”