AT&T partners with Oak Cliff native's non-profit to help students overcome digital divide

DALLAS - A young man who struggled to make it out and overcome life challenges has come back to Dallas to help others. He says the key is education.

AT&T has partnered with an Oak Cliff native’s non-profit to help bridge the digital divide.

Hallways at the Puede Network non-profit are adorned with pictures of some of the 280 who go there and trophies showing their success on the soccer field and in the boxing ring.

Adan Gonzalez fought his way, figuratively and literally, out of Oak Cliff and into Georgetown University, where he became a national boxing champion.

"At the end of the day, it's all the hard work that goes in when no one's watching," he said. "When I applied to college, I applied on the curb at McDonalds with a borrowed laptop, believing that education can change my life." 

Gonzalez went on to be a White House fellow and worked for the U.S. Secretary of Education.

"Working at the White House, going to the fancy school doesn't mean anything if my neighborhood's not improving," he said.

So Gonzalez came back to improve his neighborhood long before he had a building with his non-profit, the Puede Network, a youth empowerment organization. "Puede" is Spanish for "can."

"AT&T first started supporting my work when I had my classroom in my backyard," he said.

"What better story would inspire to have a connected learning center than Adan's," said Mylayna Albright with AT&T.

AT&T created one of its connected learning centers at the non-profit as part of its commitment to bridge the digital divide.

"We're building many, many bridges when we think about the people we're reaching," Albright said. "We have several connected centers in Dallas overall. Puede Network is one of our recent locations that we opened."

And through a non-profit called Compudopt, AT&T donated hundreds of laptops to Oak Cliff kids at Puede Network.

"AT&T understands the responsibility to empower my community, and they are fulfilling that promise," Gonzalez said. "I believe that Puede Network is rising to that occasion."