Samsung Electronics, the South Korean electronics company, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) - Greater Houston recently donated technology and resources to victims of Hurricane Harvey. In March of 2018, Samsung reopened Houston’s Tech Centers, providing victims with safety and a space to learn. After Hurricane Harvey, the company planned to rebuild three of the tech centers in the region. Two of these centers were repaired with new flooring and furniture and all three received donations in the form of Samsung products to help improve their capacity to provide tech services.
The new centers are designed to be functional spaces for local students to learn and explore their future careers. Samsung’s donation included laptops, tablets, and televisions. Samsung and BGCA have also developed programs to provide learning opportunities for students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The value of the repair totaled approximately $300,000 while donations in equipment and other resources totaled approximately $1 million.
The partnership began in 2014, when Samsung first donated more than 1,200 tablets with eBooks to 120 Boys & Girls Clubs across the United States to promote children’s education. In 2016, Samsung partnered with Boys & Girls Club of Newark, NJ to develop a new STEM curriculum. Thanks to Samsung, Boys & Girls Club of Newark was able to provide around 1,000 members with STEM education. Since inception, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Samsung have created Tween Tech Centers for more than 11,000 members. Additionally, last August, Samsung Austin Semiconductor donated $1 million to victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas. The company gave cash funds and product donations totaling $500,000 directly to those in need, in addition to $500,000 to local charity organizations.
Yeseul Oh is a Research Intern at the East-West Center in Washington D.C. and an Asan Washington Young fellow with the Asan Academy in Seoul. She is a student of Kyunghee university in South Korea