"Bridging the Digital Divide"

The Renaissance Education Technology Academy (RETA), seeks to bridge the digital divide by continuously improving access, quality and diversity of hardware, software and technology training in the Renaissance Community. It is a major component of the redevelopment and revitalization of the Renaissance Community, which consists of 1,500 acres that span the townships of New Brunswick and Franklin.

RETA is a natural evolution of the Center for Learning About SuccesS (CLASS), which was introduced as a program of the First Baptist Community Development Corp. (FBCDC) in 1999. Since its inception, CLASS served over 1,000 individuals through technology summits, institutes, computer training and computers made available for public use.

With the launch of the Renaissance Cisco Academy (RCA) in October 2001, RETA established itself as an alternative education provider. As an alternative education provider, RETA's mission is to make quality technology training accessible to those who would traditionally fall through the cracks. The RCA is a comprehensive 10 month/280 curriculum hour course certified by Cisco Systems that provides training in the design, building and maintenance of computer networks. The course targets required material in preparation for the Cisco Certified Networking Associate (CCNA) certification examination.

In academic year 2001/2002, RETA went on to offer additional courses in credit management and the Microsoft Office Suite (e.g., MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access).

In academic year 2001/2002, RETA will expand its course offerings to include three instructor led series.

• Financial Management
• Administration
• Networking Administration