Powering Classrooms.
Unlocking Futures.
Project Digital Classroom builds solar-powered learning stations that give students access to tablets, internet, and digital education — even in schools without reliable electricity.
Why This Matters
A generation of brilliant students is ready to learn. The only things missing are power, connectivity, and devices — and all three are now solvable.
Children without internet at home
Roughly nine in ten school-age children in sub-Saharan Africa have no internet access at home — about 385 million children, out of 1.3 billion unconnected children worldwide.
Source: UNICEF & ITU (2020)Children in schools without electricity
Over 230 million children attend primary schools with no electricity at all — 217 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America.
Source: UN Policy Brief: Energy & SDG 4Of Africa is online — the world's lowest rate
Only 38% of Africa's population used the internet in 2024, versus a 68% global average — leaving most teachers and students cut off from the world's learning resources.
Source: ITU Facts & Figures 2024Learning gains with digital tools
In a randomized trial in India, students using personalized learning software gained 0.37σ in math in just 4.5 months — roughly double the progress of their peers.
Source: American Economic Review (2019)How It Works
Four simple components turn any classroom — anywhere — into a connected digital learning space. No grid. No wiring. No waiting.
Solar panel powers the station
A 200W solar panel captures abundant sunlight — no grid connection, fuel, or generators required.
Battery stores the energy
A 1,280Wh LiFePO₄ battery bank stores the day's sunshine, keeping the station running through cloudy days and evening study sessions.
Cell router provides internet
A 4G LTE router with a 200GB monthly data plan turns mobile network coverage into fast, filtered Wi-Fi for the whole classroom.
Students learn on tablets
Fifteen tablets loaded with educational software put a modern classroom in every student's hands.
Inside the Tablet Station
Every station is a complete, self-contained digital classroom. Hover over — or tap — each component to see what it does.
One Station. An Entire School Transformed.
Each station is engineered to deliver maximum learning impact per dollar — and designed from day one to be replicated.
Tablets
A full classroom set of RCT Pulse 8 tablets (4GB RAM, 64GB storage) — about $100 each.
Solar Panel
Clean, free energy from the most reliable power source in Africa: the sun.
Internet
A TP-Link cell router with a 200GB monthly plan brings real connectivity into the room.
Battery Storage
A LiFePO₄ battery bank stores a full day of learning power — clouds and nightfall included.
Students Reached
One station can reach hundreds of students, rotating between classes all week long.
Expandable Across Africa
A repeatable blueprint: a complete connected station costs about $2,800, first year of internet included.
Our Roadmap
A focused, measurable path from the first funded station to a network of connected classrooms across the continent.
Fund the first station
Raise $2,800 to build, ship, and install the first complete station — including its first year of internet.
- Launch campaign
- Secure fiscal sponsorship
- Reach $2,800 goal
Deploy the first school
Partner with a local school, install the station, and train teachers on the platform.
- Select partner school
- Install & configure
- Teacher onboarding
Measure student impact
Track usage, learning outcomes, and hardware performance over a full school term.
- Baseline assessment
- Monthly usage reports
- Term-end results
Expand to more schools
Use real-world data to refine the model, then replicate it across the region.
- Publish impact report
- Partner with NGOs
- Stations 2–10
The Story We're About to Tell
Our first deployment is coming. These frames are reserved for the moments that will matter most.
Students Learning
First photos arriving with our pilot deployment
School Installations
Documenting every build, from crate to classroom
Teacher Training
Empowering educators with new digital tools
Community
The people and partnerships behind every station
Three Ways to Move the Mission
Whether you give, partner, or spread the word — you become part of the story of the first digital classroom.
Donate
Sponsor an entire classroom — or contribute any amount toward the first station. Every dollar goes directly to hardware, connectivity, and installation.
Partner
Become an NGO or corporate partner. We're looking for school networks, hardware partners, and organizations already working in education across Africa.
Volunteer
Help spread the mission. From social media to translations to technical advice — passionate volunteers make this project move faster.
Luca Mejia-Young
Founder · High school student · Believer in equal access
Started by a student.
Built for students.
Project Digital Classroom was founded by Luca Mejia-Young, a high school student with a simple conviction: where a child is born should never determine whether they can access modern education.
This isn't a charity of pity — it's a project of possibility. The same technology powering classrooms in San Francisco and Seoul can power classrooms anywhere the sun shines. We're engineering that future, one station at a time, with the rigor of a startup and the heart of a movement.
Innovation
Rethinking what a classroom needs — and what it doesn't — to deliver world-class learning anywhere.
Education
Every design decision starts with one question: does this help a student learn more, faster?
Technology
Solar, cellular, and tablet technology have finally converged to make this possible at low cost.
Sustainability
Stations built to run for years with local ownership — not donations that fade after launch day.
Exactly Where Every Dollar Goes
One complete station costs about $2,800 — hardware, installation, and its first year of internet. No overhead games, no vague buckets — here is the full component-by-component breakdown.
Cost of one station
$2,800
$2,280 hardware & install + first year of internet
Every component, priced out — the hardware and installation needed to launch a fully working digital classroom.
Our Phase 1 goal of $2,800 covers the full build plus the first year of internet, rounded up for shipping and contingency. Every deployment publishes its receipts — when you fund a station, you see exactly what you built.
Questions, Answered
Everything you might want to know before joining the mission.
Tablets are durable, affordable, energy-efficient, and intuitive — even for students who have never used a computer. The tablets we use (RCT Pulse 8, 4GB RAM / 64GB storage) cost about $100 each, so an entire 15-student classroom set costs $1,500 — and each one can hold thousands of books, lessons, and offline learning apps.
Help Build the First Digital Classroom
$2,800 launches a complete solar-powered learning station — with a full year of internet — and proves a model that can reach hundreds of students per school.