Carole Schuster
Carole Schuster is the Vice-President for Business Development at CELT Corporation. She developed her interest in applying technology to her work in 1983 when she became Technology Director for the Pasadena Towne and Country School in Pasadena, California. Two years later she relocated to the Boston area and took on the job of Project Manager for SPIN (School and Pupil-based Information Network), an innovative DOE initiative and precursor to the SIMS (Student Information Management System) project. In 1990 Carole accepted the position of Network Manager with a major Internet service provider where she worked to support the MCET Mass LearnNet project. This effort led to the expansion of the first dial-up network for Massachusetts educators. She literally introduced the Internet to thousands of Massachusetts educators and also led the effort to connect more than two-thirds of Massachusetts school districts to high speed Internet. She provided guidance with e-Rate that helped schools facilitate funding.
The e-Rate is a federally funded program that is an important alternative funding source for schools, but because the application process is very complex and time consuming, Carole provided essential training and leadership that helped many districts secure thousands of dollars of annual technology funding. She also helped establish the local Internet site (POP) in Northbridge to serve the eleven towns of the Blackstone Valley TechNet. Carole's company offered a new paradigm that the schools had not considered, and she ultimately saved the district thousands of dollars and countless hours of effort.
It was Carole's unremitting commitment to technology and education that led her, earlier this year, to CELT (Center for Educational Leadership and Technology) where together with colleague Jeff Bajgot, she designed and developed the INTEGRITY™ program, a suite of technology infrastructure products and services intended to support today's technology needs in schools. This program is a managed solution for information technology, applications, and planning services.