Walter Payton Award nominee Kelvin Beachum donates tablets to South Phoenix middle school

Kelvin Beachum stood in the media center at C.O. Greenfield Middle School on Tuesday morning, his 6-foot-3, 310-pound frame using a stack of cardboard boxes as support.

Inside them was the Arizona Cardinals’ right tackle’s purpose here: To donate 40 Microsoft Pro Tablets.

First, though, he spoke to a group of eighth graders, discussing technology and its importance in modern education. As he spoke, the room felt oversized. A line of computers and a pair of 3D printers marked one wall, but the rest was barren, with only a few tables filling the expansive space.

Soon, thanks to Beachum’s contribution, this will be the Phoenix school’s new technology lab, where students will be able to use the Microsoft tablets in conjunction with zSpace, 3D printing and robotic technology for academic and personal projects.

“This means so much,” said Amairani Layva-Torres, a social studies teacher at Greenfield. “The way that we work together in the classroom and collaborate the technology, the students have an amazing opportunity with this technology to come over here and just design and view the world in a whole different way and we're so excited for that.”

Beachum, who was selected as the Cardinals’ Walter Payton Man of the Year Award nominee last month, has often focused his charitable donations for STEM efforts throughout his career.

Growing up in Mexia, Texas, amid the endless farmland that stretches between Dallas and Houston, Beachum didn’t have access to state-of-the-art technology. But auto repair is the family business. Kelvin’s Automotive has been passed down from his grandfather to his father, who still runs the shop with Kelvin’s mom, Culetta. Growing up with that garage as a second home, engineering and technology became a passion.

So when Beachum, who’s now in his second year with the Cardinals and his 10th in the league, wanted to give back to the Valley this fall, he reached out to Horace Raymond, the team’s Director of Community Relations, about donating tablets.

Raymond made some calls around the Phoenix area and together, the two settled on Greenfield. The school emphasizes the importance of technology with its one-to-one initiative that ensures all students have iPads. The iPads, though, aren’t compatible with many of the technologies available in the new lab, whereas Microsoft products work seamlessly to help students learn new skills like programming and basic software engineering.

“I'm a huge proponent of science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” Beachum said. “And to be able to see how important this school feels about STEM, I just wanted to support it and I knew that they had a need, they needed some new laptops, they needed some new equipment. … So just to be able to help supplement some of those things, I'm just super excited about it.”

Although Greenfield prioritizes STEM fields, it certainly isn’t unique in that initiative. When Beachum and Raymond searched for schools that met their desired criteria, many made heavy use of technology.

Beachum, though, zeroed in on South Phoenix as an area where his donation could have a significant impact because the area is home to many of the city’s marginalized neighborhoods.

Greenfield, which has a 97.8% minority enrollment, serves as a microcosm for the underserved area. Of its students, 97.0% come from low-income families. Public school funding, which includes money from local property taxes, can only do so much in providing needed technology.

“There’s plenty of resources up there in Scottsdale,” Beachum said. “So to be able to come to a community that doesn't have these type of resources, doesn't get it often, doesn't get new products and doesn't get updated products, I just felt that this was a needed and after surveying the area, surveying Phoenix, spending time with the Cardinals organization, kinda finding where the best fit was, this was the school that fit that criteria.”

After discussing his donation with the kids, conversation inevitably turned towards football. They wished him well in Monday’s divisional round game against the Los Angeles Rams and one teacher offered luck in reaching the NFC Championship Game.

“Why stop there?” Beachum responded. “We want to win the Super Bowl.”

When the season does end, whether that’s on Monday or Feb. 13 in Inglewood, California, Beachum plans to return to South Phoenix to see the impact his donation is making.

The expectation, among teachers and administrators, is that it will be impossible to miss.

Theo Mackie covers Arizona high school sports and Phoenix Rising FC. He can be reached by email at theo.mackie@gannett.com and on Twitter @theo_mackie.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Cardinals' Beachum donates tablets to South Phoenix school