Nia Asemota is a self-taught programmer interning at NASA as a software engineer. Despite being 21 years old, Nia has dozens of accolades behind her back. From collaborating with Black Girls CODE as a technical instructor, being a Game Design TA at the City College of New York’s free STEM Institute, to launching her own kids’ book about Black women engineers. She’s doing it all. But her journey has not been as smooth sailing as some might assume, as she’s had to navigate being one of just a few girls
In 2017, Iris Nevins decided to leave her job as a teacher in Florida to attend a bootcamp in the Bay Area – but it was not without its struggles. On a Go-fund Me page – where she asked for support – she said: “I began learning how to code through online tutorials, and 7 months later, I quit my job as an 8th-grade history teacher, left my organization, and moved to the Bay Area to attend a coding BootCamp. “Making such a transition is very costly as I had
Back in April 2021, João Gualberto, the district mayor of Mata de São João, held an in-person auction letting Brazilian technology companies bid for a contract to supply facial recognition technology for the public school system. The $162,000 tender was won by PontoiD, and in July that year, two public schools — João Pereira Vasconcelos and Celia Goulart de Freitas — began secretly rolling out the facial recognition system, without informing parents or students in advance, according to research by Rest Of World. Students were registered on the system, which
Morgan State University will host a tribute to the memory of its alumnus Earl G. Graves Sr, founder of Black Enterprise, the magazine launched in 1970 for Black professionals and entrepreneurs. Graves died in 2020, and due to safety restrictions during the height of the pandemic, no memorial at the university was held at the time. This celebration of his life has been in planning for over a year. Family and friends of Graves, Morgan State University president Dr. David K. Wilson, and civil rights leaders will gather at the Earl Graves
Black content creators continue to lead the way in online spaces such as Instagram – from memes, and dances to the way in which they have utilized the app for digital activism and campaigning on important issues. But for far too long – these same creators have often been cast to the side, not credited, and even paid less by advertisers and brands. A report published last year by the communications company MSL and educational organization The Influencer League stated that the pay gap between Black and white content creators
Clark Atlanta has announced that it has been awarded nearly $12 million in grant funding to establish a “Knowledge Metaverse” hub. The Knowledge Metaverse, according to a school release, “amplifies access and engagement in learning by combining the real world with digital information and extended reality (XR) similar to immersive experiences that have become increasingly popular in arts, gaming, and entertainment.” The grant was supplied by EON Reality, described by the school as “the global leader in augmented and virtual reality learning solutions.” Clark Atlanta is the first HBCU to
Since the start of the pandemic, the School District of Philadelphia has worked on getting students connected to broadband internet at home and making sure they have the right devices that will help them learn. Back in April 2020, it rolled out a program to get Chromebooks into the hands of more than 117,000 students via the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia and more than $7 million in donations. But with the distribution of thousands of devices comes the need for routine repairs and troubleshooting and that’s where one West Philadelphia High School class
Goodwin has just announced its latest partnership with Meta on a new IP/Tech Scholarship Program for students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) planning to pursue a career in intellectual property or technology law. The new program provides $20,000 scholarships to graduating seniors from historically excluded groups who are currently attending HBCUs and will be starting law school in fall 2022. Awardees will spend one week this summer at a Goodwin office, shadowing firm lawyers to learn more about the firm and its practice areas. Each awardee will be
Antler East Africa, the Nairobi office of VC firm and venture builder Antler, has closed a $13.5 million fund to invest in early-stage tech startups in the region. Antler, which was first launched in 2019, actually intended to raise $10 million but ended up with an extra $3.5 million. It runs a full venture building model with two cohorts each year. Five cohorts with 153 founders have passed through the accelerator programs so far, and the firm has made 14 investments, according to reports and a few of them include
TechLit Africa redistributes recycled technology to build computer labs in African schools. With 4,000 students and 20 teachers, the organization has built 10 computer labs in rural Kenya and is currently working on the next 100 computer labs. Cheboi, who grew up in a poor rural village in Kenya, landed a full scholarship to study computer science at Augustana College in Illinois and later built a school in Kenya, Zawadi, where she started TechLit Africa. When speaking about her startup, she says: “I grew up in rural Kenya, Mogotio. The
