Vision:  An ecosystem that nurtures everyone’s genius and DREAMs

Mission: Create an intergenerational culture of innovation for students marginalized by society that connects them and their parents to unbounded opportunities in computer science, medicine and other fields

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Values:  Recognition of the genius in all children

 

Words:  Unbounded, Limitless, Legacy Wealth, and Purpose

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Target Population:  We will work with students of color and underserved students in urban (Chicago), micro-urban (Urbana-Champaign, and rural areas (Pembroke).

 

Problem Addressing:  Computer scientists from our target population represent a small number of faculty and industry professionals (e.g., around 2% Black). These low numbers are also true for medicine and other fields.

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Program Activities:  Two-hour activities on Saturdays for 12 months (Proposed start date October 2020). Possible activities include: data analysis, artificial intelligence, data visualization, math, algorithms, multi-media studio to represent CS concepts using art and music and mentoring (e.g., interviewing computing scientists in industry and the academy for podcasts, virtual shadowing, etc.), giving TEDxYouth talks about their experiences with computer science, questions and answer sessions with Nobel Prize Winners, etc. Students will also enter the Health Maker Lab’s annual Make-a-Thon $10,000 competitions and generate computer science solutions to society’s pressing problems.

 

Stipends:  100 Participants will receive $100 per quarter for a total of $400 for the year. Funding is available to purchase laptop computers for 50 participants.