Youth Empowerment Our goal is simple, our vision is clear: Empowering kids to develop the knowledge, skill and mind set needed to be our leaders and innovators of the future. In the late 1920’s American secondary institutions trained black high school students to become watch repairers, hat makers and tailors. In the 1960’s black high school students were trained to become secretaries, clerical workers, seamstresses, and encouraged to pursue careers in the military. During those times blacks were told they were free and entitled to receive public education, but in reality the public education provided was merely training grounds for careers in servitude. The books used to educate were handed down, no longer relevant, out dated material intended to prevent black students from advancing and achieving equal success as their counterparts. In an attempt to brain wash an entire people, America bloviated how black students received the same free education just as whites, but it wasn’t true. White students were groomed to be leaders, to be the boss, to decide who in the black community could feed their families and who could not. Today in 2017 there are more African Americans with college degrees then ever in history. We demanded betters books, tools and supplies; we now attend colleges, pursuing a record number of advanced degrees. We are educators, Doctors, Lawyers, Scientist, and yes the President of the United States. Those accomplishments are great, our ancestors would be very proud. However the recent election of Donald Trump as president has brought to surface what 90% of African Americans already knew; the simmering hatred of some Americans who can’t accept the accomplishment of people of color. They’ve surreptitiously changed the game. white Americans are training their children for careers at earlier ages for example, you have pilots who are barely in their teens, chefs who haven't completed middle school, clothing designers who haven't had algebra, first graders providing reviews on their own Utube channel and 6th graders creating robots, they have 3D computers and are making artificial limbs for other children and 7th graders are creating App’s that are being used in schools across the country. Those are careers of the future; children of color are not advancing in those fields. Right now as children they're being encouraged to participate in sports, entertainment and computer science, but that’s not enough. By the time they enter college their white counterparts will have many years more experience in the future work force. As children of color students begin learning these new skills their white counterpart will be running companies. It’s imperative we reach out to our younger children and teach them skills outside our box. Future careers are heavily influenced with math and science. Technological advancement is growing by leaps and bounds, we already know children are like sponges, now is a great time to assemble new programs that will allow all children to have an equal opportunity in all fields. Schools and local officials should be lobbied and expected to comply if they expect to keep their positions, to include these programs in their general curriculum with re-enforcement of the same teaching by way of after school programs. They are as follows:
APP Academy: Creating and developing APP’s can lead to careers in software development and allow students to gain experience and confidence in building rewarding software that can be used in everyday living. Today APP developers earn an average salary of 105K per year.
Robotics Academy: In the very near future, robots will be used for business, government and private industry, from personal life size robots to small personal robots; we will use robots to drive our cars as already seen with Uber, run our machinery and operate defense weaponry. The opportunities are endless; the median salary for a robotic engineer is 95K per year.
3D Printing: With 3D printing you can build tools, create gadgets, and manufacture art and artificial limbs. These printers can produce food, prototype inventions and design and build new toys. If you imagine it you can build it. This skill can lead to careers in mechanical engineering, application engineers, design architects and professional artist. The average 3D printing salary is 82K per year. We’ll also be utilizing Kano, a D.I.Y kit that shows your kid how to build a real computer and teaches them to code all their favorite things From art to music to mine craft. They’ll learn how to create technology not just consume it, giving them vital building blocks for the future. Finally on the parenting side, we must teach our kids financial literacy early on instead of learning through mistakes like we did. Teach them how credit works, paying actual bills, checking accounts and so forth, don’t pass down the struggle. Now while we absolutely need to hold all teachers accountable that are teaching our youth, helping to nurture their dreams and talents, we also need to revamp how we recognize and reward those teachers who are doing an outstanding job. We will institute an end of the year award ceremony with cash prizes and various perks.
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