A Share from Cambridge City Counselor Dennis Benzan! #YESWECODE This past weekend my former middle school City Council intern, Pharaoh Saunders, and two of his friends travelled to Philadelphia , PA to attend My Brothers Keeper Hackathon. The idea to have the Brothers Keeper Hackathon came out of a conversation between Van Jones, co-host of CNNs Crossfire and singer Prince in the wake of the Treyvon Martin murder. At a meeting, Prince asked Van Jones the question: Why is it that when we see a black kid in a hoodie the assumption is that he is a thug but when we see a white kid in a hoodie we see him as a Mark Zuckerberg. For some the quick answer would be that our kids deal with institutionalized racism but for Prince the answer to his own question was that we need to create more black Mark Zuckerbergs. Princes last point is precisely the reason why we need to push hard as a community in Cambridge to develop a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) literate community to prepare for and help drive the innovation economy that is sweeping the country and world. I applaud Prince and Van Jones for making it possible for a group of black youth from Cambridge that otherwise would not have been part of such a life-changing opportunity. The #YESWECODE Hackathon was organized to give about 70 youth in the Northeast the opportunity to come up with ideas for the development of a Mobile App that could help solve problems they see in their community. Pharaoh and his friends from Cambridge came up with the brilliant idea of an App that takes pictures of blighted buildings in blighted communities. The App in turn helps conceptualize the revitalization of the buildings and community giving the youth ownership over the renaissance of their own communities. I am very proud of this group of Cambridge youth that not only travelled to Philadelphia on Amtrak to participate in the Hackathon but WON the competition. These are the same youth that are often tracked out of STEAM related fields. It is clear that if our youth are exposed to technology and opportunity that they will shine. I have asked Pharaoh to testify at an upcoming Summit on STEAM Workforce development on December 10, 2014 from 5:30-7:30pm in the City Council Chambers at Cambridge City Hall. Please join us to hear more about how we need to push for STEAM literate communities, especially in a city with a booming innovation economy.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 03:24:06 +0000
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