Convenor: Damola
Participants: Sadie, Damola
Main topics of conversation:
- Bringing equitable steam education to youth in disadvantaged communities in a creative and innovative manner. Ideally this would lead to greater minority representation in steam related fields and greater access to cutting-edge technology for disadvantaged students who typically would not have access to this technology.
- Many Edutech companies design curriculums that are not tailored specifically for minority students. These solutions often fail to move the needle in terms of improving the education and employment outcomes of the students they serve in a meaningful manner.
- Equipping disadvantaged students who have the desire to attend highly selective universities (e.g. MIT, Harvard, CMU, etc.) and have an interest in entrepreneurship with the skill sets to succeed at any early age.
Admittedly, most of the conversation centered around Damola’s entrepreneurial endeavor ToyzElectronics, which is run and operated by Damola and his son.
ToyzElectronics is a Carnegie Mellon University start up housed at Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. (link to the ToyzElectronics main page can be found here https://toyzelectronics.com/)
In an effort to address the issues raised in the main topics section of this document, ToyzElectronics offers the following solutions:
- Dah University (metaverse app) – Developed by ToyzElectronics, Dah-Univesity is an app that empowers diverse and disadvantaged students through the creation of super hero avatars in the metaverse. Students have the opportunity to interact with other students and learn about art and culture while developing technical skills as well.
- CCAC Career Training – 15-hour course offered to students that focuses on career development, training, and growth towards technical leadership positions in the future. The course is focused on teaching technical and soft skills in a culturally relevant and responsive way and empowers students with a wide range of skills using literacy, numeracy, entrepreneurship, leadership, and content creation. Instruction is based on a combination of tech and business skills, soft skills, and hands-on STEAM learning. Students go through the process of developing a superhero character and then use computer modeling and digital storytelling to create and realize their idea.
- DEI Course Inclusion Superpowers – Inclusive Superpowers is a collaboration with Damola Idowu from ToyzElectronics and Dr. Victoria Mattingly of Mattingly Solutions.
- Inclusion Superpowers is a 6-week project-based training to accelerate your businesses diversity, equity, & inclusion (DEI) efforts using creative storytelling and inclusive design.
- It was created as an alternative to the typical DEI training offered by corporations.
- Teams learn DEI concepts using creative storytelling, self-discovery, product design and teamwork, and creating media assets together to use in ongoing DEI work (e.g. podcasts, video and audio recordings, etc.).
- Link to the Inclusion Superpowers page can be found here: https://www.mattinglysolutions.com/inclusion-superpowers
We welcome your ideas.