Prep for Prep’s Institute for Entrepreneurship Champions Young Innovators

Prep for Prep students develop the language learning app, AfroScholars, to bring West African languages and cultures to a wider audience.
Prep high school students Daniel S. (XL), Jayden L. (XXXIX), Maimouna S. (P9 XXX), and Ziara P. (P9 XXXII) developed a language learning app to bridge the gap between the nearly 50 million people in the United States that are part of the African diaspora and the less than 2% that actually speak an African language. Their app, AfroScholars, was born out of an understanding that culture and representation are housed in the language of a people. Daniel is of Nigerian descent and was able to learn Yoruba as a child; whereas Maimouna struggled to learn her native tongue, Bambara, spoken in Mali. Jayden understands the importance of language as his grandparents speak an uncommon Chinese dialect that he's had difficulty learning, and Ziara lost her native language, Spanish, when she immigrated to the US from the Dominican Republic. 
 
The students developed the app as part of Prep for Prep's Institute for Entrepreneurship (IFE), a five-week summer program in entrepreneurship and technology for rising 10th to 12th graders. Like many events this year, this was the first time IFE was held entirely online.  This format provided new opportunities for the leadership development team to bring student projects to a wider audience. This year, 27 students participated in Q&A sessions with small business owners, tech giants, and entrepreneurs all while developing their own tech-based business plans to pitch to a panel of judges in the final week of the program. As first place winners, the AfroScholars team received $1,400 to help develop their startup, and a Stadia Controller courtesy of Google. 

Congratulations are also in order for Supernova who placed second and ADDChat who placed third. Supernova is a one-stop-shop for all things related to current events and activism, made by students for students. ADDChat is a social media platform for those diagnosed with ADD that includes a time management calendar and forum to connect and exchange information. Both will receive a cash prize and gift from Google as well. The IFE instructors created a website where the Prep Community could see each team’s project and vote for their favorites. After counting your votes, the People’s Choice Award was given to Supernova! 

This program would not have been possible without Prep Trustee Dale Allsopp (VII) and all the Google employees who served as mentors to our students, business instructor Stephanie McCalmon (XX), and our partners at Upperline Code. Many thanks to the judges: Prep alums Olivia Deng (XXX) and Victor Hunt (P9 XXIII), Google NYC’s Catherine Courage, and our CEO Ruth Jurgensen. Well done to all the students who participated in this year’s IFE program!
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