Is Silicon Valley Ready for HBCUs?! UNCF and Qeyno launch HBCU ICE Initiative Hackathon.

In less than two hours, Atlanta’s HBCU students from Spelman College, Morehouse College, and Clark Atlanta University will be pitching their apps to a panel of judges and experts in a historic initiative by UNCF to transform historically Black colleges and universities into centers for twenty-first century innovation.

First, what the ****** is a hackathon?

This was one of my opening slides for the keynote I gave (along with the incredible Dr. Howard Fuller) at the Yale Education Leadership Conference. For many in the room, educators from far and wide, it was their first time learning about “hackathons”, particularly Hackathon Academy, Qeyno’s three-day accelerated learning experience for high potential youth in low opportunity settings.

Hackathons gather together technologists (coders), artists (designers), and problem solvers (innovators) to brainstorm, design and build a web or mobile app that can change the world, create a business, or both!

The problem is — most hackathons look like this:

Even youth-focused hackathons share the same problem:

Upper middle class young white males are the stars, while women, minorities, and the economically marginalized play the supporting roles.

At Qeyno, we wanted to change that. From our first Black Male Achievement hackathon in Oakland (CA), to our hackathon at the 20th Annual Essence Festival (New Orleans, LA) to our first White House My Brother’s Keeper hackathon in Philadelphia (PA), we set out to change the hackathon landscape from this:

To looking and feeling more like this:

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to experience Hillman College in the 21st century?

For two days, Qeyno is in Atlanta, courtesy of UNCF to unleash next generation developers, designers, and innovators at HBCU’s (historically black colleges and universities) and beyond. Qeyno hackathons embody the high demand skills of the 21st century economy by creating a fast-paced environment where participants tap their every day experiences and transform them into scaleable technologies. Essentially, we provide our participants, “A Different World”…from where they come from.

As part of their Tech-Empowerment Week, The HBCU ICE Initiative is central to this accelerator experience thanks to event partners like digitalundivided’s START program, a day long workshop series that introduces aspiring entrepreneurs and college students at HBCUs to the tools they need to create successful tech-enabled companies and Goodie Hack, an Atlanta-based social entrepreneurship organization.

But why a hackathon rather than a career exhibition or a science fair? Why not a robotics competition — kids like to build stuff right?

Hackathons as collaborative computer programming events are the social building blocks to the knowledge spillover environment that creates regional innovation clusters like Silicon Valley.

Recently, The New York Times featured an article by Steven Leckart that prominently features hackathons as stepping stones for college students gaining access to tech company giants.

Of the many images of ingenious, exhausted, pizza-fueled techies on the article, there wasn't a single image that included a Black or Latino student, as their demographic represents 1–3% of Silicon Valley’s workforce.

It’s time for that to change, and the change starts with us. Thanks to our partners like Black Founders, Kapor Center for Social Impact, and Urban Tech Alliance, Qeyno is in Atlanta to support the historic work of UNCF and UNCF supports the groundbreaking work of Qeyno Labs.

Qeyno Hackathons are not your typical Silicon Valley collaborative coding event. We are the leading provider of youth hackathons for inclusive innovation and we have developed a science to our educational model — Hackathon Academy, but you have to see it to believe it.

We are inviting you to be a part of history and attend our closing pitches this evening. Watch history unfold as Qeyno expands to include many more cities and audiences, around the nation, and around the globe.

Congratulations to our HBCU ICEHack Trailblazers and Mentors!