American Express OPEN Encourages Diversity In Tech as 2013 FOCUS100 Financial Partner

One of the MOST Diverse Tech Conferences on the Planet Kicks Off October 4th in New York City with over 80% of speakers women and people of color 

New York, August 29 2013 – American Express OPEN joins digitalundivided’s FOCUS100 Symposium and Bootcamp as the exclusive financial partner. The 3 day conference, taking place October 4th – 6th, 2013 in New York City, connects tech companies with founders/co-founders who are black women, angel and venture investors, leading corporations, and those interested in the future of tech. 

American Express OPEN offers small business owners products and services to help them grow and run their businesses efficiently. It's a growing community of innovative and successful entrepreneurs and digitalundivided is a proud partner. Valerie Morris, former CNN anchor and financial expert will be leading the OPEN for Women: CEO BootCamp session at FOCUS100. Valerie will present a workshop on “Harnessing the Power of Money” designed to help women CEOs better understand how to build the right team and resources to manage their finances and grow their business. 

FOCUS100 continues to bring together diverse leaders in the tech industry. This year, the keynotes include Three-time Grammy award winner, digital pioneer and founder of several Silicon Valley based startups, MC Hammer; MacArthur “Genius” Award Recipient Majora Carter; Lisa Lambert, Vice President of Intel Capital; and Stacy Brown Philpot, COO of taskrabbit.

“FOCUS100 is a great chance to connect with people who have the same mission as me, expansion of opportunity, expansion of job creation, and creating new avenues of promise for our community”, said Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, New Jersey. 

FOCUS100 redefines the traditional view of “who is tech” by spotlighting top entrepreneurs and innovators who also happen to be women of color. Last year, FOCUS100 reached over 3 million people with 47 million impressions (tweet reach 10/8/12). 30% of the 40 FOCUS FELLOW companies (founded or co-founded by black women) received next step meetings with investors, eight (8) received angel and/or funding. Speakers included Mayor Booker and Majora Carter.

“The Black community, especially black women, are a vital part of the overall tech eco- system, as both consumers and creators” said Kathryn Finney, Founder and Managing Director of digitalundivided. “If you’re looking for diversity in terms of ideas and thoughts around technology and the startup world, then you must attend FOCUS100.” 

digitalundivided’s “…ability to attract high profile leaders in the industry who are willing to engage with new entrepreneurs is the game changer for black women in technology who struggle to be seen.", says FOCUS100 panelist Tracey Solomon, co-founder of Hoseanna, an e-commerce company where women can sign up for deliveries of must- have hosiery, leggings and shape wear, among other necessities. 

For more information on the event including sponsorship and registration, please visit: 

http://www.digitalundivided.com/ 

For media inquiries, please contact PR Coordinator Amanda Spann at Amanda@digitalundivided.com 

About digitalundivided 

digitalundivided (DID) is a social enterprise that builds forward thinking initiatives that fundamentally change the digital space by increasing the number of urban women digital 

entrepreneurs. Founded in 2012, digitalundivided’s programs and projects, such as the 

START series of national workshops and the weekly DIDTechTalk with leaders in the world of tech, have reached over 4 million people. 

About FOCUS100 

The FOCUS100 (#FOCUS100) is a Startup bootcamp and symposium that connects thought leaders, tech startups founded or co-founded by black women, brand managers, 

and innovators. The symposium features keynotes with game changers like Mayor Cory 

Booker, MC Hammer, Stacy Brown Philpot (taskrabbit), Majora Carter, Erik Moore (Zappos) and more. The event includes, panels on emerging technologies and a PITCH session with top Angel and Venture Capitalists. 

STEM program at NYU-Poly and Northrop Grumman

NYU-POLY PARTNERS WITH HEAF TO OFFER “STEM” EDUCATION TO MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

Science of Smart Cities Program Helps Students Prepare for the “Jobs of Tomorrow” by Exposing Them to Hands-On, Project-Based Curriculum and Leading Energy and Aerospace Experts

NEW YORK – April 18, 2013 – Continuing its tradition of offering the most advanced coursework to its middle and high school students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and other areas, nonprofit Harlem Educational Activities Fund (HEAF) has partnered with the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) to expand NYU-Poly’s prestigious Science of Smart Cities (SoSC) program to HEAF’s seventh and eighth graders. SoSC offers New York City public school students the opportunity to learn and apply advanced STEM knowledge and skills through hands-on instruction, innovative curriculum and field trips with the hope to prepare students to pursue STEM careers.  

NYU Poly’s Center for K12 STEM Education builds on an existing academic relationship with HEAF, the leading supplemental education nonprofit in New York City that turns underserved New York City middle and high school students into high-achieving college graduates. Taught by the university’s undergrad students, NYU-Poly’s SoSC offers HEAF’s middle school students the opportunity to learn and understand how various urban systems, including water, waste management, energy and communications, function and how advances in technology and engineering can improve the world’s cities. 

Applying what they have learned in these specialized classes, the students visited the downtown Brooklyn offices of Northrop Grumman, a leading American aerospace and defense technology company as well as an avid supporter of STEM education among K-12 students. HEAF students received instruction from Northrop Grumman engineers who covered a range of contemporary urban topics, such as traffic engineering and sustainability. In May, the program culminates in final projects for which students will construct their own model “smart city” using real-world materials and technologies.

Programs such as NYU-Poly’s SoSC that expose students to STEM fields early in their academic careers are more important than ever. The demand for STEM education is increasing both at the federal and local levels, as the U.S. competes to reassert its position as a global leader in the science and technology fields. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 2.1 million new jobs in STEM areas will exist by 2020. However, only 23 percent of college freshmen are entering STEM majors, and only a fraction of these students are African American and Latino.  Both HEAF and NYU-Poly are recognized leaders in educating underserved communities.

“As President Obama recently stated in his State of the Union address and has reinforced through his Administration’s Educate to Innovate campaign, we need to better equip students for the demands of a high-tech economy,” said Ruth Rathblott, president and CEO of HEAF. “In order to do that, we must increase STEM literacy among students, especially those from underrepresented groups, and provide hands-on, real-world experiences that pique their intellectual curiosity and build their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Through our great partnership with NYU-Poly and our own curriculum, we are arming our students with highly advanced coursework and exposing them to a higher education experience early on, which will prepare them for college, career and a lifetime of learning.”

“We are delighted to partner with HEAF to provide our STEM curriculum to their students and introduce the field of engineering in the context of urban systems and sustainability,” said Ben Esner, director of the Center for K12 STEM Education at NYU-Poly. “NYU-Poly’s Science of Smart Cities program starts with something young people relate to—their immediate environment—and demonstrates how the tools of science and technology can shape the future they’d like to make happen.”

HEAF’s participation in NYU-Poly’s SoSC is just one example of how HEAF is exposing its students to college-level work and direct experience with higher education institutions. Last year, an NYU-Poly graduate student mentored HEAF’s high school students through the FIRST Tech Challenge robotics competition, during which HEAF students designed, built and programmed robots to compete against other high school teams. HEAF frequently partners with a number of other prestigious universities – such as Barnard College, where students have studied humanities including women’s history, and Touro College, where students have studied health education – to expose them to college-level work that is often not available to inner-city students. For more than 20 years, HEAF has an unmatched track record of success with 100 percent of students graduating high school and 98 percent pursing higher education. This compares to 65 percent of all New York City students graduating high school and only 37 percent of African-American and Hispanic male youth completing high school in four years. For more information about HEAF or the Smart Cities program, visit www.heaf.org. For more information on NYU-Poly’s K12 Center for STEM Education, visitwww.poly.edu/k12stem.

EDITOR’S NOTE: On May 18, 2013 at 12 p.m. ET, HEAF students will present their Science of Smart Cities projects at HEAF (2090 Adam Clayton Powell Junior Boulevard, New York, N.Y. 10027). Media are invited to attend.

About Polytechnic Institute of New York UniversityThe Polytechnic Institute of New York University (formerly the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and the Polytechnic University, now widely known as NYU-Poly) is an affiliated institute of New York University, soon to be its School of Engineering. NYU-Poly, founded in 1854, is the nation's second-oldest private engineering school. It is presently a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a 159-year tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. It remains on the cutting edge of technology, innovatively extending the benefits of science, engineering, management and liberal studies to critical real-world opportunities and challenges, especially those linked to urban systems, health and wellness, and the global information economy. In addition to its programs on the main campus in New York City at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, it offers programs around the globe remotely through NYU-Poly. NYU-Poly is closely connected to engineering in NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai and to the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) also at MetroTech, while operating two incubators in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. For more information, visit www.poly.edu.

About HEAF

The Harlem Educational Activities Fund (HEAF) is a high-impact supplemental education and youth leadership nonprofit that turns high-potential but underserved New York City public school students into high-achieving college graduates. HEAF enrolls qualifying students in middle school and supports them until they are successfully admitted to ― and graduate from ― four-year colleges. HEAF offers a variety of after-school, Saturday and summer educational and youth development programs that enable students to develop the intellectual curiosity, academic ability, social values and personal resiliency they need to ensure success in school, career and life. HEAF’s track record of success is unmatched in the industry: 100 percent of HEAF students graduate college, 100 percent go on to higher education and 35 percent obtain advanced degrees. For more information about HEAF or to get involved, visit www.heaf.org.

National Space Biomedical Research Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

NSBRI is a NASA-funded, non-profit research consortium charged with developing biomedical countermeasures and technologies for potential health problems that could occur in astronauts either during long-duration spaceflight, on exploration missions, or upon return to Earth.  NSBRI’s current program, aligned with NASA’s exploration objectives, consists of approximately 44 science and technology projects organized into research teams.


NSBRI invites ground-based research applications for Postdoctoral Fellowships. Minority.Scientist briefly summarized the details of this fellowship opportunity below, but please review the entire application for more information. Good luck!

Proposals:  Proposals can either address topics of interest to one of the seven existing NSBRI research teams, or the supplemental cross-cutting research area of Food Science, which has importance to both NSBRI and the NASA Human Research Program (HRP). The seven research teams are as follows:

• Cardiovascular Alterations
• Human Factors and Performance
• Musculoskeletal Alterations
• Neurobehavioral and Psychosocial Factors 
• Radiation Effects 
• Sensorimotor Adaptation
• Smart Medical Systems and Technology

Who can apply: The program is open to U.S. citizens, permanent residents or persons with pre-existing visas obtained through their sponsoring institutions that permit postdoctoral training for the project’s duration.

Duration: Postdoctoral Fellowships will be competitively awarded for two years, with an opportunity for a third year renewal, in any laboratory in the U.S. conducting biomedical/biotechnological research aligned with NSBRI’s goals

Stipend: First year- $42,500; Second year- $43,775

Deadline: June 7, 2013

NSBRI-RFA-13-01: NSBRI Request for Applications Soliciting Postdoctoral Fellows