78 Atlanta Area Students Participate in the Inaugural “Goodie Innovation” Student Edition,

ATLANTA - April 2, 2015 - PRLog -- Contact: Alicia Edwards
Tel. 917-747-4757

Email: alicia@amplify4good.org

Date: 04/01/2015

78 Atlanta Area Students Participate in the Inaugural “Goodie Innovation” Student Edition,

in partnership with the United Negro College Fund and Accelerate with Google

April 1, 2015, Atlanta, GA: On Saturday March 28th, Amplify 4 Good welcomed 78 Atlanta area college and high school students for a special edition of ‘Goodie Innovation’, in partnership with the United Negro College Fund and Accelerate With Google.  Hosted at the newly opened General Assembly in Ponce City Market, ‘Goodie Innovation’ gave area students the opportunity to experience a civic “hackathon” and tackle 6 critical issues impacting Atlanta’s underserved communities.  With the help of volunteer mentors and a crash course in launching a start-up, teams collaborated to develop a technology driven solution for one of the six issues.

This special edition of Goodie Innovation helped students learn tech startup philosophies and methodologies, become aware of pressing social problems impacting their communities, and showcased their brilliant innovation in developing mock companies that can solve them.

Powered by Accelerate by Google (http://accelerate.withgoogle.com/) (using Google products Drive, Slides and Docs) to communicate and collaborate, diverse teams of high school and college men and women along with two adult mentors tackled social issues like education inequality, food deserts, physical inactivity, mentorship and negative self esteem and self image. After a few hours of brainstorming, the nail biting pitch competition gave the judges the task of choosing the winner and which teams would advance to next week’s HBCU (http://www.hbcuinnovation.org/) I.C.E (http://www.hbcuinnovation.org/). (Innovation, Commercialization and (http://www.hbcuinnovation.org/) Entrepreneurship) (http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hbcuinnovation.org%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHDBy-cFHBVJ-kHDtzOpESmEs-A-A) competition (http://www.hbcuinnovation.org/) where the technology part of their ideas will be built by African-American Computer Science students.

The winning team, NXT STEP, responded to the issue of lack of resources for parents looking to help guide their graduating high school students to the next step in life. NXT STEP is a website that helps parents plan for their children’s post-high school education by providing answers to frequently asked  questions and concerns then directing them to agencies and programs that can further help streamline their search.

Congratulations to the following students of NXT STEP:

Maygan Hooper, Clayton State University

A’nita Evans, Clayton State University

Darnell Hurt , Clayton State University

Amber Jenkins , Gateway to College Academy

Nia Willis , Spelman College

Micaela Harris, Spelman College

Three other teams were also selected to proceed to next week’s HBCU I.C.E. Hackathon. The judges made their decisions based on creativity, feasibility and impact potential.

Thank you to the judges:

David Duncan (http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidaduncan/en),  Director of the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurial Development @ Clark Atlanta University

Tiffany Wilson Clark (http://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanywilsonkarp/en), Executive Director @ Global Center for Medical Innovation

Nyaboke Machini (http://www.linkedin.com/in/nmachini/en), Director of Community Outreach @ GivingPoint

Daniel Shoy Jr (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/daniel-shoy/0/33a/8b5/en), President @ East Lake Foundation

Rohit Udavant (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rohit-udavant/12/b5/965/en), Product Manager @ Eaton

Natasha Foreman Bryant (http://www.linkedin.com/in/natashaforemanbryant/en), Co-Founder @ Storiboard Nation

For a complete list of winners, please contact alicia@amplify4good.org.

Amplify 4 Good (http://amplify4good.org/) is a nonprofit which connects service organizations and entrepreneurs with talented volunteers to address their business needs by creating scalable solutions in the areas of economic development, education, health & wellness, and safety through idea sharing, innovation, and partnerships.

Goodie Innovation (http://goodieinnovation.com/uncf/): Student Edition is a mashup of entrepreneurship, tech, social good, and highly-skilled students. It’s, quite possibly, the coolest community service and learning project you’ll ever experience.

United Negro College Fund (UNCF) (http://www.uncf.org/)is the nation's largest and most effective minority education organization. Since its founding in 1944, UNCF has raised more than $3.6 billion to help more than 400,000 students receive college degrees at UNCF-member institutions and with UNCF scholarships.