“This is a bridge I want you to cross—and have a good time crossing over it. It’s going to change your life.”
T.D. Jakes
Chairman
T.D. Jakes Foundation
.…welcoming students to the foundation’s third annual STEAM Academy program earlier this month.
Bishop Jakes shared the message above with 386 high school students attending in person or virtually from 24 U.S. states and eight countries as far away as South Africa and the United Kingdom.
He was welcoming the students to the T.D. Jakes Foundation’s third annual STEAM Academy, a free, two-week immersive “hackathon” that challenged students from age 14 to 18 to solve complex problems
Presented in early June by the Dallas Mavericks and powered by Goldman Sachs, the hackathon enabled students to work alongside Goldman Sachs engineers as they navigated the engineering process. They were guided on how to ideate, prototype an idea, and communicate with impact.
Winners Announced
Today the foundation announced the hackathon’s six winners. Participating together as Team Flourish, the winning Dallas-area high school students are Caleb Cox, 15, Gabriel Crutchfield, 18, Savannah Crutchfield, 17, Katelyn Demars, 15, Ju-Sky Dunn, 14, and Alan Samineedi, 16. The team, which competed against four other top groups, developed an app to help people with mental illness get the help they need.
“I actually didn’t even know what engineering was until I joined,” said Caleb Cox of Cedar Hill. “But now that the program is over and we won, I think I might give engineering a try.”
The winners get free tickets to a Mavs game, compliments of Goldman Sachs. Along with all the other participating students, they also got good advice from Goldman Sachs Co-Chief Information Officer George Lee.
“Regardless of your career, your job is going to become a tech job,” Lee told the students. “If you want to build code and write software—that’s awesome—if not, you still need to know how this world works. The language of tech is going to make you successful no matter what you do.”
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R E A D N E X T
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With Dallas ranked as one of the top cities in America for tech pros, UT Dallas and Fullstack have launched four skills training bootcamps focused on coding, cybersecurity, data analytics, and DevOps. The online bootcamps begin in November with tuition at $11,995 each.
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The private donations by local companies and foundations are for the Dallas R.E.A.L. Time Rapid Rehousing initiative. Its goal: house more than 2,700 homeless people and families over the next two years. The $10M in private funds will complement $62M in federal funds allocated by local governments and DHA, the North Texas housing authority.
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Forefront Living's Presbyterian Village North senior living community in North Dallas will be home to a new Bezos Academy in Fall 2022. The tuition-free, Montessori-inspired Bezos Academy will be the first in Texas—and second in the nation—to be located in a senior living community. "We believe in the power of generations interacting," says Tim Mallad, CEO of Forefront Living.
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North Texas Giving Day lasts more than a day—its 14th annual event will kick off September 1 and run through September 22. To get both nonprofits and North Texans ready for it, the Communities Foundation of Texas is partnering with software company Mightycause for a new fundraising platform this year. “We want to continue to grow the spirit of giving by engaging and activating more donors as each individual gift, no matter the size, helps the collective,” says CFT Senior VP Monica Christopher.
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A $96,500 Micron Foundation grant is bringing robotics, coding and AI-ready tools to Richardson ISD elementary classrooms.
