Posts Tagged ‘Women Empowerment’
Scholar Spotlight: Hannah L.
Hannah is a 2024 graduate of HYPE’s Leadership Academy, and she continues to find new and impressive ways to demonstrate her leadership within the HYPE community – and beyond! She was recently selected as a participant on Delta Air Lines’ Women Inspiring our Next Generation (WING) flight. On Friday September 20, 2024, Delta will fill…
Read MoreThe HYPE Project Expands to Six Metro Atlanta School Districts
ATLANTA, GA – Hope for Youth through Providing Educational Opportunities (HYPE), a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering girls of color with technology skills, is excited to announce its expansion into six metro Atlanta counties. The organization’s transformative coding classes and leadership programs are now in Atlanta Public Schools, Fulton County Public Schools, Clayton County Public…
Read MoreScholar Spotlight: Talaia R.
Talaia has been in the HYPE family since 2020. She is a former HYPE scholarship recipient and is starting her junior year of college majoring in cybersecurity. We recently asked Talaia some questions to get to know her better. Here’s what she had to say: What is your favorite part about being involved in HYPE?…
Read MoreThe 2024 HYPE International Experience was Saved by Students’ Heart for Service
You can imagine how stressed we were when Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Jamaica just days before our nine HYPE alumnae and three trip leaders were scheduled to take off for our 2024 HYPE International Experience. This was set to be our first trip since 2019, and we worried that yet another trip would be…
Read MoreHYPE is Here for the Future of Girls of Color in STEM
For HYPE founder and recent finalist for the Women in Tech’s Woman of the Year in STEAM Education award Kristina Newton, it’s personal.
“Despite all my potential and capabilities I had in the tech workforce, I felt alone. I didn’t see myself represented in leadership anywhere,” said Newton. “But my experiences as a Black woman in tech and the corporate workforce weren’t unique.”
With only 3 percent of computing-related jobs held by Black women, Newton experienced firsthand the challenges that so many minority women continue to face. “There really is not a reason why I shouldn’t be an executive or like a senior leader in a tech company today,” said Newton as she reflected on her trajectory through middle school, high school, college, and even into her seven-year career in technology.
Due to that lack of opportunity and representation, Newton left her role as consultant for Accenture in 2013 to find her place of belonging, which led to her launching HYPE in 2017.
Read MoreHYPE featured in Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta blog titled “HERstory: Women Empowering Women”
The HYPE Project partners with schools, school districts and other youth-serving nonprofit organizations to provide access to 21st century skills-building education and exposure to technology careers for and from individuals who are currently underrepresented in tech. During the COVID pandemic, they’ve been engaging Black and brown girls in middle and high school in community-driven and culturally relevant computer science education through a virtual after-school coding program. Their efforts not only help them to connect students during this time, but teaches them a critical skill in a subject that is missing in over 50% of our high schools, and helps them develop as leaders and problem solvers. HYPE’s Founder and CEO Kristina Smith-Newton states, “Women empowerment is important in and of itself, and we’ve seen on numerous occasions that to empower women means empowering generations and ultimately changing the world. However, women empowering women is not only important, it’s special and powerful. When a woman uses her influence and position to empower and uplift other women, it is an intentional act, it carries a special meaning, and it reverses years of dangerous and incorrect thinking that women should be in competition with one another. When we choose to celebrate instead of compete, everyone wins – and it’s a beautiful thing to witness.”
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