July 22nd marked the end of summer programming for our Intensive Immersion Program at our Oakland and Atlanta sites. Over the past 7-weeks, over 140 Hidden Geniuses representing six cohorts (OAK11 Black, OAK11 Gold, OAK12 Black, OAK12 Gold, ATL1, and ATL2) convened at their sites to bond as brothers, and to learn everything there is to know about computer science, entrepreneurship, and leadership. We are extremely proud of our Geniuses and team members for working so hard these past 7 weeks. Congratulations!

Check out our summer programming highlights below including our 2024 Atlanta and Oakland Business Trip Partners.

IMMERSION PROGRAMMING IN ACTION

Every summer we have an incoming and outgoing cohort of Geniuses that overlaps. The incoming cohorts are just starting their journey in our Intensive Immersion Program while our outgoing cohorts are completing their second summer.

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

All incoming Geniuses starts their first summer learning the basics of computer science, leadership, and entrepreneurship from our team of Innovation Educators and Youth Educators. At the end of the summer, each Genius will have designed and coded a website from scratch, and more!

Before our outgoing Geniuses begins their second summer, they have an opportunity to complete a final project in a specialized track of their choice. During the summer, they use everything they learned in our 15-month program to complete their cumulative projects. Learn more about our specialized tracks below.

GAME DESIGN TRACK

Instead of being consumers of games, we teach our Geniuses how to design and build their own. In this track, our game developers learn how to use Unity and gain experience of what it takes it create a game from beginning to end.

ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE TRACK

In addition to teaching our Geniuses how to create a website, we also expose them to the basics of artificial intelligence (or AI). In this track, our young men learn how to develop their AI platforms similar to popular platforms like ChatGPT.

BUSINESS TRACK

In this track, we cultivate our Geniuses natural entrepreneurship abilities and equip them with the knowledge and resources to start their own businesses. From entity formation to surveying stakeholders, our young entrepreneurs are understanding how to validate their business ideas and target their first customers.

COLLEGE PREP IS INCLUDED TOO!

POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION 101

Our Career and College Access Team provided a series of College Prep Workshops to our Geniuses at all of our sites in California. Weekly presentations covered topics such as types of colleges, majors and degree knowledge, financial aid, admission requirements, and academic year preparation.

142

Geniuses from Oakland & Atlanta

28,420

Summer Mentorship Hours

INSPIRATIONAL BUSINESS TRIPS

Throughout the summer portion of our Intensive Immersion Program, we take our Geniuses on weekly business trips to local companies and expose them to technical and non-technical career pathways across a variety of sectors. These fun and engaging business trips are designed to demystify career opportunities for our Geniuses which helps them envision themselves in these environments. During these trips, we encourage our Geniuses to actively network with employees at these companies so they can foster their own relationships with individuals that can help nurture and support their career aspirations and interests.

"Working with the students from The Hidden Genius Project was very inspiring! I can’t wait to see them in corporate America 5 to 6 years from now."

Chris Rogers, Head of DEI for Engineering, ServiceNow

"The BlackRock team really enjoyed meeting the Geniuses and took a lot away from the experience. This experience reinforced our desire to give back to the community by helping grow future leaders like the Geniuses."

Barbara G. Robinson, Director Contracting, BlackRock

"The session we had engaging with Geniuses was a reminder of how important it is to not let go where we come from and having goals and wishes will take us as far as we want."

Marta Lopez Tappero, Senior Customer Support CX, Twitch

"Nuro was proud to host the Oakland Cohort to our Bay Area offices; where Genisus got a chance to interact with the zero-occupant delivery vehicles, see how technology like LIDAR powers the autonomous driving, and hear from members of Black@Nuro ERG about their career journey to Nuro."

Dan Mitchell, Senior Manager, City and Community Engagement, Nuro

“It was our 4th year hosting the Geniuses and being a part of their Immersion Summer Program. Volunteers were blown away by the projects, ideas, enthusiasm, and drive the students have and shared with us. One of our volunteers said that her day with the Geniuses was her best day of work all year!"

Trista Myers, Head of Events, Salesforce

14

Total Business Trips

100

Exposure to In-Demand Careers

Special thanks to all of our Business Trip Partners who opened their doors to our Geniuses this summer.

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