MOZART: "I'm excited about the opportunity to potentially learn from education innovators and grateful for how much the Camelback process has taught us about ourselves already."

About 21 Progress
21 Progress provides programs that enhance leadership development among the hard working people of Washington, their families, and communities through popular education, civic engagement, and arts & culture.

TRACIE: "I’m extremely excited about expanding Adventure Girlz to serve 500 Black girls in low-income communities and underperforming middle schools across New York, North Carolina, and South Carolina. More importantly, I'm excited for the many adventures the Camelback Fellowship would allow us to extend to Black girls engaged in our program; they are the reason we do this work!"

About Adventure Girlz
Adventure Girlz seeks to stop the pipeline by reimagining leadership programs that empower Black girls. Our culturally responsive program prioritizes educational attainment for Black girls in grades 6-8 with an academic year-long program at our sites in New York and South Carolina that culminate in a week-long, overnight summer camp.

RHONDA: "I'm elated! I've navigated start-up on my own before, but being a Camelback Fellow means having a community of practice. Beloved Community will pilot its first programs in 2017 and early feedback from Camelback will help us further refine the model before launching."

About Beloved Community
We employ three strategies to ensure shared regional goals for economic growth, sustainability, and equitable population distribution that result from diverse schools, diverse communities. We lead regional coalitions of public education, housing, corporate, government and community leaders.

JAMES: "No idea is powerful until it is shared, and I am incredibly excited about the possibility of sharing and developing our venture with the Camelback community of coaches, consultants, and co-creators. Partnerships and collaborations are critical to the growth and elevation of our idea and organization, and to be in the third round of consideration for the Fellowship is at the same time humbling and thrilling. I look forward to the opportunity of building with the Camelback community, and ultimately, impacting the millions of young people in need to speech therapy worldwide."

About BEAT
The Beat Rhymers Curriculum is a comprehensive 25-lesson curriculum designed to use MC/rapping, poetry, songwriting, and performance as tools for self-expression and community building.

Jamie: "We're entering into a new chapter in our nation and have some serious work ahead of us in 2017. It's incredibly inspiring to witness the message that Camelback Ventures is sending to the world by supporting the awesome, dynamic and necessary work being led by the amazing finalists in this group: women and people of color changing the game! To spend my days working for the freedoms of the coming generations is already a privilege, so to be a Camelback Finalist is a true honor. Let's make our ancestors proud!"

About BOOM
BOOM connects Black-African students (ages 12-19) to the extensive history and heritage of African people, violently forbidden for enslaved Africans and their descendants.

ANDREW: "Healing is an intentional practice of political resistance against the on going onslaught of generationally inherited structural violence and secondly, to embrace and develop indigenous and grassroots traditions and practices of socio-psycho-spiritual healing to recover from the impacts historical trauma caused by chattel slavery and its multiplying legacies."

ABOUT H.O.L.L.A
We develop grassroots and culturally relevant indigenous practices and workshops for working through and transforming trauma in the lives and families of youth of color. We provide/offer/engage youth with the political history and analysis of systems of oppression in regards to their personally and community experiences. 

DEANDRA: I am beyond excited and humbled to be considered a finalist for the 2017 Camelback Fellowship! The opportunity to join an ecosystem of passionate women and entrepreneurs of color shows me what is possible and that the work we are doing with InterAction is exactly where we need to be. In 2017 we're looking forward to delving full force into our work by creating more spaces for the stories that need to be heard locally and ultimately channeling those stories to social change through new partnerships.

About InterAction
We offer strategic processes to build and sustain diversity and inclusion on college campuses and in communities through storytelling and the arts. Through our workshops and programs we facilitate the process of uncovering marginalized student voices and channeling them into strategies for building a better society. We strongly believe in the power of art and storytelling to bring communities together and break down barriers and structures of injustice.

AMBER: "I am incredibly excited and humbled that Leap Year has been selected as a Camelback Ventures Fellowship Finalist! When I received the notice, I went through the list of all the finalists and am truly inspired by their work. As we enter the New Year, I am excited about Leap Year's plans to expand our reach and impact helping first generation students get into and succeed in college, and am also excited and appreciative of the opportunity to potentially be a part of this amazing community. I am honored to be a finalist!"

About Leap Year
Leap Year’s mission is to prepare talented students to reach their academic and leadership potential by attending college and breaking the cycle of poverty. We accomplish this mission by recruiting low income high school graduates for a paid, service learning gap year to prepare them to attend and thrive in college.

ASHLEY: "I'm feeling incredibly humbled to be included in this group of inspiring social entrepreneurs. As the New Year approaches, we're excited to work alongside other Camelback finalists to address issues of educational equity and level the playing field for every student."

About MindRight
Our texting service provides daily, personalized psychoeducation that helps youth develop positive coping strategies to manage stress. Through our service, we help schools better identify students in need of in-person escalated services. We provide real-time data on student emotional wellness to promote healthy learning environments.

YANNELL: "Across the country, leaders are pushing on the status quo, and I am grateful for Camelback for supporting this great work in a real way. I hope to grow and push alongside other entrepreneurs and accelerate our learnings toward the benefit of our communities. 2017 promises to be an impactful and hopeful year."

About P.S. 305
P.S. 305 is a non-profit project that strives to be the driving force for educational excellence in Miami. Students, parents, teachers, and community members are informed about the performance of schools and are actively working to improve academic outcomes through advocacy at all levels of the education system.

ADAMAKA: "I’m truly honored that we have been selected to the final round. I’m extremely excited for the opportunity to tap into resources for capacity building, for operational support and access to a community of practice to accelerate our growth. The Camelback Fellowship will serve as the catalyst to continue the momentum of our team. I know our organization started from nothing, moved from nothing to something, and now we are heading towards something GREAT!"

About Self-eSTEM
Self-eSTEM is a nonprofit organization that promotes science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) educational and career opportunities for young girls and women from underrepresented communities. Our program encompasses three strategic pillars: a one-week summer camp, a networking program, and an internship placement and career services program.

THEODORE: "Square Root Academy is incredibly excited about the possibility of partnering with Camelback Ventures as a fellow. By joining Camelback's social innovation ecosystem, we look forward to leveraging the knowledge and expertise of our peers and advisers, allowing us to continue engineering creativity one student at at a time."

About Square Root Academy
Square Root Academy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to exposing Sacramento youth to the fundamentals of S.T.E.M. while promoting collaborative learning, innovation and academic excellence.

REGAN: "I am honored to have made it to this stage and I am thankful for the opportunity to learn about the inspiring work of other applicants and past fellows. I am also grateful that the Camelback application has (gently) pushed Story Works to think and communicate using the business sides of our nonprofit brains. It's been a productive and fun process. What I'm most excited about for 2017: My new little nephew who will be arriving soon!"

About Story Works Alaska
Our high school storytelling workshops bring volunteer storytellers and story coaches into schools to encourage and support student storytellers. The stories that emerge offer opportunities for learning and connection: for peers, for community members, and for the individuals who tell them.

NENA: "2016 was a huge year of learning for me. I'm excited to apply that towards helping more a thousand students turn their dreams into companies."

About Student Dream
We run an accelerator that trains collegiate students of color to launch startups by connecting them to the best knowledge, network and capital sources. This takes place during our three main programs - boss membership, nextUP founders, and Inheritance accelerator.

HEEJAE: "Super excited to have the opportunity to get to know and be part of an awesome cohort who support each other, share knowledge and most importantly keep each other going towards the same goal of pushing forward educational equality for all : )"

About TalkingPoints
TalkingPoints provides a multilingual texting platform that teachers and schools use to communicate with families via text messages and in their home languages for home-school connection. Teachers use an application to send/receive messages (as if it's an email inbox), while families receive text messages in English and in their own languages and can reply in their own languages.

VINCENT: "I am happy for the opportunity to bring a venture to the table that I believe in. I hope to grow this vision with Camelback to address a social justice issue in U.S. education with diversity, equity and access. We have a lot of work to do when it comes to the Black male experience (both educators and students) and our broader positive impact on all students and school communities. Let's network and build this important work along side our boys and young men in schools!"

About The Fellowship for Black Male Educators
The Fellowship is a professional membership and activist organization dedicated to advancing the development, recruitment and retention of Black male educators in Philadelphia’s public schools. Our mission is to triple the number of highly effective Black male educators in Philadelphia public schools to 1,000 by 2025 by ensuring a sustainable school-to-career pathway for them.

JOHN: "I am humbled and honored to know that ThinkLexic has reached the final stage of consideration for the Camelback Fellowship. This is the kind of news that reinvigorates our work and dedication. We wish all our fellow organizations a great year of impact in 2017."

About ThinkLexic
ThinkLexic aims to reimagine education for dyslexic students through key policy efforts, educator and administrator workshops, and programs for students.

MELANIE: "I am very excited that TrainingGrounds is a finalist in the 2017 Camelback application process! TrainingGrounds has grown so much in such a short time and we are looking forward to 2017 to conduct our first pilots, refine our program offerings, and grow the company into a stable fixture in the New Orleans Early Childhood landscape. Camelback will be an amazing support as we continue to build our infrastructure to assist families, educators, and communities in strengthening the foundation on which children can succeed."

About TrainingGrounds
TrainingGrounds is a non-profit organization that provides evidence informed programming with a focus on age appropriate developmental practices. We assist families and professionals throughout the greater New Orleans area with understanding the importance of how rich learning experiences and positive adult-child interactions in the first five years of life contribute to later success and overall child well-being.

DAQUAN: "We're excited to take the next step in our Camelback process as a Finalist. We have some big plans in store and we'll be laser focused on execution and follow-through."

About WeThrive
WeThrive aims to provide low-income, under-resourced youth with knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs that will empower them to overcome the achievement and opportunity gap and achieve their personal definitions of success and, ultimately, social mobility. WeThrive is a program in which undergraduate university students lead youth from under-resourced communities in the creation of a business venture, mentoring them and teaching them critical life skills along the way.