Loving the 2018 Camelback Finalists

Every day, we are humbled and honored to come to work. Our selection process is always an intense, exciting time for us -- it is our opportunity to see what some of our inspiring brothers and sisters are working on, and to share their work with our friends and family. As many of you know, this year's decision-making has been especially tough for our team -- our number of applications this year tripled, and over the past few months, we've narrowed that number from 530, to 125 Semi-Finalists, and now, to 45 Finalists. Over the next few weeks, we'll be interviewing and selecting our 2018 cohort of 12, though for us, this is the stage where we wish we could accept every organization. We truly believe in the potential of these ventures and appreciate the passion of the founders. We hope you enjoy getting to know them as much as we have.

To all candidates; thank you for sharing your vision with us, and thank you for all that you do for your communities. Finalists; we'll talk soon.

View Non-Profits | View For-Profits & Hybrids | View Schools
We have included a brief description and websites, both as provided by candidates.

NONPROFITS

Use the arrows to the right to scroll through Finalists

Raheem AI - Brandon Anderson

Washington, D.C. - https://www.raheem.ai

Raheem AI democratizes community policing.The Obama Foundation and Google-backed company is building a national community reporting system in all 50 states by 2020 to increase police transparency, accountability, and build a world free of police violence. Raheem is a bot that supports you through rating and reporting your interactions with police — good and bad. Data is shared in real-time to an online public dashboard, creating a feedback loop and comprehensive data source to help cities identify where policing works well and where it can improve.

Remake Learning Bay Area (RLBA) - Nakeyshia Kendall

San Francisco, CA - https://remakelearningbayarea.org

RLBA equips Title I school teams with capacity to implement models prioritizing higher order thinking, problem-solving skills, STEAM, project-based learning, and maker projects. We intentionally seek leaders of color to advance their growth as innovators and capacity to implement models prioritizing higher order thinking & problem-solving.

MyHealthEd - Liz Chen

Chapel Hill, NC - https://www.myhealthed.org

MyHealthEd is a tech nonprofit dedicated to reducing teen pregnancy rates among rural and low-income teens. Our mobile app, Real Talk, uses real stories written by real teens to help middle school aged teens learn about sexual health topics. Teens can easily access and engage with content that positively shapes their sexual health knowledge and behaviors and lets them know that they’re not alone.

Made in Brownsville - Quardean Lewis-Allen

Brooklyn, NY - https://madeinbrownsville.org

We empower youth to be agents of change in their communities and the world through STEAM education and relevant experience in the innovation economy. We are a creative agency and innovation hub training youth through project-based design thinking around local challenges and client commissions. Youth develop marketable skills and build competitive portfolios and relevant experience around real design and tech projects including 3D and product design, fabrication, computer science, photo/video, fine art, fashion/printmaking, and graphic design.

ImmSchools - Vanessa Luna

San Antonio, TX

Our immigrant community must be at the forefront of change in achieving education equity for all students and families. Our vision is to lift the voices of immigrant students and families in order to transform our K-12 education system. Through policy action, professional development, and community efforts, we seek to create inclusive, safe and welcoming schools that allow immigrant students to reach their fullest potential. We will work to close the gap between immigration and education in order to build equitable systems for undocumented students and parents in our public schools.

Think Of Us - Sixto Cancel

Richmond, VA - https://www.thinkof-us.org/

Every day the foster care system operates in a way that is not developmentally appropriate for the primary customer - foster youth. By using a written framework without real data on its audience, the system is built to continue a cycle of making uninformed decisions. Think of Us is looking to disrupt the way foster care works by putting young people at the center of their own care.

Family Engagement Lab - Vidya Sundaram

Alameda, CA - http://www.familyengagementlab.org

Family Engagement Lab’s mission is to help schools ignite the potential of millions of families to support their child’s learning. Our technology-based solution, FASTalk (Families and Schools Talk), helps teachers engage families in learning. FASTalk is coordinated with the school’s academic calendar to deliver relevant content to families via SMS, and supports two-way messaging with language translation. Unlike other solutions, relevant content is pre-loaded, dramatically reducing demands on teacher time.

Eight Million Stories - Marvin Pierre

Houston, TX -

We believe young people belong in school, not in prison. Our mission is to transform the lives of disconnected youth (16-18 years of age) through education, skills training, employment, and relationships.We provide an opportunity for youth to complete their education by way of getting a GED and provides them with occupational skills training where they leave with certifications in food-handling, customer service and warehouse fork-lift operation. Lastly, youth gain access to services to address their emotional and behavioral health needs.

oneTILT - Kimberly Diaz

Washington, D.C. - https://www.onetilt.org

Representation requires revolution. We aim to triple managers of color across education so that every child sees mirrors in their leaders. By 2030, we’re growing 10,000 diverse leaders to fundamentally reimagine schools and education nonprofits. We support managers to build concrete skills, grow awareness around race, equity, and inclusiveness, and unleash leadership through design thinking. Our workshops, coaching, and fellowship promote inclusive management and accelerate a more diverse leadership pipeline across education ecosystems.

HBCUvc - Hadiyah Mujhid

San Francisco, CA - https://hbcu.vc

HBCUvc’s mission is to improve the racial diversity in venture capital. We train and prepare students attending black colleges and universities for a career in venture capital (VC). Students obtain VC experience through externships with partner VC firms. Our goal is to become a student-run venture firm where students develop expertise by investing in campus entrepreneurs.

Basta - Sheila Saremzadeh

New York, NY - www.projectbasta.com

Basta’s goal is to be the premier talent pipeline of first generation college students for top employers in every city we work. We do this by partnering with employers seeking to hire the workforce of the future and connecting them with an under tapped talent pipeline, first-generation college students of color. Our student program model makes the job search transparent, provides access to networks and equip students with tools to secure and thrive in first jobs. Basta’s vision is to change the face of work face leadership so that boardrooms represent the diverse makeup of the country.

Visions Performing Arts Company - Auset Ali

Denver, CO - https://visionsperformingartscompany.org

Visions Performing Arts Company strives to preserve, maintain, and support the tradition of African and Latino American performing arts through education. Hosting performances, instruction, mentorships, education, and outreach, VPAC will use the stage to bridge gaps and show that there is no difference in the human experience.With a huge amount of support from the community for 13 years VPAC has been an after-school and elective performing arts program dedicated to preserving African and Latino American performing arts through education. Using the arts to empower identity in student performers and provide access to quality training and performances by instructors and mentors who look like them is our foundation.

BridgeYear - Victoria Chen

Houston, TX - https://www.bridge-year.org

BridgeYear reimagines career fairs by replacing brochures with Career Test Drives - 20 minute hands-on simulations that allow students to "try on" jobs. At each booth, students are placed in work-like settings and are challenged to perform daily job tasks. After the fair, BridgeYear supports students to enroll and succeed in earning the certification or degree needed to obtain those careers.

Wise Young Builders - Elijah Moses

Washington, D.C. - https://www.wiseyoungbuilders.org

Wise Young Builders uses project-based learning to empower under-served youth to learn practical skills through hands on workshops and small group math-focused instruction out of school time. We help youth build take-home projects, meet real estate developers, visit construction sites, use tools and engage in activities to increase their interest in math. We increase their confidence and expose them to mentors to enhance their self-image. We serve as mentors for single-parent households.

Creative Reaction Lab - Antionette Carroll

St. Louis, MO - http://www.creativereactionlab.com/

Creative Reaction Lab is training Black and Latinx youth to design healthy and racially equitable communities. To create systems-wide change, we're taking two approaches: 1) pioneering an equity-centered form of creative problem solving, and 2) creating a collaborative youth-led, community-centered movement challenging racial inequities in the education, media, health, and government sectors.

JOURNi - Richard Grundy

Detroit, MI - https://journi.org

Our mission is to empower individuals from underserved, urban communities by providing them with the tech education needed to compete and thrive in local and global ecosystems. Our vision is to build an authentically inclusive tech ecosystem in the city of Detroit, by tapping into the heart and spirit of its residents. To achieve this goal, we will provide educational access to immersive courses and youth-centered programming, beneficial employment opportunities, start-up education, and socioeconomic resources within marginalized communities.

Chicago United for Equity - Niketa Brar

Chicago, IL - https://www.chicagounitedforequity.org

Chicago United for Equity is a racial justice organization working to rebuild Chicago's government to be more just, ethical, and effective. CUE addresses structural inequities in three ways: first, we develop and share best practices for civic engagement and equitable public policy. Second, we build and support leadership development networks, for individuals and communities who are committed to racial justice. Third, we take on strategic policy engagements where our tools and leaders can enact a significant policy shift.

Juror Project - William Snowden

New Orleans, LA - www.thejurorproject.org

The Juror Project aims to change the makeup of juries to better represent the American population and the communities most commonly accused. We pursue this through community and public education about jury eligibility, the jury selection process, and the power jurors hold in America's high stakes criminal justice system. When we get more diversity in our juries we get more fairness in our criminal justice system and that’s what we all want. We’re taking a community-based approach to reform a government institution in a non-traditional way.

The Gray Matter Experience - Britney Robbins

Chicago, IL - https://www.graymatterexperience.com

The Gray Matter Experience (TGME) is an entrepreneurial program for high-performing Black high school students with a mission to increase students' self-worth and strengthen their respective community ties. During the first phase of the program, students are taught business concepts from Black entrepreneurs and professionals and collaborate with other teens to build business plans solving community issues. During phase two, students who choose to launch their business are placed into an incubator program and given seed funding and mentorship to launch the businesses created in phase one.

LitLab - Mialisa Bonta

Oakland, CA - https://litlab.org

At LitLab, we believe in the power of early learning, so we developed kidappolis, an app platform that enables caregivers to safely drive their child's learning on any mobile device. Kidappolis enables parents and educators to track a child's interaction with curated apps, and turns this information into actionable intel with personalized tips on how to extend learning beyond screen time.

FOR-PROFITS & HYBRIDS

Use the arrows to the right to scroll through Finalists

Woke Girls - Mickey Maki

Boston, MA - https://wokegirls.com

Woke Girls uses narrative to show girls ages 4-11, especially girls from historically marginalized communities, that even when the world is unfair, they have the power to love themselves, stand up for what is right and create a better world! Woke Girls brand consists of a middle grade chapter book series and 10" dolls. The narrative acknowledges real life adversity while casting girls as heroes who overcome. Products fund programming for girls ages 8-18 with a focus on social justice, self-actualization, navigating adversity, redefining our narrative, activism and entrepreneurship.

madeBOS - Martha Hernandez

Oakland, CA - https://www.madebos.com

madeBOS (made by own self) is an AI driven, career pathing platform that empowers employees of entry-level jobs, to drive their own career development. madeBOS delivers a configurable and customizable solution to address retail's short and long-term talent strategic goals and leverages Machine Learning to curate attainable career paths increasing diversity, engagement, retention and performance.

Project 99 - Yulkendy Valdez

Boston, MA - https://www.project99.co

Project 99 delivers a data-driven curriculum leveraging empathy and design thinking to help companies engage and retain their millennials of color. Millennials of color are 3x more likely to quit their jobs. This high turnover is due to "unfair treatment" from microaggressions to outright discrimination that is widespread in Corporate America. This "millennial drop-out rate" costs companies $30.5B a year. That's why, we develop leadership programs for companies to better engage and retain their diverse talent.

Civic Eagle - Damola Ogundipe

Atlanta, GA - https://www.civiceagle.com

Organizations that engage in policy advocacy (from the NAACP, to corporations, to Chambers of Commerce) have low rates of success. Less than 20% of the time, an advocacy campaign actually results in the desired outcome. Our company created a solution that utilizes Artificial Intelligence to help organizations maximize the quality and outcomes of their policy advocacy campaigns.

Cognitive Toybox - Tammy Kwan

Brooklyn, NY - https://www.cognitivetoybox.com

One third of children in the US start kindergarten unprepared in critical language and math skills. Cognitive ToyBox is developing an early childhood platform for kindergarten readiness. We develop touchscreen games that make it easier for teachers to do assessment and for children to learn foundational language and math skills.

Science with Sophie - Sophie Strand

Chicago - www.youtube.com/sciencewithsophie

Science With Sophie is an interactive science comedy series inviting viewers to explore science all around them and remember they are brave, curious, funny, smart scientists every day. With an all-female writing team and cutting-edge teaching pedagogy like the Next Generation Science Standards, the show combats inequity in STEM fields and underrepresentation of women in mainstream science media.

Sidekick Education - Ashwin Halgeri

Chicago, IL - https://www.sidekick.education

7000 high school students drop-out daily in the US. Real-world projects, with real interactions with corporate partners, increase graduation rates by 50%. Yet, only 1% of teachers use them since they take so long to organize. Sidekick is a digital assistant that makes it easy for high school teachers to turn current company problems into engaging in-class project. We have a portfolio of 50 real-world projects from our 30 corporate partners that are standards aligned. Teachers just need to pick and run the project, we do the rest.

Metas: Future List Tanya Menendez

San Francisco, CA - https://metas.io

The Future List is an online marketplace for workers in manufacturing and logistics. We are a marketplace that recommends resources and jobs for workers. Using novel forms of education and job placement, we are empowering the next generation of manufacturing workers to discover career opportunities and training programs.

Pro:Up - Myles Morgan

Detroit, MI - www.pro-up.co

Pro:Up automates and personalizes opportunity and talent discovery, allowing people to do what they’re already doing with more immediacy and relevance. It helps youth-focused non-profits, companies, and colleges engage and recruit high school students. With Pro:Up operating at full capacity, hundreds of thousands of youth who start with disconnected networks will be able to access the same kinds of opportunities as more privileged youth. By making opportunity and talent discovery more efficient, we create a system that diversifies talent pipelines, accelerates workforce development, and reduces skills gaps over time.

Possip - Shani Dowell

Nashville, TN - www.possipit.com

Possip gives parents a platform to share insights with schools. Parents complete a weekly survey, their feedback is analyzed and organized, then an actionable report is generated for each school. Schools are equipped to prioritize follow up and respond to parents. We nurture open communication between the two most important entities in a student's life - their family and their school.

Tiltas - Tiffany Smith

Washington, D.C. - https://www.tiltas.co

Through a twilio-integrated platform, Tiltas provides organizations with an easy to use communication platform to reach out to their target population (the formerly incarcerated) and share/collect important data. Tiltas also has the capability to become a platform utilized by probation/parole departments and government agencies, to track outcomes and status of their clientele/provide support.

BabyNoggin - Jin Lee

San Francisco, CA - https://www.babynoggin.com

We are building an end-to-end child health & wellness platform: starting with screenings on behavioral issues, sleep, nutrition, next refer them to specialists through telemedicine, then help care coordinating to local and state resources for long term intervention. Lastly, we leverage machine learning and AI on the behavioral data for predictive analytics.

Quartolio - Nicole Bishop

New York, NY - https://quartolio.com - Quartolio is an intelligent knowledge management platform that accelerates research by connecting the dots across scientific data and documents. With AI, Quartolio analyze millions of Open Access articles and datasets, connects the dots, aggregates it all in a single web platform, and personalizes scientific research by curating to each researcher's needs. Our business model is B2B "knowledge as a service" (KaaS).

Premedly - Tasheema Prince

Washington, D.C. - https://www.premedlife.com

There are over a million job openings in health care and half go unfilled. Employers are searching for candidates beyond their "hard" skills. Premedly creates microcontent for students to learn "soft" skills and demonstrate competency to compete for real jobs.

Go Together - Kimberly Moore

Washington, D.C. - https://gotogether.today

Go Together's mission is to see children across this country even the globe attend the school or program that will help them succeed in life by removing transportation as the obstacle to getting there. By leveraging technology through families trusted resources like schools and afterschool programs, we can deliver trust they need to build community, communicate, collaborate working together to get their children where they need to go. We believe the power of these communities can lead to friendships for their children especially starting a new school or program. More than just a ride.

Goals Genius - Bianca Cabrera

Brooklyn, NY - www.goalsgenius.com

Goals Genius enables teachers to collaborate and document student progress with digital student work. We then recommend the most effective accommodations for students going forward via a proprietary algorithm. Administrators can then analyze data to determine which teachers are not complying with IEPs and which teachers are successfully documenting student work to help students progress.

SCHOOLS

Use the arrows to the right to scroll through Finalists

The Social Justice School - Myron Long

Washington, D.C.

The Social Justice School celebrates and supports the development of diverse identities. In this middle school, students have choice in what they learn, when they learn, and how they learn. They are equity-centered designers who tackle real world problems by engaging in relevant project-based learning. Students become change makers in their communities, school, and the world.

Rebound - Carmeann Foster

Minneapolis, MN - https://www.reboundmpls.org

We seek to eliminate the reliance on government to address the needs of Black Youth by providing fee-for-service programs within the system in order to both extricate program participants from the system and generate revenue for extra-systematic solutions to community issues. Currently, we are focused on creating an educational model rooted in community uplift and dedicated to academic excellence

Youth Empowerment Broadcasting Organization (YEBO) - Cory Montalvo

Denver, CO - https://www.yebomedia.org

YEBO offers youth the opportunity to self-select, explore, and create from the media arts, while connecting students to local industry professionals who serve as coaches and CTE certified instructors. YEBO integrates pop-culture, core academic content, authentic self-exploration, and a mobile learning experience to ensure students are prepared for a career in the 21st century digital workplace.

Generation Success - Brandy Williams

New Orleans, LA - http://gensuccessnola.org

Generation Success is one of few organizations designed for learners with exceptionalities at both ends of the Special Education Spectrum. We provide equity through project-based, self-directed, personalized learning modules. Our students genuinely drive their education. Equally, we teach our students how to advocate for themselves, and develop life skills in their education.

HigherUp Academy - Jade Thornton

Memphis, TN

HigherUp Academy High School exists to develop high school students intensely for post-secondary opportunities. We do this via dual-enrollment courses emphasizing technology and allied health partnerships along with the classroom experience. HUA seeks to graduate students who are academically,socially, and financially conscious. Then, they come back into their communities and leverage equity.

Lyceum Schools, Inc. - Byron Arthur

New Orleans, LA

Our organization plans to operate a charter school that will serve the young men of New Orleans. The school will prepare students for college and/or career through a program of challenging academics, social and emotional learning, robust extra-curricular offerings, opportunities for student leadership, and a commitment to community service.

New Orleans Freedom School - Alicia Nance

New Orleans, LA - https://shewholearns.org

At the New Orleans Freedom School, we develop youth committed to lives of hope, love, and self-discipline through academic excellence rooted in the knowledge of our communities, AND co-create new generations of critical thinking, confident people. As a culturally and linguistically responsive school for equity and inclusion, we bring together communities, leverage intergenerational cultural organizing, and use our voices and power in pursuit of justice and equity for all communities.

I Dream Academy - Janine Gomez

Washington, D.C. - https://www.idreamacademydc.org

Seats in schools of high demand do not exist in SE DC. Kids must travel across town to attend schools that engage in purposeful, self-directed work, with intentional focus on social emotional learning. IDA disrupts this inequity by increasing access to this type of learning in this community. What makes IDA unique is that we customize learning around each child's passions and curiosities.

Birch Academy Charter School - Nikki Khosla

New York, NY - https://www.birchacademy.org

We provide a rigorous, supportive, college-preparatory environment where all girls can be successful. By providing rigorous progressive coursework in coding, entrepreneurship and public speaking combined with character education, mindfulness training, and one-on-one support, our girls will have the emotional and academic skills necessary to thrive in a global economy.

perspectives, fellow highlightsCamelback VenturesMarch 12, 2018Comment