AmFam and Community Hosted STEAM & Dream ATL Summit Ft Earn Your Leisure
American Family Insurance with partners and Earn Your Leisure. (Picture by Carlton Adams)
American Family Insurance (AmFam) has partnered with local organizations and businesses in Milwaukee to host STEAM & Dream Summits around the country. The first summit took place on May 14, 2022 in Atlanta at The Gathering Spot.
STEAM & Dream is a Milwaukee-founded program that gives youth the chance to explore STEAM and it started with the help of AmFam Strategic Advisor JoAnne Sabir.
“This space was created for you all…it’s about showing you what’s possible,” said Sabir to the youth. “I want to hear about your dreams and how we can support that.”
The summit featured Urban Future Centers (UFC): a group of Black-owned community-based organizations that collectively received $1.2 million investments from AmFam.
AmFam partnered with Young Enterprising Society (YES), Milky Way Tech Hub, Sherman Phoenix, and Journey House who collectively make up the Urban Future Centers, to bring this summit to life. UFC was started by AmFam to bring technology education and other resources to people in Milwaukee's inner-city neighborhoods. Graceful Girls Youth & Family Services and Connect Business Consulting were also partners.
“Events like STEAM & Dream are instrumental to the development of the next generation of future leaders and entrepreneurs because it shows them real world examples of what they can become,” said YES Co-Founder Que El-Amin.
The summit also had a pitch competition that was judged by Venture Capitalist Rashaun L. Williams and sponsored by Milky Way Tech Hub. The two companies that pitched won $1,000 each. The Sherman Phoenix hosted a workshop that taught students about product development. Black on Black Education also hosted a workshop where students interacted with VR.
ATL’s summit was about giving Black and Brown youth first-hand experience and knowledge into the STEAM world. To further the goal, AmFam brought in one of the country’s top podcast Earn Your Leisure (EYL) to spread financial literacy and the benefits of technology.
EYL’s Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings held two panels: one for youth and for adults, where the two explained their business’s come up, gave advice and networked with a room full of Black entrepreneurs, students and investors.
EYL started off as a podcast but has now turned into a media and education company.
Along with being taught about money, the youth played a bingo game where the winner took home over $400. Throughout their panels, EYL repeated the message of the importance of not only making money, but being able to manage it.
“Financial literacy doesn’t have an age limit,” said Millings.
EYL spent just as much time on the topic of money as they did on discussing technology.
“Unfortunately for us, we’re always behind. It’s important for us to understand technology no matter how you feel about it,” said Bilal. “Technology is not the future, it’s right now.”
AmFam will host three more STEAM & Dream summits this year in Milwaukee, Chicago and Phoenix.
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