Technology-based entrepreneurship initiative launched on HBCU institutions

Representatives of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) community have launched an effort to stream a techology-based entrepreneurship initiative at Black institutions.

The United Negro College Fund (UNCF), in partnership with the White House Initiative on HBCUs, led the effort organizing the “HBCU Startup and Innovation Initiative.”

The initiative was created mainly to expose Black students to the leading practices within (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) STEM education, this project will be used to enable technology-based commercialization on Black campuses.

(More: HBCUs play a vital role in education and need more funding)

In response to President Obama’s call to increase minorities in STEM fields amid the lacking amount of technology-transfer programs at HBCUs, the initiative will train both students and faculty on how to build a successful technology venture. Dr. Chad Womack, project lead and UNCF director of STEM education initiatives, raised his hands to “grandfather” the proposed goal.

“In part of a longer conversation that I’d been having with my Morehouse College colleagues, we’ve been talking for years about the lack of competitiveness and innovation among our HBCU institutions,” Womack says.

Womack, a 1988 graduate of Morehouse College, was invited to attend a White House Technology Inclusion summit in August. Womack joined education leaders, investors and technological entrepreneurs to promote solutions around diversity inclusion, STEM education and entrepreneurship. The initiative will be separated into three primary goals: exposing, educating and empowering HBCU students and faculty.

Read more: Diverse Issues in Higher Education