Philanthropy Journal: Leveling the Playing Field in STEM for Underrepresented Youth

By the time high school student Jorge Avelar-Lopez completed SMASH Academy, he was named a Latinos on the Fast Track (LOFT) fellow, had built his own health mobile app and was invited to demo his app at the White House. Jorge accomplished all of this and more, all the while, growing up in a neighborhood of East Oakland where even walking to school five minutes away was too dangerous. Luckily, at SMASH, Jorge found his passion for computer programming. Today, Jorge is preparing for the next chapter of his life: pursuing an engineering degree at Stanford….

The future depends on having all walks of life represented in this space. Through SMASH, we are developing the next generation of innovators that will shape our nation’s future for the better.

Read the rest of CEO Eli Kennedy’s featured article in the Philanthropy Journal here.