KathyJo Buiteweg

Calculus
Mrs. Dewey
Technopreneurs
There always seems to be an award or show to promote the people that invent new ideas
or objects to help better society. The question is though, who makes those ideas come to reality?
Those people who put the ideas into action are called technopreneurs. They specialize in finding
new methods to keep us informed, entertained, and connected to one another. Ford Motor
Company has been partnering with the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
to present the Ford Freedom Award Program since 1999. This program recognizes those who, in
the past and present, have great achievements that have brought a positive change to the African
American culture. While many were recognized this year, I have chosen to divulge into three
females who have either received an award or recognized for their accomplishments.
This years Ford Freedom Award Scholar was awarded to Laura Weidman Powers. She is
the Co-founder for the Code2040 plan. She received her education at Harvard University then
got her masters at Stanford University. This plan is to hopefully increase the amount of African
American and Latinos working in the Silicon Valley technology industry. This plan was launched
three years ago when Powers discovered that only one of every fourteen employees was African
American or Latino in Silicon Valley. She later discovered that it was not necessarily that this
particular minority was not intelligent in this field but that they were not informed or had a great
deal of lack of awareness about the different opportunities provided. Code2040 offers a variety
of different programs to develop skills in engineering and technology. It is most popular for is
Fellows program, this is where the program will seek to place top students in summer internships

with the top technological companies worldwide. Just in its first years Code2040 has more than
tripled in size. The students that participate now often get jobs or internships with top companies
such as Facebook and Linkedln. Their ultimate goal is to ensure that by the year 2040 blacks,
Latinos, and Latinas are proportionally represented in Americas economy and technological
work place.
Can computers really tell how we feel? Can they really determine our emotions?
Shaundra Daily thought of this idea and created a computer program that understands and can
respond to human emotions. Daily is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
this is where she got her interest in electrical engineering. At MIT she studied affective
computing. Affective computing is where computers are used to understand, interpret, and
respond about social and human behavior. Her digital program called G.I.R.L.S., Girls Involved
in Real Life Sharing, allows someone to write a story about his or her life. The program then
takes that story and creates a comic book style pictures to help the person understand their own
emotions within the their story. Another thing Daily has created is called the Galvanic Skin
Response bracelet. The bracelet measures the amount and chemical compounds of the sweat to
measure persons emotions. Daily currently is promoting youths to get involved in STEM jobs
and a professor at Clemson Universitys School of Computing.
Zoe Gadegbeku is a 19 year old who did more within her own high school then most will
do their entire education. She created WISH, Women in Science and Health, Career Network.
Zoe was most interested in Science and Health but was discouraged when she realized that many
other girls were not as interested as her. So in her senior year of high school she did something
about it, and its result is WISH Careers Network. This is an organization that provides tools and
motivation for high school girls interested into the STEW subjects. Zoe travelled to speak about

the WISH program with legislators and leaders in the capital, Washington, D.C. Within this
program many schools have seen a slight increase of interest form the female population.