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Charles Barkley is inspired by students Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson who made history with their mathematics discovery. As previously reported by AFROTECH™, Johnson and Jackson attended St. Mary’s Academy, a Catholic school located in New Orleans, LA, and are responsible for finding a new way to solve the Pythagorean Theorem using trigonometry without circular logic, which had been a mystery for many mathematicians for 2,000 years. WWL-TV 4 reporter Sam Winstrom spoke to the pair in March 2023 about their accomplishment. Per his report, “Calcea and Ne’Kiya explained it to me like this: Basically, trigonometry is based on Pythagoras’ Theorem (A^2 + B^2 = C^2, sound familiar?), so using trigonometry to prove Pythagoras’ Theorem is what’s known as circular logic.” Johnson, who is now a freshman at Louisiana State University, spoke to the university ahead of an interview she and Jackson had with “60 Minutes” on May 5, 2024. Johnson revealed to LSU that their discovery was...
TikTok is a social media app that truly requires no introduction. Unless you’ve been in a coma for the last 5+ years, you’ve either used the app yourself, or had extensive exposure to it from friends, family members or reposts on other websites. Now that the United States government is mounting a full-scale attack on the Chinese app, more members of the public are looking into TikTok’s background and earnings than ever before. TikTok has an estimated worth of anywhere from $20 billion to $100 billion in 2024, according to the Wall Street Journal , making it the biggest social media app on the market by a wide margin. Given that TikTok is worth such a staggering amount, it only seems fair that we examine and investigate the source of this income. The app has seen over 3 billion downloads since hitting the international market in 2018, and maintains an estimated 1 billion daily active users, meaning TikTok has access to one of the largest audiences in the history of web development....
Young minds inspire us to keep our dreams in reach because it’s never too late or too early for them to become a reality. Better yet, we are seeing more teens take root in the entrepreneurship sector and set a standard on how to run a successful business. From a beauty supply store to a cookie business, the youth are racking in the big bucks through their moves. These teens did not have a road map, a degree, or years of experience in their fields but what they did have was ambition, a willingness to make the world a better place, and a support system to take them to the finish line. Here’s a list of six teens who turned into bosses at an early age.
Lil Baby is preparing teens and young adults in his hometown for success. According to CBS 46, the “We Paid” singer will team up with entrepreneur Lemont Bradley to help provide job opportunities for those under 21-years-old living in Atlanta, GA. “We are looking to give out 100 jobs to teenagers and young adults in the metro Atlanta area,” said both Lil Baby and Bradley, according to the news outlet. “With the crime rate surrounding scams, robbery, and even murder being so high, we are looking to provide a positive outlet and revenue stream to those who are looking for an income.”
Instagram is taking further precaution for the youth’s online safety. To further ensure that teen users are protected and to ease worry on their parents’ end, the social media app has launched new tools and features including a “Take A Break” feature, according to an Instagram blog post. The latest feature aims to “ empower people to make informed decisions about how they’re spending their time,” Head of the tech giant, Adam Mosseri, wrote. “If someone has been scrolling for a certain amount of time, we’ll ask them to take a break from Instagram and suggest that they set reminders to take more breaks in the future,” he continued.
As civil unrest continues to grow in Chicago following the death of George Floyd, a group of Chicago teens is fighting for social justice in a West Side food desert. By the Hand Club for Kids —a non-profit organization that empowers underserved communities—launched an initiative to transform a previously looted liquor store into a pop-up fresh food market, reports Block Club Chicago. Led by young men and women from Chicago’s Austin community, the project is a result of the residents’ frustration at the lack of healthy food resources in the area. When offered to attend a roundtable event to air their grievances, local kids were activated to create substantial change in their neighborhood. “What I heard coming out of that was that students wanted to take all those raw and powerful emotions and turn them into something good and do something from a social justice standpoint,” said Donnita Travis, executive director of the group. “The kids took the idea and ran with it.” View this post...
In the weeks leading up to Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the president received backlash for wanting to host his first rally of the year on Juneteenth in the city that was once home to Black Wall Street. He pushed the rally to June 20th, but that was not good enough for those who did not want the streets of Tulsa overthrown by his racist followers. On June 15, Donald Trump took to Twitter to announce that nearly one million MAGA supporters would be attending his campaign rally in downtown Tulsa. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1272521253136498690?s=20 “Almost One Million people request tickets for the Saturday Night Rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma,” he tweeted. At every turn, he made it a point to brag about the huge attendance at his upcoming rally. Compilation of people bragging about a million people signing up for the rally pic.twitter.com/X9EHPSvv8Z — Acyn (@Acyn) June 21, 2020 In anticipation of such a large turnout, the BOK Center, which only has a...
Hannah Lucas, a 16-year-old high school student from Cummings, Georgia, has overcome a lot. At 15-years-old, she was diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), a chronic illness that causes one to faint. Her symptoms started between the ages of 12 and 13. “When I was in ninth grade, I started passing out. Basically, it just means that I have very low blood volume and low blood pressure,” she said. “I was passing out so often, kids started bullying me, I was getting sexually harassed and even being threatened.” Her illness — and the ridicule from her classmates that followed — took a toll on the teen, leading to anxiety, depression and an eating disorder. She says her condition caused her to miss about 200 classes during her freshman year of high school. To deal with her pain, she started to self-harm and later attempted suicide when her mother came into her room, held her and stopped Hannah before tragedy struck. “If my mom didn’t come to my room that night, I...
In Philadelphia, the city has installed sonic devices within parks to target teenagers and “keep unwanted people out of parks,” as reported by NPR’s Morning Edition. The “Mosquitos” are acoustic deterrent devices that transmit a sound targeted at people between the ages of 13 and 25. If you’re ready for a minor headache, go ahead and give NPR’s broadcast a listen to hear a sample of it. The devices are programmed to constantly emit the high-frequency noise from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. every single night. Last month, a report from WPVI found that Philadelphia has about 31 Mosquito devices in the city’s parks. Almost every single facility listed was a playground or recreation center. The devices — produced by Vancouver-based Moving Sound Technologies MST) — costs about $5,000 each to buy and install. Although some city officials justify their decision to use these devices by saying they’re meant to discourage vandalism, that excuse doesn’t fly with everybody. Philadelphia Councilwoman Helen...
Ahead of its Tribeca Film Festival debut, the first trailer has been released for See You Yesterday, the directorial debut of Spike Lee’s protege Stefon Bristol. It is based on Bristol’s 2017 short film of the same name. Relative newcomers Eden Duncan-Smith and Danté Crichlow reprise their roles from the short film in a feature film scripted by Bristol and Fredrica Bailey. The film revolves around “two Brooklyn teenage science prodigies, Claudette “C.J.” Walker (Duncan-Smith) and Sebastian J. Thomas (Crichlow), who build make-shift time machines to save C.J.’s brother, Calvin, from being wrongfully killed by a police officer.” Co-stars include Astro Bradley, Marsha Stephanie Blake and Wavvy Jonez. The original short was an HBO Short Film competition finalist at the American Black Film Festival. It can currently be found on Cinemax’s Max Go. In reviewing the short film, Aramide Tinubu wrote for Shadow And Act, “Despite its short runtime, See You Yesterday is electrifying (literally)....
One of the newest tools to strengthen mentorship is coming from the minds of a group of teenagers in Connecticut. Chelsea Cranford, Natalee Best, Elyece Patterson, and Angelique Phillips of Hartford created EBONI — a platform for young black professionals to receive mentorship and guidance on how to navigate predominantly white workspaces. The group of young engineers used Chatfuel, Facebook’s platform for creating chat bots. “It’s a powerful idea for them,” Angelique Phillips’ mom, Jackie told the Hartford Courant. “Creating a pathway of outreach for minority young professionals to know exactly how to navigate the world of work, and to make it a culturally sensitive environment.” The “powerful idea” has gained them an invitation from Facebook after advancing to the finals in a challenge that posed the question of how a social issue could be solved utilizing technology. “We were thinking about everybody in the community,” 16-year-old Cranford said. “I’m glad I took the steps to...
Candace Walker didn’t want her teenage children begging her for the latest gadgets and clothing brands. Instead, she wanted to encourage them to initiate and devise creative ways to earn those items. Walker developed Earnster , an app that turns everyday household chores, extra school work and community service into currency. Earnster is designed to empower teens to take control of their earning potential by identifying chores and other tasks they can complete in exchange for a special reward. “My teenage children are the inspiration behind Earnster,” said Walker. “They wanted to do it all and have it all. It got to the point where I wanted to say ‘Hey, here’s what I’ll do to earn those things.’” Walker’s busy schedule as a single mom coupled with children’s activities made it difficult to keep track of chores at home. She told AfroTech Earnster evolved from being her personal solution to getting her kids to take initiative and earn special items while getting chores done. Earnster...
On Thursday, the Pew Research Center released a report finding that a majority of teenagers have experienced cyberbullying at least once. The survey found that 59 percent of U.S. teens had experienced offensive name-calling, spreading of false rumors, receiving unsolicited explicit images, physical threats and having pictures of them shared without their consent. Offensive name-calling was the most common type of abuse experienced, with 42 percent of respondents saying they’d been insulted online or through their cellphones. One of the key findings in the study was how teens felt about how cyberbullying is being handled. Majority of teens said that parents are combatting the issue; however, teachers, social media companies and politicians are not tackling cyberbullying well enough. Travis Wilson, an administrative assistant at Sanderson High School in Raleigh, North Carolina said teenagers should use the blocking and reporting features on social media platforms more often to help...
Nagging parents and teachers aren’t the only ones concerned with our culture’s obsessions with smartphones and social media. A recent study by Pew Research Center shows that teens are consciously logging off and stepping back from using their phones nonstop. In fact, 52% of teens say they’re trying to limit their phone use. And 54% recognize that they spend too much time on their phones in general. With smartphones becoming more accessible and widely used than ever, 72% of teens say they have a habit of grabbing their phones when they first wake up. We’ve seen how checking our phones in the morning can lead to unhappiness, stress and feeling like you’re never fully caught up. So young people already thinking about ways to curb their smart phone use could be a good sign for their future mental health. It’s not only young people who are affected. More than half of teens polled believed that their parents are distracted by phones during their conversations and 72% of parents believe...