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High School senior Victoria Mathieu has many reasons to celebrate! The Bensalem High School student shared a video on TikTok of her seated beside her family while receiving a status update on her college applications. She applied to schools like Harvard University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Cornell University, Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University. To her surprise, she was admitted into five of them, in which the acceptance rates toggle between 3% and 9%, according to 6abc Philadelphia. Mathieu was waitlisted at Harvard and Dartmouth. “I did not expect to get into really into any of the schools at all. Once I saw my acceptances and everything, it was just like crazy, insane. I was just thanking God,” she expressed, per the outlet. @tori.math for all my black queens who think they aren’t capable of ivy league schools, let me be the one to tell you WE CAN DO IT!! don’t let people’s prejudices of black women dictate how far you reach for...
Michael Strahan is reportedly looking to invest in his former team. Strahan was drafted by the NFL’s New York Giants in 1993 as a 40th overall pick, according to Sports Illustrated. He remained with the team throughout his 15-year career, stamping field achievements such as 850 tackles and over 135 sacks. In 2008, he won the Super Bowl, which he says changed his life permanently. “That Super Bowl was the biggest thing – that’s pretty much one of the biggest things to ever to happen to me,” Strahan expressed, per Big Blue View. “Winning that Super Bowl, especially in the fashion we did it, against the team that we did it against with that record that they had, definitely put me in a different light to a lot of people – which has led to an incredible life.” Nearly four months after the major victory, Strahan announced he would retire from the league, forgoing a $4 million contract for the 2008 season, The New York Time reported. Strahan amassed $76 million in earnings throughout his...
Angel Reese and Magic Johnson have more in common than just their love of basketball. Both Johnson and Reese have found success beyond the sport. In the business world, this has translated into significant achievements for the two: Johnson is now a billionaire , and Reese has established herself as a multi-millionaire student-athlete who successfully transitioned to the WNBA and now holds a multi-year partnership extension with Reebok. Furthermore, the pair share even more common ground: a vision for financially empowering communities. According to its website, the Magic Johnson Foundation’s mission includes providing economic empowerment in ethnically diverse urban communities, while the Angel Reese C. Foundation shares a similar mission, with a specific focus on girls. “The Angel Reese Foundation is dedicated to fostering equity for girls and underrepresented groups through innovative and impactful initiatives. Our main objective is to ensure equal opportunities for all girls in...
Kai Cenat was one of the top-earning creators in 2024, and now he wants to put other streamers in position. The New York native is one of the most popular content creators, with a Twitch community of 17.1 million followers and an Instagram following of 14.2 million (at the time of this writing). As AFROTECH™ previously reported, his success as a content creator in the streaming industry led to $8.5 million in earnings in 2024. What’s more, he shares his success with those around him. This also includes AMP (Any Means Possible), a content creator group that Cenat joined, consisting of Duke Dennis, Agent 00, Fanum, ImDavisss, and ChrisNxtDoor. Before rising to fame with AMP, Cenat had been longtime friends with Tylil, Punga, and Dezz, for whom he recently purchased a home with the intention of supporting their streaming careers . RaKai, Ray, and Reggie, other streamers and friends of Cenat, were also given keys to the home. “Bought a house for my friends. God is good,” Cenat...
Russell Westbrook has launched an AI startup inspired by the loss of a dear friend. Eazewell According to a news release shared with AFROTECH™, the Denver Nuggets guard joins Donnell Beverly Jr., a former NCAA National Champion at the University of Connecticut, and Kemba Walker, an NBA All-Star, as co-founders of Eazewell, an AI-enabled funeral planning platform. Westbrook’s inspiration for the company was the loss of Khelcey Barrs III, his best friend who died at 16. Beverly Jr., who had also been a friend of Barrs as well as experienced the loss of both parents, shared that through these difficult times he gained insight into the challenges families face with funeral planning and accessing resources. Eazewell is now working to close this gap through its platform, which leverages 24/7 autonomous AI agents and offers users personalized funeral home-matching based on quotes, location, and individual needs. The platform also automates paperwork for filing death certificates and...
Atlanta, GA, will continue to be a city of opportunity, according to Mayor Andre Dickens. Affordable Housing Dickens assumed his post as mayor in 2022, and since then he has implemented various plans to the benefit of the city, including providing affordable housing. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Atlanta’s first rapid housing initiative launched in January 2024 in south downtown on city-owned property. It featured 40 shipping containers that were turned into private living quarters, with the one room including a bed, bathroom, and kitchenette. The initiative encompasses a city-wide goal to establish 20,000 affordable housing units by 2030, which will benefit the unsheltered, senior citizens, families with children, school teachers, and young adults who are not earning a large salary, and other populations. Already, 11,000 affordable housing units have been built. These efforts have also been supported by a $50 million bond proposed by Dickens in 2024, along with $10 million the...
Aisha Bowe nearly failed high school but she never allowed her dreams to escape her, leading her into space. Choosing Her Own Path In high school, a guidance counselor suggested that Bowe, a first-generation Bahamian-American, consider a career in cosmetology, since school had not been her strong suit at the time. However, it was through her father — who passed away in 2025 — that she found encouragement to pursue mathematics and reject the limited path the counselor had envisioned for her. On the “Black Tech Green Money” podcast hosted by AFROTECH™ Brand Manager Will Lucas, Bowe acknowledges that the counselor’s restrictive views made her feel “demoralized,” so she chose not to apply to a four-year university and instead enrolled in a community college. Following a reality check, Bowe decided she wanted to become a NASA rocket scientist, a dream first envisioned by her father, who had initially moved to the United States to pursue this goal, notes Travel Noire. “I wanted to do...
A Black Wall Street is establishing itself in Augusta, GA. According to WJBF Channel 6, an eight-step plan focused on Black entrepreneurship, proposed by Lawrence Freeman Jr. and Thelonious Jones, aims to create a business district encompassing Walton Way, Laney Walker, Broad Street, East Boundary, and other areas. The goal is to promote economic growth and help entrepreneurs generate wealth, with a district modeled after the original Black Wall Street in Tulsa, OK. The project is inspired by Viola Fletcher, “Mother Fletcher,” the oldest living survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 2021, which saw more than 300 lives lost and the whole of Black Wall Street businesses destroyed, according to the Tulsa Library. Fletcher was 7 at the time and turned 110 in May 2024, notes People. She is still fighting to rewrite the wrongs of the massacre that left her family in poverty, per Justice For Greenwood. Fletcher lived in the Greenwood District, a predominantly Black neighborhood with...
Howard University is not aligned with the Trump administration’s request to revert funding levels back to 2021. Why Federal Funding Proposal Was Made The Hill reports that the nation’s only federally chartered Historically Black College and University (HBCU) received a one-time payment valued at $64 million to support the construction of a hospital at the school. That hospital has been completed, therefore the Trump administration is not looking to provide that extra funding for the 2026 year. Trump also shares that he doesn’t intend to cut the federal funding budget for HBCUs that is already in place. “I got them more money than they ever dreamt possible, and they’re in great shape now,” Trump said referring to a 2019 bill that started allocating over $250 million yearly to HBCUs starting in 2021, according to the outlet. “They have long-term financing. Nobody did that but Donald Trump.” Howard University Responds Howard University is requesting that its budget for the 2026 year...
Morgan Hewett didn’t explore alternative funding options when she launched her first company. In June 2020, Hewett, a former health lead at Facebook (now Meta) who generated $100 million in profit for the company, launched her own company, OptionsMD. The telehealth platform uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) to predict which treatments and medications individuals with treatment-resistant illnesses are most likely to respond to. The venture was inspired by her older brother, who suffered from severe mental health issues and suicidal ideation. Despite having great doctors, it was still hard to find the right medication, leading him to try nearly 12 antidepressants before finding a match. “That made me wonder, ‘Why didn’t the doctors know which medication was gonna work for him?'” Hewett told AFROTECH™. “So I started becoming obsessed with the psychiatry industry and interviewing doctors, and they kept on telling me, ‘When a patient walks into our office, we have five...
John W. Rogers Jr. had the confidence to make history at 24 years old because he was an investor at 12. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, it would be his father, who made the decision to ensure Rogers received stocks for Christmas and his birthday instead of toys, which included $200 worth of shares from companies such as General Motors and Commonwealth Edison. His father also played a role in him connecting with Chicago, IL’s first African American stock brocker, Stacy Adams, who became a mentor and role model. While both his parents worked as lawyers — his mother even made history as the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School — not to mention his grandfather, he never felt pressure to follow a similar footprint and was trusted to make his own decisions. Ariel Investments Rogers went on to pursue education at Princeton University, earning a degree in economics by 1980. He then spent two and a half years as a stock broker at William Blair and,...
Symphonic Capital has launched its inaugural fund targeting overlooked founders in fintech and health care. Symphonic Capital’s Inception Sydney Thomas, who always displayed an “entrepreneurial spirit,” founded the venture capital (VC) firm in 2022. Having already dedicated years to being a serial investor, her work in venture capital began in 2016. It was during that time that she observed a common pattern: Many firms placed broad bets on numerous founders, accepting that most would fail in hopes that a few would yield outsized returns. However, she believed it was possible to have a more refined approach that would put more early-staged founders in a better position. “While it is still incredibly risky to work in early stage, a way to actually de-risk your investment is to have a much more structured and focused support strategy with those companies that increases the likelihood that they graduate from pre-seed to seed, and increases the likelihood that they graduate from seed to...
Harvard University professors are donating a portion of their salaries to the Ivy League after it lost federal funding. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, Harvard received two letters from federal agencies instructing it to discontinue its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments. The letters stated that failure to comply could result in the loss of about $9 billion in federal funding. According to Reuters, some of the conditions included reducing the influence of faculty, staff, and students who are “more committed to activism than scholarship.” Additionally, the letters requested an external panel to audit these groups for alignment with “viewpoint diversity,” arguing that the university has “failed to live up to both the intellectual and civil rights conditions that justify federal investment.” The letters also flagged concerns about unchallenged antisemitism. While Harvard University did agree to address concerns about antisemitism on campus, it also stated, “These ends...
Megan Thee Stallion is set to become a franchisee! The Houston, TX-born rapper is diving deeper into her entrepreneurship bag. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, through her music career, she already has full ownership of her master recordings and publishing thanks to her deal with Warner Music Group. She has also gone on to launch her own tequila brand, Chicas Divertidas. At the time of this writing, the brand boasts two offerings: Blanco and Reposado. Photo Credit: World Red Eye “As someone who values good vibes and great memories, I knew I wanted to create a tequila that was designed to be shared and savored with my Hotties,” Megan Thee Stallion said in a news release shared with AFROTECH™. “Smooth, sultry, and premium. This process has been years in the making, and I’m so proud to take this next step in my journey as an entrepreneur and launch this brand. I know the Hotties are ready, it’s time to give them a drink made by me! I’m excited to share this labor of love with you all...
Curtis Lawrence III is set to graduate after making history at his HBCU. At 16 years old, Lawrence’s bright future was solidified after he was accepted into 14 esteemed colleges, which included Harvard University, Yale University, Howard University, Morehouse College, Morgan State University, and University of California Berkeley, as CBS News notes. He also received $1.6 million in scholarships at the time. “We’ve taught them from an early age that education is key to opening up the opportunities and having access to things that they want to life,” his father, Curtis Lawrence Jr., told CBS News. Choosing dual-enrollment for his last two years of high school, Lawrence III started taking both high school and college classes at George Washington University in Washington, DC, in 2019. Doing so at 14 years old, he made history as its youngest freshman, the Tallahassee Democrat reports. In 2021, he continued his studies as a junior at HBCU Florida A&M University (FAMU) and also made...