F.From introducing music education programs to providing scholarships to students from underserved communities, musical genius Pharrell Williams is committed to empowering youth through a range of educational initiatives. According to the Atlanta Journal ConstitutionThe Virginia native’s recent efforts focus on providing the youth with the tools they need to start their own businesses.
The latest collaboration between. @Pharrell aims to encourage both middle and high school students to share their voices on justice while learning how to code 👨🏾💻 https://t.co/viGiMfgZop
– AfroTech (@AfroTech) January 21, 2021
The initiative, known as Your Voice Is Power, is a joint venture between Williams, Amazon and the Georgia Institute of Technology. The project was launched to help middle and high school students who want to start socially conscious businesses achieve their entrepreneurial dreams. The initiators of the initiative want to remove the socio-economic barriers that stand in the way of STEAM training and increase local representation. Via “Your Voice is Power” the students use the EarSketch platform to encode a remix of Williams and Jay-Z’s song “Entrepreneur”. an ode to black business owners. The challenge was to bring art, computer science and entrepreneurship together. Students who win the competition will receive a $ 5,000 scholarship or grant to start their own business and five instructors will receive $ 1,000.
“By teaching sustainable skills like coding to children, especially those children for whom such opportunities have not been evenly distributed, we are preparing the next generation of entrepreneurs,” Williams said in a statement, the news agency said.
The news of “Your Voice is Power” comes almost two months after Williams unveiled a nonprofit Black Ambition, created to help black and brown entrepreneurs who have businesses in the healthcare, technology, design and consumer goods sectors . “Black Ambition aims to strengthen the pipeline of talented entrepreneurs and close the opportunity and asset gaps that result from restricted access to capital and resources,” Williams told Billboard.
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