American Family Hosts ATL STEAM & Dream Summit with Earn Your Leisure and  Urban Future Centers Partners

Over the weekend American Family hosted STEAM & Dream ATL Summit in partnership with Milwaukee-based organizations. STEAM & Dream is a Milwaukee-founded program dedicated to helping young people explore technology fields, engineering, math, science, and design.

The STEAM & Dream ATL Summit (hosted at the Gathering Spot) gathered students of middle and high school ages to develop new skills in emerging technologies.

JoAnne Johnson-Sabir national real estate developer and American Family Strategic Advisor opened the Summit by challenging the youth to take advantage of the moment and network with subject matter experts in the room.  Nadiyah Johnson of Milky Way Tech Hub followed up with an urgent request that the youth write down their dreams and share them with each other insisting that there were future data scientists, innovators, and creatives in the room.

Rashaun Williams and Nadiyah Johnson pictured with winners.

The one-day summit featured Urban Future Centers (UFC) –  a group of Black-owned community-based organizations that collectively received 1.2 Million investments from American Family. Summit participants had the opportunity to engage in a pitch competition featuring guest judge/speaker Rashaun Williams where founders received $1000 sponsored by Milky Way Tech Hub.  Another workshop covered product design educating students on design thinking concepts for product development- hosted by Sherman Phoenix Executive Director Dr. Stacia Thompson and Quentin Prince of Journey House. Students also had the opportunity to interact with VR and learn about the WEB3 space through workshops hosted by Black on Black Education.

Que El Amin and Ranell Washington Facilitate a Fireside chat with Rashad and Troy of Earn Your Leisure

A highlight of the Summit was Earn Your Leisure. Earn Your Leisure is a top financial podcast. They are leading the movement to educate urban communities on finance, business, and entrepreneurship.

EYL joined the STEAM & Dream summit as guest speakers for two fireside chat segments tailored for adults and youth. They left each crowd inspired with fresh perspectives on building wealth and embarking on entrepreneurship. The Fireside chat was Facilitated by American Family’s Ranell Washington and Que El Amin of Young Enterprising Society.

Participants were provided with tools to begin or continue their journey in STEAM  and entrepreneurship.  The STEAM & Dream Summit is a beautiful example of what happens when people rally together to make a difference in their communities. Lead project manager for the STEAM & Dream Summit Kenge Adams founder of Connect Business Consulting sited that the most impactful moment for her was seeing a line of people out the door waiting to register prior to the start of the event. There is a true hunger for more spaces to foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and community support. Milwaukee is creating a replicable model for activating communities and amplifying Black community spaces. 

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