The White House will honor South Florida entrepreneur Felecia Hatcher as one of 10 "Champions of Change" from around the nation on Wednesday. The 10 are being recognized for their innovation in creating diversity and access in STEM fields.
Hatcher is the founder of Code Fever, a workshop series that trains youths in the areas of technology and entrepreneurship. Although all youth are welcome to the workshops, Hatcher, who is also the founder of Feverish Ice Cream, believes tech education is not equally accessible to all and reaches out to African American communities and offers scholarships to the day-long workshops. Along with computer programming and website development instruction, her workshops often include a "pitching contest" to help teach entrepreneurship to the teens and a panel discussion for their parents to expose them to local successful tech entrepreneurs and potential tech career tracks for their children. She also was instrumental in helping to bring a Black Girls Code chapter to Miami and is a frequent speaker at area schools.
The Champions of Change event will be live-streamed on the White House website, http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/, at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Previous Champions of Change from South Florida include Rob Davis in 2013 for his work in open government and civic hacking and Susan Amat in 2012 for mentorship.
Comments