​Mentorship and Mental Wellness

The mentoring and guidance sessions will provide valuable life lessons for participants by presenting solid role models to help our youth develop a positive self-image, high self-esteem, and a significant sense of community. Participants must reach back and help others as they progress. The sessions will introduce meditation, which will improve mental discipline, mindfulness, focus, and self-control. Participants will also learn about inventors, entrepreneurs, and contributors to the STEM fields and will analyze the traits and achievements of influential leaders within Hip Hop culture.

​Technology Skills Training

• Computer Recycling
  • ​​​​​Much like Hip Hop Culture is a mindset of resourcefulness and making something out of nothing, so too is recycling computer hardware.  Hack & Hustle scholars will revive “obsolete” computers and use them for coding as well as other purposes. Hack & Hustle will follow the lessons of early Hip Hop pioneers, who revived old sounds and samples to create something new, vibrant, and long-lasting despite the systemic pressures compounded against them. Hack & Hustle scholars will harness technology to accomplish similar goals, uplifting and empowering themselves in the process.
• Software Programming
  • ​Through an understanding of software programming, scholars will build upon their revived computers via Hip Hop-inspired technical programming projects. 
  • These scholars will be coding with in-demand programming languages such as Python and will bring further value to computers once viewed as eWaste, while learning skills beneficial to them in the modern economy. Just as many rappers enabled themselves to ascend beyond their hardships by mastering the use of the English language, rhyme, and poetry, we will teach our scholars to understand that learning programming languages and technology skills can do the same for them. 
• Introduction to Electrical Engineering
  • ​Scholars will get an opportunity to build and test a basic electronic circuit.
• Raspberry Pi controlled Robot
  • ​A Raspberry Pi-based robot rover will be built, allowing scholars to gain a preliminary look at how self-driving cars can be programmed. Python will be used to control the robot rover.
• Solar Energy
  • ​Scholars will learn about solar energy and how this technology can be applied to many aspects of society. Solar energy represents a high-growth opportunity for jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities. ​
• Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning
  • An introduction to AI/ML will provide an overview of this growing industry.
  • ​We will use the Raspberry Pi to demonstrate machine learning

​Entrepreneurial Skills Development

Hack & Hustle focuses on inspiring the next generation of social entrepreneurs. Scholars will learn how to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, create business plans, understand the lean startup method, and learn about business legal structure. 

​Scholars will take all they have learned during the program and participate in the "Social Entrepreneurship Challenge.” Small teams (startups) will be formed and tasked with creating innovative products and services that will address the digital divide in their communities. Scholars will hone their business pitches and build a marketing campaign around their technology business ideas. They will pitch their ideas and compete for monetary prizes.

Hip Hop Challenge

Hack & Hustle scholars will have an opportunity to participate in a Hip Hop Challenge, where they can create their own songs, poems, spoken word, etc., and present it to the class. They will focus will be on the technology they learned about and community upliftment, They will compete for monetary prizes.

​Solutions to Address the Digital Divide

Hack & Hustle will enable scholars to begin planning their own technology-based businesses with an underlying focus on engaging with and providing benefits to the community. With their newfound technical and entrepreneurial knowledge, scholars will help bridge the digital divide identified within their own neighborhoods.