Get to Know Our OZY Genius Award Winners!

www.ozy.com [OZY]( OZY A Modern Media Company Share This Sh*t December 26, 2022 Share This Sh*t [The drop]( GET TO KNOW OUR OZY GENIUS AWARD WINNERS! You’ve met our 12 outstanding OZY 2023 Genius Award winners. Now we’d like you to get to know them better and discover the next steps in their initiatives for making our world a more equitable and sustainable place — with OZY at their side. Dream Within Reach Cultivating Excellence Now that we’ve identified our [12 new OZY Genius Award winners]( for 2023, we’d like for you to get acquainted. The members of this year’s cohort were chosen for the originality, strength and potential of their projects, many of which are already underway. Over the next year, OZY will partner with each of these young leaders to help them bring to fruition, or further develop, their genius projects. New Breed was a mere idea in 2017, a journaled thought in 2018, and a courageous launch in 2021. Now in 2022, I have the honor to elevate and execute my idea even further as an OZY Genius through funding and mentorship. Winning this award goes beyond a personal achievement. This is an open door to the promising future of Sierra Leone, West Africa, and all her people who dare to dream out loud. - Darlingtina Tucker, 2023 OGA honoree OZY has awarded our 12 winners up to $10,000 in support of their initiatives. But the award is about much more than funding. Through our mentorship program, beginning in May 2023, OZY will express our full commitment to accompanying our winners every step of the way. Our 2023 Mentorship Program: Timeline “It takes drive, passion and perseverance to tackle these critical challenges," said Beverly Watson, OZY's Managing Editor.  "We believe in surrounding our OZY Geniuses with all the elements to promote their success, including active mentorship and fostering a vibrant community of other geniuses.” Over the course of the year, the 2023 cohort of OZY Geniuses will engage in community building, and personalized mentorship: —December 2022: Our 12 geniuses — from ten universities in eight states — came together for a virtual meet and greet to begin establishing a community of like-minded young people as a foundational support in their yearlong journey. —May 2023: Each OZY winner will be paired with a personal mentor chosen specifically to provide tailored and targeted support for each project. Mentors will work closely with each OGA recipient, as well as provide professional connections and networking. —June to September 2023: Our geniuses will spend four months developing their projects, accompanied by their OZY community and individual mentors. —Fall 2023: Recipients will present their work in a project showcase and describe what they learned and discovered in the process. I created my organization, Project FRESH, back in 2015 as a labor of love for my home in Miami ... With the help of my newly acquired relationship with the team at the OZY Genius Awards, I can continue to equitably innovate access to education and funds across the U.S. - Kenya Handfield, 2023 OGA honoree In the words of Youseff Hasweh, a 2023 Genius who at age 12 had no prospects for funding a college education, but at 17 was on his way to the University of Chicago on a full scholarship: “I can speak for hours about how people that look like me aren’t meant to live out their dreams. And especially not get funding to do so. But I’ll leave you with this — Theodore Roosevelt once said, ‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.’ This is a quote I live by. Pursue your dreams, for we are all geniuses.” OZY believes that investing in new talent is the best way to invest in our future. If you missed our earlier reports, or want to know more about our OGA honorees’ bold ideas and endeavors, we invite you to get to know them better. Be sure to click on the video links to hear more about each project directly from the honoree. Sustainability Through Technology & Empowering Youth as Agents of Change *Tyler Greene, Morehouse College Optimizing Energy for a Sustainable World –Tyler seeks to alleviate climate change and encourage sustainability with his quantum operating system for energy management, designed to assist global efforts in meeting our growing energy demands and optimizing energy production and consumption. [WATCH MORE HERE]( *Darlingtina Tucker, Spelman College Empowering Young People as Agents of Change –With her organization New Breed and her specially designed app, Darlingtina will empower the young people of Sierra Leone to become active change agents through community service and social engagement, and help young entrepreneurs harness new technologies to encourage entrepreneurship. [WATCH MORE HERE]( Expanding Opportunity in Medicine & Improving Mental Health Diagnostics *Morgan Stanley, Tougaloo College Paving the Way for Minorities in Health Care Professions – Morgan’s Daniel Williams Exposure to Health Care Program hopes to provide low-income students the opportunity to learn about the importance of diversity in medicine and take their proper place as leaders in U.S. health care. [WATCH MORE HERE]( Avery Carty, Fordham University Taking On the Youth Mental Health Crisis –With the involvement of scientists and health care professionals, Avery hopes to develop new diagnostic questionnaires to improve assessment validity, thus reducing incorrect diagnoses and limiting the consumption of unnecessary drugs. [WATCH MORE HERE]( NOW STREAMING FROM OZY STUDIO Increasing Access to Learning & Bridging the Educational Divide Youssef Hasweh, The University of Chicago Helping Disadvantaged Students Finance an Education –Youssef’s Your Success Scholarship program hopes to “change the face of access” by building a student-led higher education advocacy platform designed to assist low-income, first-generation students of color in reaching their educational dreams. [WATCH MORE HERE]( Avi Knotts, Temple University Leveling the Technological Playing Field – Avi’s nonprofit Avi I.T. Inc. provides people of all backgrounds and experiences the opportunity to gain computer science skills in order to help close the diversity gap in the computer science field and alleviate the digital divide. [WATCH MORE HERE]( *Kenya Handfield, Spelman College Closing the Achievement Gap Through College Funding – Through her preventive and play-based platforms Project FRESH and Project FRESH+, Kenya assists kids with college funding to help close the achievement gap experienced by millions of racial minorities and stop the school-prison nexus. minorities and stop the school-prison nexus. [WATCH MORE HERE]( Mubarak Idoko, Dartmouth College Advancing Technology for Better Access to Learning –Mubarak’s management platform is designed to give Nigerian schools a mobile infrastructure for SMS integration to make learning more accessible and engaging, and avoid disruptions in the learning process due to unreliable internet access. [WATCH MORE HERE]( Advancing Technology for Wellness, Mental Health & the Arts *Aleah Brown, Spelman College Designing VR Software to Expand Access to Arts and Culture – Through her innovative virtual reality software, Aleah hopes to immerse underserved students in “an interactive virtual art museum” to expose them to art, culture and history in a safe and encouraging space. [WATCH MORE HERE]( Myron Layese, Berklee College of Music Creating VR Software to Overcome Performance Stress –Myron aims to lower entry barriers to music performance by designing research-based performance anxiety-management techniques to help young musicians overcome the many stressors of performance and reach their full artistic potential. [WATCH MORE HERE]( Nicte Aguillon Jimenez, University of Wisconsin-Madison Designing a Multilingual Chatbot to Broaden Access to Crucial Information on Reproductive Health –Nicte’s All Voices conversational chatbot integrates voice recognition to give people speaking various African languages, particularly in Amharic, who can’t yet read or write in their local language, crucial access to information, so they can make the best decisions for their reproductive health. [WATCH MORE HERE]( David Anthony Barbier Jr., Syracuse University Encouraging Self-Expression and Well-Being Through Film –Through his short film Numb, David Anthony hopes to encourage access to mental health resources to help people express their true selves in all their vulnerability and emotion and bring people together who have shared conflict. [WATCH MORE HERE]( Stay Tuned for More Over the coming year, we’ll be sharing updates on the momentum of our OZY Geniuses, their journeys and their discoveries. Please stay tuned — and [drop us a line](mailto:OzyCommunity@Ozy.com) if you have questions, suggestions or collaboration ideas. *OZY Genius Award winner and an AT&T Dream in Black honoree (from an HBCU) COMMUNITY CORNER What projects or themes among this year’s OGA winners most excite you and why? [SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS HERE]( [TV]( | [PODCASTS]( | [NEWS]( | [FESTIVALS]( OZY is a diverse, global and forward-looking media and entertainment company focused on “the New and the Next.” OZY creates space for fresh perspectives, and offers new takes on everything from news and culture to technology, business, learning and entertainment. #OZYMedia, #TheDrop OZY Media, 800 West El Camino Mountain View, California 94040 This email was sent to {EMAIL} [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Read Online](