Summer 2018 Project Z Cohort
Theme: Enhancing Education
This summer, Project Z teamed up with DC Youth Corps to train dozens of Washington, DC youth aged 16-21 in Project Management, UX Design, Computer Programming and Workplace Etiquette. Select youth were then assigned to three project teams and successfully completed assignments over the course of eight weeks .
Mondays through Thursdays students collaborated in WeWork under the guidance of their Project Advisor, Jazmin Tanner. Fridays served as a remote professional development day for our cohort. Students leveraged RFPs and responses to company applications submitted to Project Z in order to interview their clients and scope their project. The interview responses were then leveraged to develop a letter of engagement and project schedule. Once their clients signed off on the scope and delivery timelines, our talented youth consultants began working on solutions to solve their client’s challenges.
Technology for Children Africa
Technology for Children Africa is a US Based nonprofit that provides access to technology as well as digital literacy for youth in the Ivory Coast. Our cohort was tasked with creating a board best practices guide and funding development strategy to address the unique position of a nonprofit based in the US while providing aid to primarily another country. Students interviewed similar nonprofits and found resources online to develop a best practice guide, funding source recommendations and grant application templates.
Global business coalition for education
The Global Business Coalition for Education (GBCE)’s in partnership with Deloitte, developed a Future of Work Report and were in need of a strategy that equitably disseminated findings. Our Youth Consultants focused on how to engage youth ages 15-21 from diverse backgrounds. Students developed, distributed and analyzed surveys, crafted personas, and conducted research to create a dynamic marketing strategy that engaged their target audience. Their marketing strategy included recommendations of which communication channels would reach diverse demographics, suggested influencers to contact, sample social media posts and, as well as event concepts.
WikI Education
Our Youth Technologists fixed bugs found in the Wiki Edu Dashboard. Youth Technologist Rufus Denmon-Pena described one of the simpler bug fixes through his journal entry:
I worked on what was getting the datepicker to appear on screen instead of being slightly off screen. The issue was that the day picker needed a max-width of 65% - 15vw so that the calendar that popped up would appear completely on screen as long as it was on a 1012 * 356 screen resolution, so I changed the code to match the solution found and made a pull request to the original from my fork of the wiki edu dashboard master on Github.
Towards the completion of our program Rufus expressed there were some challenges that were simple and could be solved with only a few red herrings, but there were a few challenges he overcame that made working on a farm on a summer day seem simple.
Cohort member, Brandon Alston described his experience as:
Extremely challenging, but rewarding and fun especially with the support of a team.
By the end of the summer, the cohort earned over $10,000 for the services they provided.
