Celebrating The Victories! Happy Juneteenth!

As an entrepreneur, I know I’m supposed to face all challenges by putting on a brave face and powering ahead. But lately, that hasn’t been so easy. I’ve been a bit neurotic... and my loved ones have taken notice. While having a conversation with my youngest brother Matthew, he said that even though it might be hard for me to do self-care, it’s particularly important at this moment. He went on the remind me that, if a person is worn down from all the issues in the world, they will have less capacity to be effective when they need to be the most. He reminded me to celebrate small victories to help me maintain happiness and optimism.

I’m going to share something with all of you. Being an American descendant of slaves, I’ve felt that I HAVE to achieve just to feel valuable or worthy. Achievements aren’t a joy. They’re a necessity, it’s survival. My grandmother raised me this way to try to protect me, and it’s been a terrible burden. It’s something I have been working on reframing for myself.

For Juneteeth, I am going to celebrate some of my victories with you all. Primarily, things I have done that allow me to give back to my community, especially the youth who brought me a sense of purpose. It's never been about money, but about leaving a legacy of humanity, empathy, and empowerment.

I didn’t go to school to do "what I do"- I learned along the way. And I shared the information as I acquired it. Below are some moments I’m really proud of.

During the summers, I used to teach a camp called "Intro to Futurism", and it was so amazing I could share the joy of learning about applications of technology with young kids, and educators. Intro to futurism isn't about coding and programming, it's about principles of thinking (see slides below).

I was able to facilitate a VR version during my stint with HTC (big thanks to Johnathan Sutherlin). I was able to teach young women about how to put together a computer- which I had learned how to do myself only a few weeks prior. I coupled this with applications of VR and it was fantastic.

Because of 2020's events, I wasn't able to do the program this year- but I'm working on restructuring this into a format in which I can.

Sugar Gamers was hired to design and manage the game lab for the Adidas Worlds Best Career Day. This goal was to provide overlooked and underserved kids access to their heroes in several industries including gaming, music, design, and more. Sugar Gamers was identified as a company that could facilitate this game lab in a way that was authentic and representative of the youth that we wanted to impact.

Live CGI is a huge contributor in our ability to show how video games are made by providing Sugar Gamers with the hardware and software to showcase these educational components. In addition to VR and video game tournament structures, we were able to showcase virtual spaces, motion capture, and more.

Huge thanks to Kevin Fair of https://www.ipgnation.com/ who has been a huge supporter and has helped our organization thrive over the years!

Hannibal Buress's team (specifically Raymond Lambert and Tulani Watkins) identified Sugar Gamers as an organization that could contribute to the forward progression of Chicago's west side communities through introducing tech to youth, parents, and educators. I was able to bring my team together and collaborate with Live CGI and Redline VR to make a comprehensive tech event.

And as usual, our brother company https://www.ipgnation.com/ came with esports knowledge and equipment.

Esports is exceptionally compelling at this time. Sugar Gamers had an internship program where we took on several interns to take them to their first esports event- Combo Breaker. Combo Breaker is the largest competitive fighting game convention in Illinois, and one of the largest in its peer category worldwide.

These young individuals did a lot of work to earn an opportunity to participate. It was awesome to see their passion and happiness being able to attend! My youngest brother helped me facilitate this program and it was an amazing event to collaborate with him on.

"THE BLACK CREATIVITY INNOVATOR GALLERY SPOTLIGHTS SEVEN CHICAGOANS THAT ARE SHAPING THE FUTURE OF THE CITY"

The Black Creativity Innovator Gallery in the Museum of Science and Industry honors Chicago’s African-American leaders in science, technology, engineering, art and medicine. This space encourages guests to discover the many ways inventive genius can take place, leaving them inspired to tap into their own creative problem-solving abilities as they enter the Innovation Studio—a space where they themselves become the innovators.

I was part of this two years in a row. It's still surreal.

I couldn't do all of this without the help of some amazing human beings! My team has been my lifeline. I couldn't be more grateful!

If you made it all the way to the end of this article and you want to help my initiatives regarding my ongoing efforts to expose overlooked kids to tech and games feel free to contact me.

I'm not an official 501c3- but all of my efforts, time, money, and initiatives go to progressing our community and have for over a decade.