4th Annual UNCF HBCU Innovation Summit Opened Silicon Valley Doors

Fifty-three students and 19 faculty members representing more than 30 historically black colleges and universities visited nearly a dozen Silicon Valley/Bay Area corporations November 16-20, 2016, during the fourth annual UNCF HBCU Innovation Summit.

This year, the summit’s tech trek consisted of corporate tech office tours and interactive sessions on startups and entrepreneurship in tech. Students heard from some of their successful peers (including the founders of Black Valley, a self-led group of African American Silicon Valley interns) and had their resumes critiqued by tech recruiters, while the HBCU educators worked on developing curriculums in an effort to foster more innovation across their campuses.

The goal of the four-day summit was to empower African American students-most of whom are computer science, engineering and information technology majors-to chart their career paths in the tech industry. UNCF believes that #HBCUs, the students they serve, and faculty they employ, have the ability to drive innovation and meet the high standards of the highly competitive job market. UNCF aims to establish a consistent presence in Silicon Valley so that technology companies will think of HBCU students first as a pipeline of diverse and qualified talent for recruiting.

UNCF wishes to thanks our donors and sponsors who made this event possible for our students.

What is the HBCU I.C.E. Summit?