Celebrating American Education Week with Verizon Investment in ACCESS Online
Verizon Celebrates American Education Week with $165,500 Grant to aīre ventures for Racial Equity and Social Justice EdTech Initiative
The grant will support the organization’s initiatives to bridge systemic opportunity gaps to college access for youth from South Florida’s underserved communities.
aīre ventures has received a $165,500 grant from Verizon to support its racial equity and social justice initiatives for bridging systemic gaps in college access for youth from underserved South Florida communities.
The November 15th announcement aligns with the start of the 2021 American Education Week, which celebrates public education and honors the individuals working to ensure that every student receives a quality education.
aīre ventures will use the Verizon grant to support the pilot of Access Online, an EdTech solution developed by its portfolio venture, Nyah Project.
“We are thrilled about our partnership with Verizon, championed by Merdochey LaFrance, their director of local engagement for South Florida, as it will help subsidize the cost of annual user license fees for the students most at-risk from not fulfilling their potential - simply because they can’t afford a college admissions coach,” said Aileen Alon, Director of Nyah Project and Associate Director of aīre ventures. “The funding opens up new opportunities for us to collaborate with youth service providers, including Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Miami, Breakthrough Miami, and others, and enroll their students in Access Online for greater impact.”
The Verizon-funded pilot builds on Nyah Project’s 18-month beta test of Access Online, which is a web-based, mobile-friendly platform that serves individual students and youth service provider college bound programs by providing on-demand, college admissions skills and strategy coaching. The platform leverages vetted content that has resulted in a 100% college acceptance rate, 95% scholarship acquisition rate, and over $11 million in scholarships awarded to South Florida students from disadvantaged backgrounds over the past seven years.
“The systemic barriers that persist in educational equity are compounded for BIPOC students from low income backgrounds,” adds Leigh-Ann A. Buchanan, Esq., President of aīre ventures. “Verizon’s investment in Access Online demonstrates an intentional effort to address pronounced inequities in the college admissions process, which are a root cause of this problem.”
The non-profit venture studio scales innovation and technology solutions to systemic gaps in access, opportunity, and racial equity. It is one of two South Florida organizations to receive a Verizon grant in the past month. The other organization, The Urban League of Broward County, will use its grant funding to create programs that prioritize racial equity, diversity and inclusion leadership training, civic engagement, and advocacy.
Verizon’s partnership with aīre ventures began in 2020 as a financial sponsor of a previous portfolio initiative, Venture Cafe Miami, which hosted the largest weekly convening for the local innovation ecosystem. In addition, Verizon served as a lead sponsor of the 2021 REDI Scorecard, led by aīre ventures, which is the first and most comprehensive equity scorecard of the South Florida tech, innovation, and entrepreneurship ecosystem. As part of the expanded partnership, LaFrance will join the aīre ventures Board of Directors and sit on the Nyah Project advisory committee.
###
About aīre ventures
aīre ventures is a non-profit venture studio that scales technology and innovation solutions to systemic gaps in access, opportunity and racial equity. The team relies on its proven track record and capacity to scale impact to accelerate growth of its portfolio of social impact ventures and increase investor confidence. www.aireventures.org
About Nyah Project
Nyah Project is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2014 to bridge systemic opportunity gaps through transformative leadership fellowships abroad and tech enabled college access strategy coaching for youth from underserved backgrounds. Nyah Project is one of four social impact ventures in aīre ventures’ venture studio portfolio. Its on-demand, college strategy coaching platform, Access Online, leverages content that has resulted in a 100% college acceptance rate, 95% scholarship acquisition rate, and over $10 million in scholarships awarded to South Florida students from at-risk communities over the past seven years. www.nyahproject.org
