On Wednesday, (August 22), Young Guru revealed his intent to give away one million dollars in scholarship funding for people of color interested in coding.
It is partnership with the Opportunity Hubs and Rodney Sampson, the famed engineer and producer is teaming up with Flatiron School –an incubator dedicated to the tech and coding arena. With the new initiative, Guru is embarking on a six-city Tech to Wealth tour that kicked off on Thursday, August 24 in Atlanta and will conclude on October 3rd in Seattle.
It isn’t the first time that Guru has acknowledged the ties found in his musical background and the importance of innovation through technology. Back in 2013, Guru teamed up with Google to promote the experimental Google Glass in which he used the smart headgear to create a beat. This time around, he’s putting his money where his mouth is in a major way.
“The technologies we have, some of them are better than what we’ve imagined on Star Trek,” Guru told Highsnobiety in ’13. “Those types of things, as an engineering feat, are amazing. Also, what these technologies do in terms of power, what they give to the user and to the artist in terms of creative power, is just incredible.”
He would add onto the satisfaction he gets in promoting an environment of academic enrichment for students: “That’s one of my big things now, I actually love teaching. I like to look at a student and explain a concept, and to see that moment where the “Oh! I get it!” thing comes to their face, that’s a great feeling.
You have to speak in a language that the student can understand. If you truly understand a concept you could explain it to a baby.”