What do the world of Hip Hop and Tech have in common? They’re all about innovation, grit, and having the ability to bring an idea to life. This is the lesson learned by our Ladders for Leaders participants during their 6-week internship with Microsoft Garage and the Hip Hop Museum – during which they worked on “The Center for Excellence and Hustle,” a PBL that encourages participants to design a business model/tech idea that reflects their unique passions and interests.
The Cipher and the Code: What Hip Hop and Tech Have in Common
Microsoft Garage is a worldwide program that offers activities and information at various local sites – essentially serving as a place where both employees and customers can explore their passions and turn them into innovative ideas. The Hip Hop Museum is an NYC museum dedicated to the celebration and preservation of Hip Hop music, dance, and culture. Together, they model the basis of this PBL, which is that the same creative force that makes Hip Hop also pushes people to develop the next app or start their own business. In fact, portions of entrepreneurial methodology can be correlated to the story behind Hip Hop’s greatest hits: The Cipher/Idea stage, the sample/identifying your target demographic, the flip/design stage, the hustle/the prototype, the rep/testing, and finally, “The Come Up”/Storytelling behind your product.
Real Solutions from Next-Gen Innovators: The Final Projects
Bearing this general narrative in mind, participants put on their entrepreneur hats and started to develop their ideas into REAL business plans – eventually presenting them as a part of their final projects. The variety itself was truly impressive; participants presented several different proposals, from focus apps aimed at students to pet-sitting services.
Building the Future: The Power of Community and Corporate Collaboration
It’s truly astonishing to see how many of our everyday problems can potentially be solved when we give young people the tools and platform to do so. Opportunities like these are made possible by many players and behind-the-scenes collaborations between CASW, our partners at DYCD, local leaders, and private organizations like Microsoft and the Hip Hop Museum. Together, we can teach today’s youth to ask big questions and find tomorrow’s answers.
