"When I was in 6th grade the Howard Hughes Foundation funded a Saturday science program that was targeting diversity and girls. That summer I was one of five students chosen to go to an extension research program at Duke University. I did research on phage, viruses found in the soil. I discovered a new phage that is still being researched at the Pittsburgh Phage Institute. I knew from the 6th grade that I wanted to become a biochemical engineer. I want to find the woman who ran the Saturday science program, her name is Rebecca and I'd like to thank her because there are a lot of federally funded programs but there needs to be a bridge, a person who is dedicated to making a program happen and to making it diverse, she was that bridge. Innovation only happens when you have diverse perspectives brought together in an integrative way to create a new strategy. I want to use my STEM background for good, it's the social impact of my work that I am most interested in." - Temiloluwa Adeniyi is a graduate student at Georgia Tech and she is the CEO/Founder of Nopneu, LLC which has developed Nopneu, a low cost- diagnostic tool for diagnosing pneumonia in a fraction of the time and cost of conventional methods. Temiloluwa was awarded $10,000 from Backstage Capital this week for winning the Pitch Black Competition at SXSW2018
Amanda Tafoya
"Being a teen mother at 17, changed my life. I remember looking into my baby's big blue eyes and I was determined he would have different parenting than I did. I didn't want him to feel unloved or uneducated like I felt. So, I signed up for emotional intelligence classes and I signed up for a parenting class that I went to once a week for many years. And then I sent him off to Duke University where he will be a senior next year. I have three more children and all of those parenting and education skills trickled down to them as well. And, after getting my GED I also received my EMT and nursing licenses. And most recently I've become a licensed real estate agent." Amanda Tafoya is a real estate agent in Taos, New Mexico.