Two brothers who grew up in Milwaukee, and started a non-profit, Young Enterprising Society, began an eight-week program to teach inner city youth technology and entrepreneurial skills.
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service reports:
“A dozen middle-school kids are chatting and eating a snack as they wander around a room in the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) building, where technical equipment is piled on scattered tables. As they finish eating, they gravitate toward a long table where they find a bag of marshmallows, sticks of uncooked spaghetti, a roll of bright blue duct tape and some string.
“It’s time for the marshmallow challenge,” announced Que El-Amin, one of two brothers running the YES STEAM Accelerator summer technology camp.
The eight-week program was the latest in a series of opportunities that Que, 31, and Khalif El-Amin, 30, offered city youth free of charge. The brothers, who started their for-profit company, the Young Enterprising Society (YES), in 2011, have recently focused their efforts on bringing their knowledge of technology to middle and high school students, mostly in central city schools.
“We feel that if you have the proper resources, anyone can accomplish anything they want to in the world,” Que El-Amin said.
The marshmallow challenge involves teams of three or four kids, and a yard of string, a yard of tape, 20 sticks of spaghetti and two marshmallows per team. The challenge is to build a standing structure with a marshmallow on top in 18 minutes.”
For more, visit, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.