Today's Date: September 22, 2023
LeadingAge And Ziegler Release 20th Annual LeadingAge Ziegler LZ 200 Report   •   Dominican President Addresses UN to Defend His Nation’s Measures Against Haiti’s Illegal Canal Construction Project   •   Sustainable Fitch Assigned NaaS Technology the Highest ESG Entity Score in China of 76 and Rating of '2'   •   Revry and Discover Present The 8th Annual Queer X Awards on National Coming Out Day   •   Young Travel & Cruises Educational Seminars Offer Upstate SC Travel Enthusiasts a Chance to Learn about Land, River and Sea   •   Fosun International Ranks Third on the List of 2023 China Top 100 Sustainable Enterprises   •   Energy Recovery and Epta Win Refrigeration Innovation of the Year at RAC Cooling Industry Awards 2023   •   UNITE HERE Local 11: Laguna Cliffs Hospitality Workers Rally at UC Regents Meeting in Los Angeles   •   Church of the Highlands Opens New Huntsville Campus Location   •   Pennsylvania American Water Reaches Agreement to Acquire Audubon Water Company   •   Sen. Bernie Sanders Addresses Critical Shortage of Black Physicians at the NMA's Professional Development Series   •   JTI: Combatting Illegal Trade and a Collective Approach to Sustainability Were the Focus at the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Foru   •   E85 Offers Massive Savings as Gasoline Prices Rise   •   Technip Energies Announces the Success of Its First Worldwide Employee Shareholding Operation ESOP 2023   •   Métis Citizens elect new president in first election for new Otipemisiwak Métis Government   •   Orion S.A. Declares Interim Quarterly Dividend   •   QuidelOrtho Receives CLIA Waiver for Sofia® 2 SARS Antigen+ FIA   •   Sean "Diddy" Combs Applauds Black Leaders' Commitment to Defending Democracy, Driving Corporate Diversity at Congressional Black   •   Métis Nation within Alberta Citizens elect new President and Citizens' Council, formally becoming the Otipemisiwak M&eacu   •   Sendero Health Plans Names Sharon Alvis as Next Chief Executive
Bookmark and Share

Twenty Under 20 To Receive SBA Grants

 SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Warning that America's long term economic prospects are uncertain without radical innovation in technology, Peter Thiel this week launched the Thiel Fellowship to foster the next generation of tech visionaries. The new program will support 20 entrepreneurs under 20 years old with grants of up to $100,000.

"Our world needs more breakthrough technologies,” said Thiel. "From Facebook to SpaceX to Halcyon Molecular, some of the world's most transformational technologies were created by people who stopped out of school because they had ideas that couldn't wait until graduation. This fellowship will encourage the most brilliant and promising young people not to wait on their ideas, either. The Thiel Fellows will change the world and call it a senior thesis.”

The Thiel Foundation will award 20 people under 20 years old cash grants of $100,000 to further their innovative scientific and technical ideas. In addition, over a two year period, Peter Thiel's network of tech entrepreneurs and philanthropists—drawn from PayPal, Facebook, Palantir Technologies, Founders Fund, the Singularity Institute, and others—will teach the recipients about creating disruptive technologies and offer mentorship, employment opportunities, support, and training.

"University is a tremendously valuable experience, but when entrepreneurs are ready to launch, they should do so immediately, rather than sticking around to satisfy expectations of a full four years of college or eight of grad school,” said Elon Musk, who co-founded Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and PayPal. Musk himself stopped out of his graduate program before classes began to co-found his first company Zip2, which he sold to Compaq for $307 million.

"There is absolutely no experience that matches the real world, so if you have the passion and drive and want to work on a great idea, you should just do it,” said Scott Banister. Banister left the University of Illinois before taking a degree and founded ListBot, the largest ASP for business email, and IronPort, the anti-spam company that Cisco acquired for $830 million.

"Because education seeks to impart past knowledge, when you are trying to create a technological breakthrough, you have to create new knowledge, and there is no way to teach that. There was no course at University of Arizona on 'how to cure aging.' Hopefully, this program will allow others to work on ambitious projects themselves, before they've taken on a crippling amount of student debt,” said William Andregg, CEO and co-founder of Halcyon Molecular. Halcyon is a start-up that has developed a breakthrough technology for fast, cheap, and highly accurate sequencing of DNA, and whose ultimate goal is to use sequencing data to support therapeutic products that vastly extend healthy lifespans.

"Inventing and producing a pedal-powered cell phone charging station to help Africans stay connected looks better on a resumé than straight A's in college, and takes the same amount of time,” said Michael Vassar, president of the nonprofit Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

Though applicants may already have scientific, technical, or nonprofit ideas, the Thiel Fellowship will not be limited to those with developed innovations. Teams of up to four may also apply. Applications will be available in October and due later in the fall, with the fellowship beginning in 2011.


STORY TAGS: GENERAL , BLACKS , AFRICAN AMERICAN , LATINO , HISPANIC , MINORITIES , CIVIL RIGHTS , DISCRIMINATION , RACISM , DIVERSITY , RACIAL EQUALITY , BIAS , EQUALITY



Back to top
| Back to home page
Video

White House Live Stream
LIVE VIDEO EVERY SATURDAY
alsharpton Rev. Al Sharpton
9 to 11 am EST
jjackson Rev. Jesse Jackson
10 to noon CST


Video

LIVE BROADCASTS
Sounds Make the News ®
WAOK-Urban
Atlanta - WAOK-Urban
KPFA-Progressive
Berkley / San Francisco - KPFA-Progressive
WVON-Urban
Chicago - WVON-Urban
KJLH - Urban
Los Angeles - KJLH - Urban
WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
New York - WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
WADO-Spanish
New York - WADO-Spanish
WBAI - Progressive
New York - WBAI - Progressive
WOL-Urban
Washington - WOL-Urban

Listen to United Natiosns News