Breonna July, C'2018, is a computer science major from Mobile, Alabama. July, along with three other students, represented Spelman College at the UNCF HBCU Innovation Summit in Silicon Valley, California, Oct. 25-29, 2017.
Raised by her grandmother, some of July's earliest memories are of her grandmother's constant keyboard use as a typing teacher. She would also observe her older brother fixing simple networking issues around the house and aspired to learn more about technology.
July applied to be an
HBCU Innovation Summit participant because she wanted exposure to Silicon Valley, the nation's tech hub. It was her second year being selected to attend the summit and she enjoyed being surrounded by a large group of like-minded, minority, computer science focused scholars and forging new relationships.
According to the organizers, the purpose of the summit is to "significantly increase the post-secondary yield of African Americans pursuing STEM careers; to foster innovation and entrepreneurship across HBCU campuses in a manner that improves the R&D profile, commercialization activities and tech-entrepreneurship performance of HBCUs; and to connect those campuses to economically productive innovation and tech-ecosystems (e.g. Silicon Valley) around the country."
Learn More About July's Spelman Experience
Upon graduation, July plans to be a premier field engineer at Microsoft. Ultimately, she hopes to become an entrepreneur and she wants to create and expose people of color at HBCUs and PWIs to opportunities that will cause them to advance in their chosen career fields.