Laila Leigh’s Streamer University journey started on cardboard in a pink room in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. From a young age, her family has taught her to speak things into existence: grades, internship opportunities and now the chance to build her brand as a social media influencer.

Streamer University, for those unfamiliar, is a week-long intensive bootcamp held on a U.S. college campus hosted by content creator and Twitch superstar Kai Cenat. The bootcamp focuses on helping rising creators elevate their platforms, master the art of streaming, and monetize their content. Leigh is set to join the Class of 2026 for the bootcamp.

“[Laila’s father] believes in speaking things into existence. I believe in writing it down and making it plain. Laila’s been around all these concepts,” said Mai Leigh, Laila’s mother. “She has books about manifestation.”

Laila Leigh, who goes by “LailaSimoneTV” on Twitch, hopes that Streamer University is just one step in a path that leads to a career as an entertainment correspondent. She has memories of watching “Good Morning America” and “106 and Park,” respectively. The show’s hosts, Robin Roberts and Rocsi Diaz, were her role models. Watching them helped Leigh realize she wanted a life in front of the camera.

“Robin Roberts introduced a professional side and being a student of the game and real journalism,” said Leigh, a 2026 Clark Atlanta University (CAU) graduate.

Shifting her goals

Initially, Leigh thought she wanted to be a newscaster, like Roberts. As she got older, she watched YouTubers like Queen Naija and Jordyn Lucas. She also went to events like the Black Sports Business Symposium. She learned how to network, but she also realized that she would rather interview celebrities instead of learning about male athletes.

“I want to do something more fun…let me see what entertainment is like,” she said.

From that day, she never looked back.

She started interviewing celebrities like Luhh Dyl, India Love and Latto. She also began posting videos of herself talking about celebrities. Her Instagram video covering celebrity couple Megan Thee Stallion and Klay Thompson’s split has more than 170,000 views.

A relationship made through time

Mai Leigh and her daughter have built a special relationship. One that has roots in respect.

“I think I was meant to be her mom. We have a relationship that’s really unique. I respect Laila,” said Mai Leigh.

When the duo traveled to Atlanta to film Laila’s Streamer University application, Mai didn’t know much about streaming. She questioned how people even got picked to attend Streamer University. She watched DDG’s content to learn how he became rich from streaming.

“If kids are retiring their parents through streaming… go for it,” Laila remembers her mother telling her.

Finding her way

For Leigh, “find a way or make one” is more than a motto. It’s a way of life. At CAU, she founded “Meet a Panther,” a platform designed to highlight students from the school’s community. She also interned with the school’s social media. She was also the Vice President of The Culture Collective. The organization refers to itself as a creative outlet that connects brands and students through culture.

She also interned as a podcast editor at TMZ, participated in the 2025 CNN Academy and worked as a BET Next Gen Ambassador at this year’s BET awards. These programs taught her how to prepare for big moments, how to communicate with others and how to make a way past obstacles.

“Everything she’s talked about, she’s gotten done,” said Kaden Lymon, a 2026 CAU graduate who worked with Leigh at The Culture Collective (TCC).

The duo have been friends since 2022, their freshman year of college. Across the last four years, Lymon has seen Leigh’s positive attitude, curiosity and persistence take shape.

“That’s really my dawg,” said Lymon, a smile forming on his face. “It’s really been a joy to watch her grow.”

Her mother, Mai, believes that her daughter can achieve anything she wants because of her curiosity.

“The curiosity that children have, the wonder, it’s beautiful. If you allow them to explore they can become whatever they want,” said Mai Leigh, Laila’s mother.

Professional practice

Lymon, who filmed Leigh’s application to Streamer University, also touts the professionalism that Leigh has shown throughout their time working together. One month before filming the video, Leigh reached out to Lymon for help. She already had a plan, even flying back to Atlanta with her mother from Maryland to make sure her vision came to life.

Lymon and his creative team met with Leigh to work on details. The script was finalized. Choreography and props were discussed. When filming started, though, not everything went to plan.

Instead of giving up, the duo made the necessary adjustments. Just like Lymon, she wanted the video to be perfect. The final sentence of the video, “what we doing, Kai?” took 22 takes to perfect. The video was complete before Kai Cenat announced that Streamer University would be accepting applications.

This type of discipline is not only reserved for her application, which was one out of more than a million. When Laila was in sixth grade, her parents challenged her: stay on her school’s honor roll for the whole school year, and they would reward her with a puppy. Laila took on the challenge. The puppy turned out to be a shih tzu named Cody, who is now 12 years old.

According to Lymon, the two would call weekly and talk about how to make TCC and “Meet a Panther” content better.

“I’m around a lot of people that do big things… It feels good knowing that I was able to help her get to [Streamer University],” said Lymon.

What’s next?

Streamer University is only one part of Laila Leigh’s plan. On her vision board, Leigh lives her dream life. Working at Complex. Interviewing celebrities. Maybe even a life as a TV host like her role model, Rocsi Diaz.

Laila Leigh lays her future in front of her. She prints out her goals, dreams and aspirations, pastes them onto a piece of cardboard and posts the vision board on a pink wall in her family’s house. Then, she turns the vision into a reality.

Based on reporting by Morehouse College – The Maroon Tiger.

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Cloud solutions can help overhaul enterprise protection against evolving threats

Cloud solutions can help enhance enterprise protection from new threats by shifting away from perimeter-based defenses and moving toward dynamic, cloud-native frameworks. With the latter, organizations can enjoy AI-driven threat detection, centralized visibility, and automated remediation.

Today’s firms must be more cautious than ever with security, given the many threats against information technology (IT).

Cybersecurity news platform HackRead.com cited data from the 19th (2026) Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), stating that Verizon security experts analyzed over 22,000 confirmed data breaches. They also investigated 31,000 real-world security incidents across 145 countries.

What Do “Cloud Solutions” Mean?

The term “cloud solutions” refers to cloud data storage, computing services, and software programs hosted on remote internet servers instead of physical, local hard drives or on-site data centers.

Thanks to cloud solutions, today’s users can now access the applications and data they need from any device connected to the internet. They no longer have to rely on expensive hardware or deal with costly equipment maintenance fees.

What Are Examples of Cloud Solutions?

Cloud solutions make up a multi-billion-dollar market. According to Mordor Intelligence, the estimated value of the U.S. cloud computing market alone was $292.61 billion in 2026, and it is expected to grow to $622.03 billion by 2031.

Some of the most common examples of such cloud solutions include the following.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Software as a Service programs are ready-to-use software applications that users access via web browsers. Google Workspace (for collaboration purposes) and Zoom (for video conferencing) are specific examples of SaaS.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

The term “Platform as a Service” refers to cloud computing models that enable developers to create, build, develop, deploy, and manage applications without having to deal with and worry about the actual underlying infrastructure. With these solutions, developers can access resources like:

• Virtual servers
• Cloud storage services
• Operating systems
• Databases
• Development tools
• Runtime environments

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Infrastructure as a Service, another type of cloud computing model, gives service providers a way and place to host and manage fundamental IT infrastructure. Hosts or managers can provide customers with various products and services over the internet, including:

• Servers
• Storage
• Networking hardware

With an IaaS provider, customers can rent virtualized resources on demand, paying only for what they use. They can also easily scale their required resources up or down, depending on how much they need within a given time period.

How Can Cloud Solutions Overhaul Enterprise Protection Against New Threats?

A March 2026 article from Time Magazine noted that the global average approximate cost of just one data breach is $4.44 million. It also reported that between March 2024 and February 2025, cyberattacks that targeted U.S. companies cost over $10 million.

With so much money and potential losses on the line, organizations should consider overhauling their enterprise protection, particularly against emerging threats, with the help of cloud solutions. Such innovations can assist through the following features.

AI-Driven Threat Detection

Some of today’s most reliable cloud solutions (including those that are part of managed services) offer AI-driven threat detection features. They use advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to identify established, new, and suspected cybersecurity risks in real time.

AI-driven threat detectors can even respond to threats through automated flagging of dangerous anomalies. They can help prevent users from pushing through with activities that could lead to exploits breaching the network.

Centralized Visibility

Another way cloud solutions can help overhaul enterprise security is by breaking down fragmented security silos. They then transform these segments into a unified management plane.

With cloud solutions, organizations can consolidate various types of data, including:

• Audit logs
• User identities
• Network flows

Through consolidation, these datasets’ visibility and overall management become more centralized and straightforward.

Automated Remediation

Organizations that prioritize data security and protection will be happy to know that automatic backup, disaster recovery, and security hardening are part of the cloud solutions that a reliable hybrid cloud managed services provider delivers.

It pays to have automated backup and disaster recovery, as it can help minimize or even eliminate costly downtime. It can also help prevent catastrophic data loss in the event of ransomware or, in the case of hybrid setups, hardware failure.

With automated remediation services, organizations can spare valuable IT resources from tedious, labor-intensive manual processes. Instead of spending time on these tasks, IT specialists can focus on higher-value initiatives, such as proactive threat hunting and elimination.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Exactly Do Managed Services Mean?

The term “managed services” refers to a business model in which an organization outsources the daily management, support, and maintenance of its core business functions. They outsource these services to an external third party, also known as a “managed service provider” (MSP).

Managed services primarily cater to IT and technology operations. There are many types of managed IT services, with the most common being cloud solutions, enterprise security (e.g., cybersecurity management and remote monitoring), and help desk support.

How Else Can Businesses Protect Themselves From Cyber Threats?

Aside from investing in high-quality, protective cloud solutions, businesses should also enforce zero-trust access.

Zero-trust access can help protect sensitive data by implementing a “never trust, always verify” protocol at every connection point. It involves ensuring that continuous authentication will always be mandatory. Security teams must always evaluate each access request.

Mandating multi-factor authentication (MFA) is another way for businesses to protect themselves from cyber threats. MFA can help neutralize credential-based attacks and breaches by requiring extra verification factors.

In addition to a username and password, for instance, MFA may require a PIN code. More innovative systems may even mandate a biometric feature, such as a fingerprint or facial/retinal scan.

Training all employees, both new and tenured, is another way to combat cyber threats. Through ongoing education, everyone can become more knowledgeable in recognizing, resisting, and reporting threats. They’ll be more adept at identifying and avoiding phishing, social engineering, or deepfakes.

Protect Enterprise Security With Robust Cloud Solutions

Cloud solutions, with their AI-driven threat-detecting capabilities, centralized visibility, and automated remediation response, can help overhaul and protect enterprise security. Combined with other practical, proactive measures, such as zero-trust access, MFA, and training, firms can significantly minimize their risk of falling victim to cybercrimes.

Find even more related, informative guides like this or the latest news impacting the Black community by browsing the rest of our platform.

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By Stacy M. Brown

Doctors across the United States say they are treating children for illnesses that routine vaccinations once made increasingly uncommon, raising concerns that years of declining immunization rates are beginning to reverse decades of public health progress.

Pediatricians have described seeing more cases of whooping cough, rotavirus infections, bacterial pneumonia and other potentially life-threatening illnesses that vaccines have long helped suppress. Some physicians reported treating conditions they had rarely encountered during their careers, while others said that growing vaccine hesitancy is changing how emergency rooms and hospitals care for children.

The reports come as measles outbreaks continue to spread across multiple states and vaccination coverage remains below federal public health targets.

Johns Hopkins University’s International Vaccine Access Center reported 2,077 confirmed measles cases nationwide as of May 29. Researchers warned that outbreaks reported across the country have raised concerns about continued transmission, additional hospitalizations and deaths, and the possible loss of the nation’s measles elimination status.

Public health experts have long viewed measles as a warning sign because of its ability to spread rapidly through communities with lower vaccination coverage. The New York Times reported that physicians increasingly fear the resurgence of measles may be followed by the return of other vaccine-preventable diseases.

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Doctors say that is already happening.

Dr. Meghan Hofto, a pediatric hospitalist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said she has already treated roughly as many children with rotavirus this year as she saw during the previous decade. Rotavirus once caused tens of thousands of hospitalizations annually before vaccines sharply reduced its spread. None of the children she treated this year had been vaccinated.

Hofto also described caring for infants with pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough.

“It’s hard to know when they’re safe to go home,” Hofto told The Times.

The rise in whooping cough cases has been particularly striking. More than 28,000 cases were reported nationwide last year, compared with approximately 7,000 in 2023, according to figures cited by The Times. Many of the affected infants were too young to receive vaccinations themselves and relied on broader community protection to reduce their exposure.

Other doctors described similarly troubling cases.

Dr. Jessica Kirk, a pediatric hospitalist in Alabama, recently treated an unvaccinated toddler hospitalized with pneumonia caused by simultaneous infections of Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae. Vaccines exist to protect against both illnesses. The child required oxygen and antibiotics to recover.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have been tracking vaccination trends nationwide and found continuing signs of vulnerability.

At the same time, vaccine policy has become increasingly contentious in state legislatures.

Johns Hopkins researchers reported that lawmakers across the country continue to introduce bills affecting childhood vaccination requirements, vaccine access and non-medical exemptions. Researchers also noted that state policies governing exemptions remain a significant factor in vaccination coverage and disease transmission risks.

Physicians have said vaccine skepticism has expanded beyond childhood immunizations. Doctors also reported growing resistance to other preventive treatments.

For doctors confronting the return of illnesses that vaccines once pushed to the margins of American medicine, the challenge is becoming increasingly personal.

“It just feels like you’re a tiny little boat with a giant tidal wave coming at you,” Dr. Erin Charles, a regional pediatric hospitalist at Seattle Children’s Hospital, told reporters. “And you might convince one family here and there.”

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