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Local Students Partner With Chevron Mentors to Invent Technologies

Published

9 years ago

May 29, 2017

Several “disruptions” occurred at a high school event at Richmond Memorial Auditorium on Thursday.

One involved an idea for a smartphone app that can track classroom performance and then pair students with specific tutors when needed. Another proposed manufacturing “scent cartridges” that can attach to smartphones and, when activated, emit certain smells scientifically proven to combat grogginess.

And then there was the idea for a bar-code security system in the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) that allows students to scan into campuses as well as classrooms, saving teachers and staff time on tracking attendance and also serving to increase campus safety.

Such ideas were not the brainchild of Google employees, but rather those of dozens of WCCUSD students who took part in the annual Junior Achievement Social Innovation Camp on Thursday, which was sponsored by Chevron Richmond.

Nearly 50 students from the Richmond High Engineering Academy, Pinole Valley High Engineering Academy and Hercules High MESA and Robotics program gathered at Richmond Memorial Auditorium to invent, conceptually develop and present innovative, viable solutions to community challenges.

The students were divided into eight teams whose project proposals were analyzed by judges from the business community, including two managers from the Chevron Richmond Refinery and a program director for the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center. Eight Chevron employees volunteered their time to mentor the students through the design process and with their presentations.

Their ideas exposed a common thread among young people hoping to use their burgeoning technology skills to improve the lives of students on their campus as well as members in their communities. Several student groups on Thursday presented apps that connect students to community service opportunities.
The JA Social Innovation Camp, however, is more focused on the process of invention than the inventions themselves.

“We brought these students together to share ideas, to learn about cutting edge technology and experience the exciting entrepreneurial process from start to finish,” said Andrea Bailey, Chevron Richmond community engagement manager. “We wanted to provide them an enriching, real-world window into the business world. And to show them what skills they’ll need to pursue their ideas.”

The teams of students were given a strict deadline Thursday morning to develop ideas, concept papers and Power Point presentations. In the afternoon, they presented their project proposals to the judges in a Shark Tank-style format, where they had to respond to critical questions.

Later, they heard a talk from Richmond native and celebrity speaker Devin Lars, who launched his successful clothing design company, Doing Everything Different, from his grandfather’s garage.

During the event, WCCUSD Superintendent Matt Duffy could be seen in the audience scribbling down notes.

“This was so much more interesting than us coming and asking, ‘What’s wrong with your school, how can we make it better?’,” Duffy said. “I think this is such an awesome opportunity to hear from you.”

Duffy also discussed an app he would like to develop that aims to improve the WCCUSD system for substitute teachers.

The Social Innovation Camp is one of a number of community education initiatives launched by Chevron Richmond with the aim of sparking interest in STEM subjects, or science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Bailey praised the record number of female participants at this year’s camp.

What the students accomplished at Richmond Memorial Auditorium last week is exactly what’s going on inside the campuses at Google and Facebook, said Duffy.

“The better you can get at working in teams, the better you can get at listening to people’s ideas, the better you can get at building off each other’s thoughts and notions, the better you will be,” the superintendent said. “I would love to see more of that in our schools.

This story is courtesy of the Richmond Standard.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

1 day ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

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2 days ago

March 1, 2026

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

4 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke