A child's success in life should never be dictated by their zip code, but is determined by who and what they are exposed to. Education isn’t about test scores or textbooks, it’s about exposure to the right people and with them - the right opportunities.
Kalimah Priforce runs Qeyno Labs, which works with local partners and schools to bring technology-enabled career discovery into under-served classrooms using game-like rewards and mentorship from real-life professionals. Qeyno focuses on making "career day" an every day experience for the millions of students that can't afford private college and career guidance.
He is passionate about innovation that transforms children's lives in and outside the classroom. At 8 years old, he held a successful hunger strike against his Bedford-Stuyvesant group home to add more books to its library. At 14, a chance meeting with Dr. Lorraine Monroe, a world-class educator in Harlem NY, sowed the seeds of his dream to be an innovator. Starting his first computer company at 17, it wasn't until October 1st, 2000, when his 18 year old younger brother was shot and killed behind their childhood elementary school that he formed a lifelong commitment to transforming education for under-served kids.
Kalimah's progressive and inclusive "our kids, our future" approach to youth development has stood at the intersection of technology, equity, and the classroom, and has made him a favorite among K-12 youth, parents, teachers, technologists, and private to public partnerships as a highly regarded speaker and presenter.
In 2012, he co-founded the Pitch Mixer Entrepreneur Forum that provides a platform for under-represented innovators to pitch their startups to an open forum of peers and experts and is based in the San Francisco East Bay Area. Recently, Kalimah became Educator-in-Residence for the Hidden Genius Project, a program that trains black male youth in entrepreneurial thinking, software development, and user experience design.
