INROADS congratulates Apple, Southern Company and Ed Farm on their commitment to promote racial equity and justice through the development of the Propel Center. This physical and virtual campus will provide students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with access to knowledge, skills, tools and resources necessary to excel as innovators and entrepreneurs.

Propel Center is a virtual and physical campus that will serve as a global hub for leadership and career development for more than 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Propel Center was designed by Ed Farm, a nonprofit committed to transforming classrooms to uplift communities, with Apple and Southern Company supporting the project as founding partners.

INROADS, the career education and readiness partner for Propel Center, will prepare students to be workforce-ready and co-design instruction that trains students to utilize technology in pursuit of becoming entrepreneurial agents of change. INROADS will also spearhead a Community of Action (COA) to strengthen Propel Center’s ecosystem in step with growing the Black economy.

“We see the Propel Center as a sustainable solution to bolster representation of HBCU graduates as inventors, business owners and C-Suite executives,” said Forest T. Harper, Jr., INROADS president and CEO. “Our work with the Propel Center is directly aligned with the INROADS mission, and our work to address the widening racial wealth gap in America. Similar to the high school and college students who matriculate through our signature programs focused on college and workplace success, Propel Center students will be offered real-world instruction, career exposure, coaching and mentoring, internships, and eventual career placement. Graduates of Propel Center will join the ranks of INROADS alumni who have proven to outpace their counterparts in the area of wealth accumulation, thus impacting the racial wealth gap.” Harper added, “Ultimately, our involvement with the Propel Center gets us closer to realizing our vision of a thriving and just society that benefits from diverse and inclusive businesses and communities.”

“These investments are critical as we begin to truly scale Black innovation ecosystems,” said Anthony Oni, Chairman, Ed Farm. “By leveraging technology and partnerships to connect students with unique learning opportunities, we can lift up the talent that already exists at these institutions of higher learning and accelerate their development. In doing so, we will have a hand in shaping the workforce of the future — and the leaders of tomorrow.”

Propel Center will begin providing its services to HBCU students in the fall of 2021 with construction of the physical campus commencing shortly after the launching of the Propel Center’s virtual components. INROADS has enlisted STEMBoard, a minority-owned engineering and technology solutions firm, as co-designers of Propel Center’s ideation lab and curriculum.

For more about INROADS and its program, visit www.INROADS.org.
For more about Propel Center, visit propelcenter.org.