Jonecia Keels & Jazmine Miller
The Tech Twins
Innovation
When AT&T announced its $10,000 “Big Mobile on Campus Scholarship Challenge,” Spelman undergrads Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller knew exactly what their prize-winner would be. Inspired by their inability to visit Spelman’s campus before making their final decision to enroll, Keels and Miller decided to develop a mobile-phone application that delivers the “scoop on HBCU’s.”
They spent the next nine weeks working diligently on the project, using their own technological smarts and the individual needs of their fellow students to morph their idea into a winning application. The result was “HBCU Buddy” an app that profiles individual schools with information like admission rates, tuition, campus/student life and notable alumni. It also takes students on virtual tours around the campus, allowing prospective students the ability to see what campus life is literally like. App users are also able to connect through Facebook and Twitter, allowing them them to connect with current students.
Keels and Miller joined the ranks of past winners of the AT&T competition from Harvard University and Stanford University, but they also helped shed light on HBCU life, doing their part in dispelling negative stereotypes. For the next generation of college bound students considering an HBCU, the decision process will be much easier– there’s an app for that.
