Franck Yao

Elizabeth City State University

Frank Yao, a second year student at Elizabeth City State University, is committed to bring about global youth opportunities and social development. Since his early teens, the Ivory Coast native has been highly motivated to learn more and more about artificial intelligence and combine it with economics. He hopes to build a bridge between the two disciplines in an effort "to create more opportunity for people to have opportunity for work." Since then he has completed a fellowship in Silicon Valley with the likes of Google, You Tube, and Twitter. He is currently coordinating nine of his fellow students preparing them for the 2019 United Nations Youth Assembly. Franck recognizes that learning is a life-long endeavor, but he is well on his way to making a difference in the world.

Dr. Karrie Dixon
Chancellor
Elizabeth City State University

Personal Statement

Most of the inequities currently existing in our society are significantly based on race, ethnicity, and class differences. My plan to address these issues focus on the usage of science and radical technologies to build leadership, work readiness, and business opportunities. The advancement of science combined with disruptive technologies represent the main forces in human history that have effectively helped change people's living conditions worldwide. An example that perfectly illustrates this idea is, "Elima," the current social-business project some other fellow students and I are currently developing. Elima is a machine learning program that will allow students suffering from disability such as muteness and deafness to code computer software using a very special interface that recognizes the American Sign Language hand gestures. The data generated for this first project will also give us the opportunity to use Elima's blockchain technology to tackle some other major issues currently existing in both the e-commerce and the digital banking industry. Science and technology I believe, are definitely the two instruments, that will help us as a nation to convert and reveal the social, cultural and political narratives of our communities, but to also initiate dialogues on resolving the perils many of them face.

Franck Yao
Business Administration/Economics: Class of 2021
written 2019

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