Appreneur Scholars to be Recognized at CES 2016
The Kay Family Foundation, a grant-making foundation located in Orange County, CA, and Living in Digital Times have awarded the third annual Appreneur Scholar Award to Brandon Boynton and Shalin Shah for their innovative app creations.
In addition to each receiving a $5,000 scholarship funded by The Kay Family Foundation, Boynton and Shah will be recognized at CES® 2016 at the TransformingEDU Summit and have the opportunity to demo their apps to an audience of tech influencers during the annual Mobile Apps Showdown, also produced by Living in Digital Times on Thursday, January 8 at 1:30 PM in the Las Vegas Convention and World Trade Center (LVCC), North Hall, Room N257.
“These young individuals have demonstrated vision, drive and tenacity in their pursuit of tackling real-life problems with technology,” said Robin Raskin, founder and president, Living in Digital Times. “The Appreneur Scholar Awards enables us to showcase remarkably outstanding and bold individuals who bring their passions to life while making a meaningful impact on society.”
“The Appreneur Scholar Award program reflects our commitment to recognizing young tech innovators and championing their role in building a better society,” said Elim Kay, president of the Kay Family Foundation. “Both winners have created apps that solve real-world problems and enrich our communities.”
“The Appreneur Scholar winners are remarkable examples of young innovators that we need more of– who show a true desire to disrupt the status quo, understand how people and societies work and design solutions that improve lives,” Nithin Jilla, director of programs for the Kay Family Foundation.
More on our winners:
The creator of The BullyBox is Brandon Boynton. He is a senior at Pendleton Heights High School in Pendleton, Indiana. He embarked upon a journey as a social entrepreneur during his sophomore year of high school. He combined his passion for anti-bullying efforts with a fervent desire to hone his programming skills, and travelled the country attending tech conferences. The BullyBox is a mobile application that facilitates safe and anonymous student reporting of bullying and other school-related safety issues.
While in 9th grade, Shalin Shah’s World History teacher showed the class a documentary in which a man named Sanduk Ruit went to North Korea and used his small-incision cataract surgery to cure thousands of poor North Koreans, enabling them to see again. This was Shah’s “aha moment” as he knew he wanted to do something that could also help. He combined his passion for computer science and his desire to help blind people to build Voice, an app that lets the user take a picture of anything that has words on it, and then reads it aloud. Shah is now in 11th grade at Tesoro High School in Orange County, California.
Boynton and Shah were selected from a pool of high school, undergraduate and graduate students from around the world. This year’s panel of judges represents the education and technology sectors. Judges include:
- Stephen Ibaraki is an IDG IT World (Canada) writer/blogger, past multiple award-winning educator/professor/program research head, multiple award-winning serial entrepreneur and executive chairman.
- Nithin Jilla, director of programs at The Kay Family Foundation, a private philanthropic foundation and the co-project manager of AppJam+, a STEM education program that is recognized by the Clinton Global Initiative and teaches underserved and low-income middle school kids how to make mobile apps while exposing them to STEM careers.
- Elim Kay, president of The Kay Family Foundation, sponsor of the Appreneur Scholar competition. As an entrepreneur and active angel investor, Elim is also currently serving as co-founder and COO of Zaka, Inc., a mobile software early-stage venture, and managing member of Insepin, LLC, a private holding company for technology investments.
- Robin Raskin, president and founder, Living in Digital Times. She has spent the past 30 years exploring what it means to be living in digital times. She is an author, editor, magazine publisher, blogger, and TV and radio personality.
- Jay Rosner, executive Director of The Princeton Review Foundation, an admissions test expert based in the San Francisco bay area.
Tweet this: Kay Family Foundation & @LIDTEvents grant @TheBullyBox & Voice 2016 #AppScholars Award for innovative app development http://bit.ly/1RExCNv
About Kay Family Foundation
Kay Family Foundation is a U.S. private grant-making foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to promote new models and systems that produce 21st century global leaders primarily across four thematic pillars: faith, education, medical and the arts. For more information, visit The Kay Family Foundation.
About Living in Digital Times:
Founded by veteran technology journalist Robin Raskin, Living in Digital Times brings together the most knowledgeable leaders and the latest innovations impacting both technology and lifestyle. It helps companies identify and act on emerging trends, create compelling company narratives, and do better business through strong network connections. Living in Digital Times produces technology conferences, exhibits and events at CES and other locations throughout the year by lifestyle verticals. Core brands include Digital Health Summit, Digital Money Forum, FitnessTech, Baby Tech, Kids@Play, Family Tech Summit, TransformingEDU, MommyTech TV, Beauty Tech, Wearables and FashionWare runway show, Mobile Apps Showdown, Last Gadget Standing, Robots on the Runway and the KAPi Awards. The company also works with various foundations and manages the Appreneur Scholar awards program for budding mobile entrepreneurs, as well as the 10 Under 20: Young Innovators to Watch awards recognizing student STEAM innovations in New York City. For more information, visit www.LivinginDigitalTimes.com and keep up with our latest news on Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook.
About CES:
CES is the world’s gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. It has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for almost 50 years—the global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace. As the largest hands-on event of its kind, CES features all aspects of the industry. And because it is owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)TM – formerly the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® – the technology trade association representing the $285 billion U.S. consumer technology industry, it attracts the world’s business leaders and pioneering thinkers to a forum where the industry’s most relevant issues are addressed. Check out CES video highlights. Follow CES online at www.CESweb.org and on social.