Des Moines-based nonprofit Pi515 is hosting the Day of Innovation Youth Tech Conference on April 25 for high school and college-age students as well as parents, educators and tech professionals. The free, daylong event, held at the John and Mary Pappajohn Education Center, will include a keynote address, networking and breakout sessions, each with a different activity geared […]
Des Moines nonprofit Pi515 is holding its third annual Girls’ Entrepreneurship Summit, and applications are open now through March 24 to young girls and women ages 14 to 22. Female entrepreneurs and industry professionals from the community lead classes and mentor participants as they progress through the program. The program will run every Saturday from March 25 to […]
Anyone who knows Pi515 founder and Executive Director Nancy Mwirotsi has probably heard her talk about preparing youths for the workforce of the future. The nonprofit is seeing growth as it gears up for its next year of programming, including expanded curricula and new full-time staff and college interns. Mwirotsi said a “powerful” moment recently was […]
Submitted by Nick Gerhart, PI515 Board Member, Executive Vice President of Homesteaders Life Company Is your company hybrid? Virtual? Face-to-face? A business leader cannot escape this conversation. What is the future of work? What will the office look like? Will there be an office? What about corporate culture that business leaders work so hard to create […]
Pi515 announced Wednesday it has been awarded a multiyear $200,000 Black Women Impact grant from Goldman Sachs’ One Million Black Women initiative. The money is available for any use and will be distributed over two years starting in July, according to a news release. “This multi-year investment will help us scale our efforts in preparing […]
The Pi515 2022 Girls Entrepreneurs Summit concluded last week with the announcement of this year’s pitch competition winner Aerz Johnson, a ninth grade student at Waterloo West High School. “I didn’t really have a plan before this. I don’t even have an idea to be up here,” Johnson said. “I didn’t know how to pitch, […]
Pi515 is one of four finalists in the Kids Tech Summit hosted by national nonprofit Connected Nation and sponsored by AT&T. The competition challenges students to develop ideas using digital skills that directly benefit their community. The Pi515 students competing have focused their project on improving the digital literacy skills of seniors so they can […]
Pi515 students have been invited to participate in the 2022 Kids Tech Summit, an event hosted by Connected Nation, a nonprofit working to expand broadband internet access. The high school students will base their project for the summit on topics like digital literacy training, computer repair or internet access. “Pi515 is excited for this opportunity to […]
Wednesday morning felt like a celebration of sorts as visitors swept into Gravitate Coworking’s downtown location. 1 Million Cups welcomed back visitors to the first in-person event since March 2020, when organizers shut the doors at the Science Center of Iowa’s theater for the last time. Pi515 founder and director Nancy Mwirotsi brought two summer […]
Jade Nettrour is a senior in high school and has already designed an early prototype of new Christmas tree lights to make the annual decorating process easier — and more cat-friendly — for her family and their five felines. Nettrour’s demonstration earned her second place in a student “Shark Tank” pitch competition in 2020, and […]