Nyene Baker, a local of Trenton, New Jersey, first entered the jail system after he was arrested at age 10, throughout the sixth grade; nonetheless, he was placed on probation. By his senior yr of highschool, he was dealing medication and interesting in different felony actions.
As a result of his actions on the time, his dad and mom needed to ship him to Liberia; nonetheless, when he received again to the US, he returned to his previous felony methods.
Baker was discovered responsible of drug conspiracy and given a 15-year jail time period on December 20, 2010. He shared that in the meanwhile of his sentencing, the concept to change his life and the lives of others instantly struck him.
“Sentencing day was the most effective days of my life as a result of I used to be relieved,” Baker instructed AfroTech in an unique interview. “I used to be like, ‘You already know what, I received 15 years to get my act collectively, to work on my flaws and grow to be a larger man.’ And I used to be like ‘I’m actually going to come back out and assist change quite a lot of lives and attempt to cease folks from taking place the trail that I went.’”
He established his nonprofit group, Visionary Philanthropy Group, after receiving an early launch from jail. His aim is to assist underserved communities and at-risk youth keep away from the errors he made and “obtain their self-sufficiency and stability.”
Nyene’s nonprofit is working with Richard Achee’s Breakbeatcode, a free instructional program that teaches middle- and high-school college students the best way to code by way of beat creation and music manufacturing.
He mentioned “I simply wanna be capable of be an inspiration to the underserved communities, particularly, and the world that your previous doesn’t outline your future. I had one million doorways closed on me. Nevertheless, there’s quite a lot of nice those that see my expertise and my ardour to vary lives, and I actually respect everybody that’s simply giving me the chance and a second probability.”
In an effort to enroll youth within the coaching, Visionary Philanthropy Group varieties partnerships with faculties and organizations. The younger entrepreneur is thrilled to have the ability to assist the following technology’s exploration of STEM as a result of he didn’t have the chance to review the topic throughout his personal education as an adolescent. His group has additionally labored with Google, Microsoft, and The Father Centre amongst others.
In distinction to the standard technique of coding, Breakbeatcode grasps and sparks consideration from the children, he disclosed. “In underserved communities, them studying coding can presumably be somewhat difficult as a result of it’s not one thing prevalent that quite a lot of them are used to.”
Baker added, “Nevertheless, with studying coding by way of music, it provides them a greater probability to grasp the coding. And it actually permits them the chance to essentially grasp the coding extra simply.”
Baker revealed that along with managing his nonprofit, he works part-time at Amazon. He’s, nonetheless, assured that his present employment scenario will quickly change to a full-time place along with his nonprofit. Moreover, he’s grateful for the folks in his life who gave him one other probability to understand his targets.
To additional enhance entry to alternatives to have interaction in STEM for underrepresented communities, Baker hopes to collaborate with quite a lot of tech firms to make additional constructive affect among the many youth.
