College student-athletes are graduating at a higher rate than the general student body.

“Most significant is the number of black student-athletes who earn their degree. As college graduates, they are much more likely to have successful careers after they leave school.” – NCAA President Mark Emmert.

Black men’s basketball players, who reached an all-time high GSR of 78 percent last year, are up another 4 points in 2018 to 82 percent.

Among the black women demographic, student-athletes outpace their peers in the student body by 19 percentage points — 70 percent for student-athletes compared with 51 percent for the student body.

College student-athletes are graduating at a higher rate than the general student body, according to the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) study released in 2018.  According to this study, student-athletes Division I graduate at a rate 2 percentage points higher than the general student body — 68 percent compared with 66 percent.

Since first measured in 1984, the class of black student-athletes who graduated has increased by 16% from a 35 percent rate to 61 percent for the 2011 entering class.

Tech Hoopla is where sports and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) meet.  We realize the exceptional skills (such as discipline, mental toughness, work ethic, leadership, sportsmanship, teamwork, and work-life balance) are gained throughout the growth of a successful student-athlete.  The majority of the governing board of our organization are former exceptional student-athletes who have both excelled at the top of their game in athletics and made tremendous contributions in their respective careers/fields of study.

The Tech Hoopla organization, founded February 28, 2019,  creates programming that exposes, inspires, and engages participants in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related activities.  We currently serve  communities in Omaha, NE and central Mississippi; however, we welcome opportunities to expand our reach.

At Tech Hoopla we design and deliver activities, programs, and events that bring awareness, training, inspiration, and motivation to youth in the area of STEM, while helping to evolving the way that they mentally approach their targeted sport.  We primarily focus on serving under-served, under-resourced minorities in communities from Jackson, Mississippi to Omaha, Nebraska. Participants will be expose to the latest technologies and will be trained and mentored by professionals that grew up in similar communities.  They will obtain skills in programming, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, research, resource management, and much more.

At Tech Hoopla, we seek to form partnerships with local organizations and school districts in these communities in order to provide a collective impact with these various youth athletics and educational programs.  Tech Hoopla also seeks to work with forward thinking, diverse companies to stay current with workforce needs, connect with mentors for program participants, and build a referable talent pool in various locations in order to help bridge the gap between these employers and the community.

At Tech Hoopla we will provide programming at levels consumable by K-12 to college students, as well as young entry-level professionals looking to sharpen their skills in the interest of becoming more marketable in advancing their careers.  We realize that our targeted audience is broad; however, our focus is to provide resources to participants at every stage – be it just getting introduced to tech or providing guidance early on in their careers.  Our goals is to help build up program participants’ awareness, engagement,  and skills, propelling them to be confident and competent enough to compete at any level and succeed in life.