The Future Forum: May 17th, 2017

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Natalie Hogan speaks to the Hope High and LaSalle Academy students about her career path from Sculpture major at the Rhode Island School of Design to ‘Futurist’ at Hasbro and now her latest opportunity at DataRobot.

 The Hope Life Skills class rolled out the welcome carpet for 14 students from LaSalle Academy and more than 20 professionals from business, academia and non-profits for a

conversation on the impact artificial intelligence, AI, is having on today’s jobs and future career opportunities for our Hope and LaSalle students.

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Sara Jackson and Mohamadou Mbaye (standing) welcome The Future Forum guests to Hope Hope School.

The conversation did not focus on the jobs being eliminated but new opportunities, some yet to be created, by artificial intelligence

and the skills and mindset to realize them” commented Life Skills teacher Stephen Cronin.

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Futurist and the founder of Giant Shoulders & Company, Tino Chow, speaks about his upbringing in the country of Singapore, early education in Hong Kong, his degree experience in Industrial Design at the the Rhode Island School of Design, his design consulting work in Silicon Valley (California), New York City and China and the fact that today and in the future there will be global career opportunities.

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Our second featured Futurist was Natalie Hogan, a Futurist at Hasbro. Natalie shares her personal story about her community college education in glass blowing, then onto the Rhode Island School of Design for a degree in Sculpture. Natalie announced to the students that she has just accepted a job at DataRobot in Boston starting in June.

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Our third featured Futurist was Beecher Fritzmeier, Vice President of Design at Alex & Ani. Beecher shared the story of her career uncertainty after graduating from the Pratt Institute, a prestigious engineering, architecture and fine art school in New York City.   She spoke about the importance of networking and one’s personal brand creating job opportunities.  One of Beecher’s first job experiences was a Nanny in New York City which led to a job designing handbags at Coach.

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Our 4th featured Futurist, Dr Roey Tzezana, a nanotechnologist from Israel, begins his story with a prediction! He asked Hope Life Skills student, Ariel Hall, to focus on a number in her mind. Dr Roey then took a small sheet of paper from the envelope he was holding with Ariel’s number written on it.   Dr Roey then spoke of the challenge of predicting the future and his career path to nanotechnology.

After the opening comments from our four, featured Futurists, the

workshop portion of the Future Forum started.  Small groups,

2 Hope students, 2 LaSalle students, and one or two professional guests acting as mentors, began collaborating to identify a career opportunity in the students’ future.  “The

professional guests established an open, empowering atmosphere in the small groups. 

Feedback from the students confirmed this.  As a result, the students felt less inhibited sharing their creative thoughts and the mentors taught them best practices for optimizing collaboration for innovationEd Cronan, LaSalle Academy guidance counselor stated.

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Tino Chow in collaboration with students John Martinez, Gerardo Castenada, Delsairey Almonte, CCRI Athletic Director Kevin Salisbury and Clare Jessey, Rhode Island School of Design junior majoring in Industrial Design.

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Technology entrepreneur and George Washington University junior, Joe Schiarizzi (sitting in the blue shirt), sets the tone for his workshop group (left to right) of Sydney DeCesare, Zidany Fatuda, Justin Cordereiro and Oliver Gold.  Standing is CyberSecurity/Digital Forensics specialist and professor at Roger Williams University, Russell Beauchemin.  
Cybersecurity and data vulnerability became the topic of their conversation.

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Marta Aparicio (Georgetown University and Hope High School graduate focusing on Public Policy issues in the pink dress), Sixcia Devine (business and entrepreneurship consultant with a national brand for Latino Marketing expertise) speak with Ingris Izaguirre Maradiaga, Kemi Bankole and Lisbeth Valdez about technology applications to address global issues.

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Matt Flanagan, Vice President of Strategy at the Providence Advertising Agency Duffy and Shanley, presents a marketing challenge for autonomous vehicles to (left to right) RJ Casey , Deyreni Ferreras, Abby Almonte and LaSalle Academy professor and former Providence Business News Editor, Mike Pare.

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Dan Paquette (blue shirt), Vice President of Sales at Signature Printing, speaks with his workshop group of (left to right) Ariel Hall, Mohamadou Mbaye, Jack Hogan, Trish Diggins and Beecher Fritzmeier.

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Natalie Hogan‘s empowering comments inspired Imani Turner  (to Natalie’s left) and Aimon Foreman (sitting across the table from Natalie) to envision new technology to address civil war victims in Africa.  Fernando Perez ( computer science major at the University of Rhode Island to Natalie’s right) and Tara Flanagan (President of Renaissance Printing enrolled in Goldman Sachs’ entrepreneurial leadership program) help Aimon and Imani refine their smart, multi-lingual, diagnostic prosthetic innovation for war torn parts of Africa.

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Yael Torres (with the tie) listens intently to Jason Roias ( across the table in black) as well as Rhode Island College professor Jennifer Durand Sousa and NFI product manager, Berta Malhinha.  Jason is a student at the Community College of Rhode Island who recent founded the non-profit “Hungry Fridays” to feed many of Providence’s homeless.

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Bank of America Investment counselor, Terri Monjar (top right photo), speaks with (left to right) Lisbeth Valdez while Kyara Ferrage, Chris Sweeney  and Laisha Mendez listen in.  Former high value brand (e.g. Victoria Secret) marketing executive, Gary Klein, listens in.

Following the workshops, representatives from each workshop team shared their vision.

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Ralph Waite and mentor Dr Roey Tzezana share their team plan for maximizing technology’s benefits.

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Zidany Fatuda explains the vulnerability of data security and alternatives for protection with the Forum audience.

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Abby Almonte (standing right side of photo) listens to Terri Monjar‘s suggestions for funding Abby’s workshop team’s entrepreneurial opportunity in the emerging autonomous vehicle industry.

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Sydney Decesare shares her workshop team vision with the Forum audience.

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Leinni Valdez shares the vision of her workshop team

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John Martinez speaks about the challenges of data management.

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Trish Diggins speaks about the value and importance of ’empathy’ in the development and exploitation of new technologies.

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Yael Torres speaks about the importance of non-profit community service and the technology needed to provide security to our communities of the future.

After

a sumptuous lunch

for all Forum attendees,

Dr Roey Tzezana captivated students with post-Forum magic.

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2 thoughts on “The Future Forum: May 17th, 2017

  1. This event looked incredible ~ I wish I had been there to attend!! Such an innovative, exciting experience for all involved!! I can only imagine the amazing conversations that took place (before, during and AFTER). Bravo to all contributors!!

  2. This was a truly extraordinary day. I’m so inspired by the students’ vision for the future and their endless creativity. Very grateful to have been part of the first Future Forum. Congrats, Steve, on a fantastic event!

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