Just 17 years ago, a young Ridhwan Khan was pounding pavement and knocking on doors. He had an idea that South Africa was ripe for low-cost cell phones. Through grit and persistence, he went from packaging refurbished phones one at a time to launching Mobicel, which makes and sells 19 million mobile devices a year.

Co-hosted by Facebook Education and the National School Climate Center (NSCC), the Communities of Courage summit brought together leaders from schools, universities, government agencies, education-related nonprofits and advocacy organizations. The goal was to discuss ideas and best practices around creating educational experiences that are safe, inclusive, and engaging for students in P-12 schools.

When you’re building a product (or a service) there can be dozens of different directions to pursue. You and your team (or maybe even your customers) will think of better functions and features while working on the first few iterations.

For those of us who love both television and technology, the momentum of the social TV wave is exhilarating. Tech entrepreneurs are creating new ways to view and share our favorite TV programs. Advertisers are experimenting with more personalized and measurable marketing opportunities. Hollywood is exploring ways to make storytelling a richer experience, occasionally even allowing audiences to become co-creators of entertainment.

April has been advocating for underserved groups through professional roles and personal projects her entire career. Most recently, she spent six years forging relationships with HBCUs as Diversity Program Manager at Google. April kicked off Google’s recruitment at HBCUs and placed more than 500 technical hires while there.

Water issues are in the media spotlight this year as drought conditions persist in many states, including New Mexico. As a result, millions of Americans are learning more about where their water comes from and about the risks to their water supply.

If you were to receive an invitation to The James Beard Awards — known as the “Oscars of the food world”— you’d clear your schedule to be there. The red carpet … the food … the fame … did we mention the food? There’s nothing else like it. Chefs are honored like auteurs and those who receive the coveted awards often become legends.

José “Pepe” Shabot Cherem is a serial entrepreneur who has started six nonprofit organizations and more than a dozen for-profit ventures in Mexico City. At age 34, Pepe embodies the notion of a “growth mindset.” A YPO member who is always finding new ways to improve people’s lives, Pepe creates synergies among his companies, new entrepreneurs and even competitors.

Most of us are feeling the squeeze of holiday obligations and expectations. Some people have financial anxiety during this seasonal spend-fest. Others feel left out if they have different traditions. A few may be missing loved ones and many feel lonely. For students, this may the first time they’ve experienced some of these stressors.

The Agile Marketing Portland meetup on April 8 was both intructional and entertaining. Monica Borrell gave a terrific presentation about Kanban and several others shared their Agile experiences and expertise. We’ve made real progress on building a community of practice for #Agile marketers in Portland!

Social networks and the vast array of other social media sites have changed how all types of people—not just musicians—build their careers. Anyone willing to seek out best practices, work hard to implement them and consistently share useful information can easily build a large following, or even thought leadership. In an era when jobs are in short supply, this can be a game changer.

Twitter #Music: Should You Play? By Carri Bugbee The debut of Twitter #Music (yes, the official product name is a hashtag) was big news last week. Twitter aimed high in its quest for pop culture popularity by rolling it out to celebrities the week before and then giving the scoop about the public launch to Good Morning America (which led to a bit of carping on popular tech blogs that normally cover this stuff first). This is one more sign that Twitter aims to be your media hub and the arbiter of entertainment trends.

Like many of us, Jim Estill saw the horrors of the Syrian civil war in the media during summer 2015. The shocking images of the small Syrian boy found face-down on a beach in Turkey were broadcast around the world that September. It was a crystallizing moment for Estill. The boy’s family had reportedly been planning to immigrate to Canada when their boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea. Estill felt compelled to do something. The Canadian government had already committed to taking in Syrian re