This girl can code! App-builder Shaquiesha demos her original app. #Whsciencefair twitter.com/whitehouseostp…

— OSTP (@whitehouseostp) April 22, 2013

16 year old student Shaquiesha Davis from Chicago Tech Academy just presented to the President at the White House Science Fair moments ago! When “Science Guy” Bill Nye and “USS Enterprise Engineer” Lavar Burton asked her “How can we get more girls interested in coding?” she said “Get them to go to ChiTech!”

Really proud of students like Davis who are taking full advantage of the tech and entrepreneurial mentoring delivered by Chicago Tech Academy. And the fact is, well over half of the students studying there are girls, and they’re some of the most promising future innovators that walk those walls.

Almost five years ago we hosted the first student lottery for Chicago Tech Academy in our conference rooms at TechNexus, with about 150 parents, grandparents and prospective students huddled into the room. It was such a remarkable experience for me. That night I saw first hand the unbridled enthusiasm, the hopes, dreams and high expectations for a bunch of kids that just needed a chance to break their way.

In a few months, we’ll celebrate as those first students walk across the graduation stage. Someday soon, I will have much more to write and share about these kids and their four year journey (each emerging as some of the most important “startups” that I have ever had the honor to serve).

But tonight, we host the fifth student lottery…. nearly 1,500 kids have applied for one of 150 positions in next year’s freshman class! It’s completely open enrollment, and luck of the draw. I’ve written before about how bitter sweet these student lotteries are… you see such excitement from kids and family members, and so many others just sitting, hoping to hear their name called. But after tonight, ChiTech will have its fifth freshman class, and another group of inner city kids will be on their way… with two hours a day, and four years worth of technology skills, matched up with mentors, and fostered to think like entrepreneurs.

There was a time when I expected my entire life would be spent in the service of Scouting, and give back to a movement that had done more to shape and mold the man I became than anything I learned in school, from my parents, or from any other influence.

The Scouting of my youth was a welcoming place for all kids to learn and grow. But twenty years ago, Scouting in America chose to become a culture warrior, and has increasingly marginalized itself and eroded its brand.

I left Scouting because I couldn’t change the institutional prejudice that I had witnessed, and in fact I didn’t believe anything but the passage of a lot of time would alter the destructive course the Boy Scouts of America had chosen.

That time seems to have finally come.

The Business Of Scouting And A Crisis Of Our Own Making

FORBES: – For twenty years following the Supreme Court case, the only obvious answer for Scouting has been to allow local chartering partners and parents to make these morality decisions. Now only time will tell if the business of Boy Scouting will rebound from a two decade old bad business decision.

A nice feature on the girls of Chicago Tech Academy learning to become programmers and tomorrows tech innovators:

Chicago Tech Academy co-founder and director Matt Hancock wants to make a dent in the stereotype that coding is just for nerdy white guys.

“A lot of young women come to us with a lot of what you’d think of as stereotypical, these are good jobs for women kind of aspirations,” Hancock said. “We spend a number of years trying to not just expose them to the different range of jobs that are out there in technology but get them really passionate about it.”

Check it out on WEBZ.

My thoughts on Chicago’s Broadband Challenge, shared with Forbes:

Chicago just put out the call for private companies to bring new ideas, to collaborate in building the most well connected city in the world. The goal is significant expansion of already robust fiber optic networks to more corners of the city, and additional services for some under served communities.

Done correctly, Chicago could leverage city assets and encourage private fiber networks to spread to all businesses and more neighborhoods. The city grants right away access to streets, sewer systems, alleys and light poles… city owned assets like bus stops, solar powered trash cans and train lines could all be in play. These assets could be leveraged by private companies to more cheaply build out wired and wireless networks, and by offering them up, Chicago gets an important voice in planning how the super high speed networks blanket the city.

Public policy played a critical role in planning the right roads, rail lines and ports that positioned Chicago as a global transportation and logistics hub 50 years ago. It’s no less important to assist in building capacity, speed and diversity in data networks today, and doing so will shape the Chicago economy for decades to come.

And last night on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight:

Chicago Tonight discusses the Emanuel's Broadband Challenge with city CTO John Tolva, Crains columnist John Pletz and Terry Howerton on September 27