A microloan program, Vittana, works to make financing education easier for students in less developed countries by allowing people in other parts of the world to sponsor a student with microloan. These loans allow students living in different parts of the world the opportunity to afford an education that they otherwise would be unable to pay for. Vittana’s offering to students is simple: microloans pay for the costs of a higher education can pull students out of poverty and through school.… more

Pink Castle Pictures and the International Center for Professional Development (ICPD) have come together to produce a new web series aimed at getting teenagers interested in and engaged in the STEM fields. “SwivetZone” hopes to get middle school students excited about the STEM fields by telling the stories of high school students, and how they apply the things they learn in their courses to the real world, something which a lot of students might not be able to do. “We want to help ignite the spark that makes students want to learn, to ask questions, and to take on challenges,” said Scott May, executive director of the ICPD.… more

The Urban Institute, a non-partisan think tank has published a new interactive map that shows poverty density in the U.S., as well as the race of the impoverished. The new map, “Poverty and Race in America: Then and Now,” allows the map reader to examine poverty growth through race since the 1980s. It seems to show that Hispanic poverty, as well as all poverty in general, has ballooned since the 1980s and continues to grow. Overall, poverty is concentrated in the cities with minorities, though there has been growth in white poverty over time.… more

A new startup accelerator in Silicon Valley aimed at Latinos has just announced its partnership with Google for Entrepreneurs. Manos Accelerator, a “mentorship-driven accelerator program,” is beginning this partnership in the fall with its first class for Latino entrepreneurs. The hope is to increase the Latino presence in the startup ecosystem by providing  a three-month program which gives the startups access to mentors and an opportunity to show what they can do.… more

The Pew Internet Center released new data regarding Americans and their ownership of smartphones. The full report can be read here. The data shows us a rise in the percentage of Americans who own smartphones over the past three years , as well as how this data relates to consumer gender, age, race, income level, and education. It also gives us insight as to which of the two major phones, iPhone or Android, are preferred by Americans. As of 2013, 56% of Americans who claim to own a cell phone own a smartphone, and almost half of the 91% of the American population which owns a cell phone.… more

Latino students in environments built on tech and information growth are being failed by educational systems, creating a group of students who struggle with algebra — who are very unlikely to go onto college successfully, according to a report published by Joanne Jacobs, Matt Hammer and Dr. Linda Murray for Innovate Public Schools. The report, “Broken Promises: The Children Left Behind in Silicon Valley Schools” has follows five racial categories: Latino, Black, Asian, Pacific Islander, Filipino, and White.… more

You don’t usually think of Latinas and technology in the same breath. That’s unfortunate, but fortunately for us Latina magazine put together a list of exactly that! The list starts with one of the founding members of Twitter, Laura I. Gomez, Xeni Jardin who co-founded Boing Boing, as well as women who work at Google, IBM and Cisco. Did the list leave anyone out? Check out the entire list here, and leave your own additions to the list in the comments. [Image Via Search Engine People Blog]… more

Americans are practically required to have some sort of computer skills these days. It’s expected. However, for families with lower income, it can be hard to access the Internet to check emails or hunt for jobs – never mind that they have the high tech skillsets some jobs demand. Latinos often fall into these lower income brackets. While technology keeps getting more and more advanced, it’s easy for people in these lower brackets to fall behind the tech curve and adapt to changing operating systems and programs.… more

A cute, innocent commercial is making headlines for all of the wrong reasons. A white woman in a kitchen is asked by her biracial daughter if Cheerios are good for your heart. She tells her daughter that they are, and the next shot shows the father, a black man, sleeping on the couch with a bunch of Cheerios poured out on his chest. It’s cute, simple, and not even about race. It’s about selling cereal to people: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYofm5d5Xdw Yet, it’s managed to piss off a bunch of angry white trolls.… more

Language teachers commonly say that you should listen to music or television shows in the language for the exposure, but the usefulness of that is debatable at best. The speed and inflection of the singer could easily throw somebody off with pronunciation. Television? Forget it — conversational foreign languages are spoken at a pace intended for native or fluent speakers to understand — not the kid in Spanish 101.  And nevermind the boatload of words they’d never hear in class.… more