TORONTO: A JAMAICAN University of Toronto (U of T) Scarborough alumna is collaborating with the university to help launch at least 100 Black-owned start-ups by 2025. Melisa Ellis, founder of the nonprofit social and technology enterprise Nobellum, says she knows first hand what it is like to be the only black person working at a tech company. Her mission is to empower under-represented students in entrepreneurship and STEM, and to uplift the black business community at large. “When you’re in the market to hire black talent, or give business to black vendors, you realise there aren’t enough black entrepreneurs and professionals working in the tech space today. This is why we are partnering with U of T: to build an ecosystem of support and funding for black students who are just getting started in the business world.” Over the next five years, Nobellum will collaborate with U of T Scarborough’s campus-linked accelerators The BRIDGE and The Hub – together with the Black Founders Network and the broader University of Toronto Entrepreneurship community – to deliver training, mentorship, and incubation programmes for aspiring entrepreneurs across U of T who identify as Black. Nobellum has pledged CAD$60,000 to create an accelerator fund, which will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the University of Toronto’s True Blue Fund, for a total investment of CAD$120,000 to help participants advance their business ideas and future-proof their careers. Ellis, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and raised in St Catherine until she immigrated to Canada at the age of 6, was an advocate for the black community from a young age. She is an engineer, founder, coauthor and national scholar of Canada’s prestigious Millennium Scholarship Foundation. Ellis also received a scholarship from the Jamaican Canadian Association. After graduating fromuniversity with a Bachelor of Arts, she pursued project management at Humber College and later pivoted to software engineering when she discovered the world of information technology. Her entrepreneurial spirit was ignited when she discovered multilevel marketing in university; it opened her eyes to the possibility of business ownership and e-commerce. The goal is not only to equip black students with transferable skills and knowledge, but also to forge and amplify pathways towards a more diverse and inclusive tech industry for black entrepreneurs nationwide, says Malcolm Wright, a fellow U of T Scarborough graduate and director of operations at Nobellum. The journey to founding Nobellum began at U of T Scarborough where she also worked and volunteered in many capacities on campus. Ellis says the holistic U of T experience taught her valuable transferable skills in project coordination, communication, and leadership – all of which buoyed her confidence to pivot and pursue software engineering after graduation. “I was beginning to see that it doesn’t matter what industry you go into: tech is coming. Whether you’re in law, accounting, you name it. Managers will be asking, ‘How good are you with databases? How good are you with SQL?’ By adding tech to your skill set, you’re training to become a leader across different departments. You can become the unicorn in the room,” Ellis said. Beginning in spring 2022, Nobellum’s InnovathonWorkshop series, delivered in partnership with U of T Scarborough for students in any academic programme and year of study who identify as black, will equip participants with foundational training in business, technology, and entrepreneurship led by U of T faculty and diverse business leaders. Students will go on to compete in the Innovation Pitch Competition, “a remix version of a hackathon”, as Ellis describes it, where successful teams exit the competition with an action plan, and with seed funding from the NobellumTrue Blue Accelerator Fund, to help them transform their idea into an actual business. This kicks off a year-long incubation period known as the Innovator Bridging Program, which provides students with unprecedented access to mentorship and resources within the tri-campus U of T Entrepreneurship network as well as through the Nobel Hub: Nobellum’s online directory of essential business service providers (e.g., legal, tech, marketing, accounting, etc.) from the black community. MARCH 3 - APRIL 2, 2022 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com 9 Aubrey Campbell/Gleaner Writer NEW YORK, NY: BETTINO’S RESTAURANT, the trendy Italian eatery on the Drax Hall Estate, just outside Ocho Rios, St Ann, provided the perfect backdrop for the exchange of nuptials between Joanne (Movery) and Emmet Boland on January 30. IN FRONT of a small, intimate gathering of family and friends from Jamaica and the USA, the bride, a former customer service representative/Chase Bank – NYC, now assistant catering manager/Sheila’s Homemade Pastries, and groom, an agriculturalist and digital marketing consultant, wasted little time in saying ‘I do’ under the very watchful eye of pastor Maurice Bramwell, who would later pronounce them, man and wife! Lifelong friends fromprimary school, they reignited acquaintance in 2018 when Joanne relocated fromNewYork City to help with the family business, prompting a very candid response from the groom that youthful exuberance may have caused him to miss or otherwise ignore the writings of Cupid on the wall, back then. For the occasion, the bride wore a burgundy, floor length dress from JJ’s House, while the groom donned a complementing, light brown, threepiece suit by Wulful, with a burgundy bow tie and matching pocket piece. The wedding included a sand ceremony in which the bridal party took turn, pouring coloured sand from individual containers into one larger container, signifying the irretrievable blending and bond that will now characterise the union of Joanne and Emmet Boland, going forward. After dining on sumptuous servings of Cajun Chicken Pasta and Sweet Chili Glazed Salmon, the newly-weds said their ‘thank you’ and goodbyes with the promise to live every moment, laugh every day and love – each other – beyond words! - Photos courtesy of Trudy Morrison J’can advances Black excellence in entrepreneurship and tech Melisa Ellis, founder of the non-profit social and technology enterprise Nobellum. CONTRIBUTED Childhood friends Joanne & Emmet tie the knot PARTY OF FOUR. From left; Maid of Honour, Ameryia Thomas-Campbell; Bride, Joanne Movery; Groom, Emmet Boland and Best Man, Dean Dormer. CONTRIBUTED
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