Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Deputy Mayor Andrea Zopp and Chicago Bulls’ guard Dwyane Wade today hosted a diverse group of young people to share winning ideas from the Pitch Black Hackathon event held at Harvard Business School last April. The City of Chicago posed four questions to graduate students from the Harvard and greater Boston graduate school communities on the topics of education, public health, entrepreneurship, and diversity and social justice.
 
“It is by listening to and collaborating with our young leaders that we will continue to pursue actionable solutions that affect our students and their future in Chicago,” said Mayor Emanuel. “I want to thank Dwyane Wade and the founders of Pitch Black for bringing together this outstanding group of individuals to share their winning ideas”
 
Pitch Black was a single-day competition focused on developing solutions to issues currently facing African American communities. Each team pitched ideas to a panel of judges whose backgrounds spanned education, public health, entrepreneurship and diversity & social justice. High school students from Chicago schools joined the conversation at Harvard to provide first-hand experience and insight to the competing teams.
 
“I’m happy to come together with the city of Chicago to listen to our young adults and elevate the ideas they have to bring about lasting change to every community in my hometown,” said Wade.
 
One idea was selected in each topic area to be presented to Wade, city officials and community leaders at the Winner’s Luncheon.
 
“In the City of Chicago, we are focused on improving, enhancing and creating opportunities for African Americans in every neighborhood and community,” said Deputy Mayor Zopp. “Having young people engaged in the shaping the future of our great city is very important, and we appreciate the innovative ideas brought to us by these students.”
 
There were twenty-four teams from twenty-five participating colleges and universities, including: Harvard College, Wellesley College, Boston College, Temple University, University of Oklahoma, American University, University of Kentucky, Howard University and others. To provide context and lend brain power, the teams were joined by current Chicago high school students from the Young Women’s Leadership Academy of Chicago, Butler College Prep, Urban Prep and Thornwood High School.
 
Pitch Black was formed as an independent project by Harvard Business School graduates Anthony Tucker, Benjamin Cole and Luthan Hill to positively impact their community. Working with Dwyane Wade, who had a mutual interest in and track record of giving back to the African American community, and the Wade’s World Foundation, Pitch Black created the inaugural hackathon to propose innovative solutions for Chicago. 

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