American Airlines and Black Enterprise hold hackathon for students of HBCUs

American Airlines and digital media brand Black Enterprise brought together more than 100 students from 19 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) for Black Enterprise’s seventh annual BE Smart Hackathon.

Students who participated in the hackathon, which ran from Oct. 6 to 9 and had the theme “Homecoming 2022: All Code, No Switch!”, competed for career opportunities – including internships and full-time jobs - and prizes from American Airlines and other technology partners.

According to Black Enterprise, the hackathon provides HBCU students with opportunities to network, build relationships, gain mentorship, engage in career preparation and add meaningful experiences to their resumes to pursue employment in the tech industry.

The event also included virtual workshops on technologies such as artificial intelligence, data analytics and natural language processing from Microsoft, IBM and HP, among others.

"For decades, technology companies have lamented their ineffectiveness at finding and recruiting African American talent," says Black Enterprise president and CEO Earl "Butch" Graves Jr. 

"HBCUs have been the source of top-notch talent in practically every industry. Our annual BE Smart Hackathon, in partnership with American Airlines, not only identifies and showcases promising Black talent but provides platforms for those companies to recruit them for internships and jobs."

In addition to the competition, American Airlines and Black Enterprise hosted a town hall session on how HBCUs can build corporate partnerships, overcome barriers and identify new opportunities to develop and advance students across tech, aviation, transportation, hospitality and finance.