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Hello, Harris-Stowe State University has several outstanding students who are making an impact on campus and around the country. Meet Leopoldo, a senior, majoring in Information Sciences and Computer Technology, who represented the university at the UNCF's second HBCU-Innovation Summit in Silicon Valley. Please let me know if you need more details or would like to speak with this outstanding student. Thank you. News Harris-Stowe State University For Immediate Release Contact: Pier Scott (314) 340-3391 scottp@hssu.edu<mailto:scottp@hssu.edu> HARRIS-STOWE SENIOR DEMONSTRATES IMPRESSIVE SKILLS, NETWORKING AT HBCU-INNOVATION SUMMIT IN SILICON VALLEY ST. LOUIS, MO (Nov. 30, 2015) - Leopoldo Yoshinari Alves Moreira, a senior majoring in Information Sciences and Computer Technology at Harris-Stowe State University, represented the school at the 2015 HBCU-Innovation Summit held in Silicon Valley, Nov. 18-21. Sponsored by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), the second annual conference is igniting a national movement to drive innovation, entrepreneurship and access for students of color in the technology and science fields. Moreira, who participates in the HSSU coding club and serves on an extracurricular research team, prevailed during a highly competitive process. He was selected by UNCF to attend the S.T.E.M. conference, which introduces hundreds of students to cutting-edge leaders at tech companies, such as Google, Yelp, EBay, Pinterest, Uber, Pandora and Intuit. During the four-day conference, Moreira was able to connect with students from colleges and universities around the United States and share ideas and creative alternatives to overcome community problems using the newest technologies available in the world. "I am very happy I got to represent my school and to meet so many people with the same energy and passion for pursuing technology careers," Moreira said. "I am extremely grateful to Harris-Stowe State University for giving me the opportunity to gain some great insights about entrepreneurship directly from people who created innovative companies that are household names. This was a chance that you get once in a lifetime." Moreira, who is a defender on the HSSU Men's Soccer team, volunteered for a mock interview with engineers at mobile payment company Square. After his very favorable performance, he was encouraged to apply for an internship. He and other program participants toured and met CEOs, co-founders and engineers from several Silicon Valley companies. On the third day of the conference Moreira met a long-time manager at Oracle, the cloud applications and platform services company. The HSSU student was impressed with the diversity among the company's employees and the fact that their tenures ranged from a couple months to 30 years. "I identified with Eduardo because he is a successful employee working at Oracle who is originally from Venezuela," he said. "At Intuit, I realized that one of the speakers had recently visited Brazil, my home country, and we engaged in a very interesting conversation prior to her presentation to our group." The presenter also enthusiastically encouraged him to apply for a summer internship. The conference concluded with additional mock interviews, workshops on resume writing and navigating corporate standards and requirements. "There are so many rules, restrictions and other barriers to foreign students working in U.S. companies," Moreira said. "However, during my time at Silicon Valley, I could see for myself that it is possible. Meeting and actually engaging with leaders from these big companies that I have dreamed of working for has shown me that I can do it!" About Harris-Stowe State University Harris-Stowe State University (HSSU), located in midtown St. Louis, is a fully accredited four-year institution that offers 31 majors, minors and certificate programs in education, business and arts & sciences. In 2014, HSSU ranked No. 1 in the state of Missouri and No. 47 in the nation in granting degrees in mathematics and statistics to African-Americans according to Missouri Department of Higher Education and Diverse: Issues In Higher Education, a newsmagazine that has ranked institutions conferring the most degrees to minority students for the past 30 years. The university, which has origins dating back to 1857, offers the most affordable bachelor's degree in the state of Missouri. # # #