Clark State Community College Alumna Angela Yake, now a teacher at Cedar Cliff Local Schools, challenged her computer technology students to make a global difference. Her students weren’t convinced they would be noticed since they were from Cedarville – just a small town in Ohio.
That same week Yake received an email containing a post from education.ohio.gov. The Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest was seeking teachers to show how STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) can improve local communities. Yake wanted to show her students they could make a global impact starting at home, so they decided to design a mobile app for Cedarville. The app would teach students about the community they live in and give the community another way to share information.
Samsung liked the idea and lesson plan enough to name it the state winner for Ohio and grant Yake and her students a $20,000 technology grant. Samsung also supplied an HD video camera to record the students working on the project.
“My seventh- and eighth-grade students just created a mobile app for the community that rivals in functionality the Springfield Chamber of Commerce app, that I believe was professionally developed,” said Yake. The app was entered into the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest and is now one of the Top 15 entries nationally.
Yake is presenting the app in New York City on March 18 in an effort to win another $85,000 in technology for Cedar Cliff School. The 15 national finalists will be narrowed down to five national winners. One will be decided via online voting on http://www.samsung.com/us/solvefortomorrow/contest; Samsung employees will select one, and a panel of judges will select three during an in-person event where all 15 national finalists present their projects. All five winners selected will receive a technology grant of $120,000.
The Cedar Cliff student’s entry video can be viewed and voted on by visiting: http://www.samsung.com/us/solvefortomorrow/project/ohio-our-town-in-the-palm-of-your-hand.html. Votes can also be submitted by sharing on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using hashtags #SamsungSolve and #SolveTeamCC.
Yake is a 1997 graduate of Clark State with an Associate of Science in computer science. She was a Trustees Scholarship recipient and continued her education at Wright State University where she graduated in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science from the College of Business, majoring in management information systems. Yake pursued her master’s in education in 2011 and now teaches full-time with Cedar Cliff Local Schools. Yake also maintains eligibility as an adjunct instructor at Clark State and is proposing a course for College Credit Plus to begin in the fall.