The Six Curriculum Tracks
Founded and piloted at FAMU by Ali Aly, Tabia Cannon, Sydney Holness, Garrett Tolbert, and Malcolm Robinson, BVCC’s HBCU & HSI on-campus curriculum is a student-run program created in order to educate, expose, and provide opportunities within the fields of Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Venture Capital.
Each track has a 10-session curriculum with materials, assignments, and projects. The BVCC cohort is made up of 502 participating members, 275 female, and 227 male, across all six tracks as of 2022. The sessions are led by a combination of BVCC staff, professional guest lecturers, and student leaders. On top of the educational sessions, students participate in industry-related extracurricular events and complete a capstone project that enforces the application of the educational content.
Deadline to apply: 9/12/2023
Make it stand out
Venture capitalists identify, analyze, and invest in companies with large growth potential. Learn how to analyze startup companies to make investment decisions. Prepare for BVCC’s $14,000 venture capital internships, student led-venture fund, and $85,000 Full-time fellowship program.
it stand out
Take your problem-solving product or service and create it into a startup company! Learn the key components to being a successful entrepreneur, including strategic thinking, sales, negotiation, communication, and leadership.
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Metrics for product managers, building a product, roadmap and agile product management, competitive market analysis for product managers, create a go-to-market plan, designing and running experiments for product managers, market research basics.
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A UXD makes a product or service usable, enjoyable, and accessible for the target user. Apply critical thinking skills to make a product or service usable, enjoyable, and accessible to the target audience. Learn skills related to prototyping, wireframing, and information architecture. Understand how the user interacts with or is experiencing a product. Build a UXD portfolio with professional-level design tools while obtaining advice from industry professionals.
Make it stand out
UX Researchers uncover user behaviors, user needs and pain points to help inform smarter product decisions. Learn how to refine your research skills with our curriculum to understand the design thinking process, user journeys, and storyboarding to craft the user persona.
Learn from industry professionals how to become a software engineer in the startup ecosystem! Learn how to design, test, and build programs for hardware, operating systems and problem-solving today’s problems. Learn to become an adaptive developer focusing on agile methodologies and version control!
Career Opportunities
SOFTWARE ENGINNERING
SWE Program Manager
Application Software Developer (Backend or Frontend)
Systems Software Developer (Backend)
VENTURE CAPITAL
CEO
CFO
CTO
Banking Consultant
UX/UI DESIGN
Visual Designer
Web Designer
UX Engineer
Product Design Manager
Product Management
Product Planner
Marketing Manager
Product Lead Engineer
USER RESEARCH
Information Technology Consultant
Research Analyst
Sales Representative
Senior UX Researcher
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Consultant
Enterprise Software Sales
Management Analyst
Currently operating at the following HBCUs & more:
Capstone Projects
BVCC trained 400+ HBCU students during Fall 2022. Within this cohort, we have selected the top 5% of students to work as BVCC Student Consultants gaining hands-on project experience. Our student consultants are integrating industry-level examples into their portfolio through participation in spring
Venture capital Capstone
VC track participants facilitating the annual spring pitch competition are responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and choosing the winning company. Students participate in the profits that come as a result of the investment. Second-year VC track participants who complete a summer internship are eligible to work on the Student-Led Venture Fund.
Entrepreneur Capstone
Entrepreneurship track participants identify a viable problem and work with the Product Managers, UX Designers, and Software Engineers to create a tech-enabled solution with the goal of building an MVP that they can take to market. Second-year track participants will go through the milestone-driven access to investment capital program.
User Experience Capstone
UX and UXR tracks collaborate to join an entrepreneur as a co-founder. They are responsible for completing user testing, building the system design, and delivering a high-fidelity design to the software engineer. Second-year track participants will have the option of participating in the BVCC Consulting Program.
Software Engineering Capstone
SWE’s work closely with the UX and Entrepreneur to complete the back and front end development of the MVP. The goal is to complete a functioning product that can be beta tested in order to attain customer/user feedback. Second-year SWE track participants will have the option of participating in the BVCC Consulting Program
Spring Projects
BVCC trained 400+ HBCU students during Fall 2022. Within this cohort, we have selected the top 5% of students to work as BVCC Student Consultants gaining hands-on project experience. Our student consultants are integrating industry-level examples into their portfolio through participation in spring.
BVCC trained 400+ HBCU students during Fall 2022. Within this cohort, we selected the top 5% of students to work as BVCC Student Consultants gaining hands-on project experience though a pilot “co-creation” design experience. Over the course of 10 weeks students are researching a problem, proposing opportunities, designing concepts, and testing those concepts before presenting a final creative brief. Throughout this process, they are guided by about 20 Googler volunteers working to coach and develop our students through the design project. Our students are gaining hands-on experience by working on a 10 week co-creation design project in cross functional teams (PM, UXD, UXR and SWE) addressing a common challenge.
TEAM MINDSHIFT
BVCC Student Consultants are working on a 10 week project to support designing a system to help people find jobs that match their interests, hobbies, and skills. It uses AI and Knowledge Management to create a 360-degree view of the individual through AI-directed questions, builds a profile, and then matches the person with job opportunities and a roadmap to obtain the jobs.
Co-Creation Design Project
BVCC Student Consultants are gaining hands-on experience by working on a 10 week co-creation design project in cross functional teams (PM, UXD, UXR and SWE) addressing a common challenge. Over the course of 10 weeks students are researching a problem, proposing opportunities, designing concepts, and testing those concepts before presenting a final creative brief. Throughout this process, they are guided by about 20 Googler volunteers working to coach and develop our students through the design project.
Extracurricular Activities
To ensure that students are exposed to industry events and professionals, the Program funds participation for top-performing students within the curriculum to the following events and more:
What We've Achieved
2022/2023 Academic Year
Expanded to Morgan State University and Jackson State University.
Launched new UX Research track.
Launched the fourth year of the Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship & Software Engineering tracks, third year of the UX Design track, second year of Product Management and Robotics track.
Launched BVCC co-creation design projects in partnership with Google volunteers.
2021/2022 Academic Year
Expanded to PVAM, NCAT, and DSU.
Addition of two new tracks: Product Management & Robotics Track.
Launched the third year of VC, Entrepreneurship, UXD, and SWE tracks.
Launched BVCC Consulting.
Launched $7.5mm Student-led Venture Fund.
2020/2021 Academic Year
Expanded from FAMU to Morehouse, Clark Atlanta, Spelman, Howard, and Hampton.
165 Active Participants within the four tracks; VC: 64, Entrepreneurship: 36, UX: 32, SWE: 33.
23 student companies founded, 3 of which pitched in the Spring Pitch Competition.
17 high fidelity UX designs created, 9 MVPs created.
223 companies applied for the Spring Pitch Competition. Investment made in Intus Care.
2019/2020 Academic Year
Piloted and attained proof of concept for the curriculum at Florida A&M.
26 active participants across the four tracks.
Four student companies founded.
FAQ’s
When does the curriculum start?
The curriculum for the 2023/2024 academic year will start on September 19th, 2023. Students interested in participating should fill out this form by 9/18/2023.
The program is free. BVCC does not charge the students or the participating universities. The curriculum is completely funded by BVCC and our sponsors.
How much does the Program cost?
What is the criteria for joining the Program?
There is no criteria. The curriculum is open to any student currently attending an HBCU or HSI. There is no major or classification requirement.
What is the time commitment?
Students can expect to allocate 3 to 5 hours per week attending the sessions, completing the outside of session assignments, and working on their capstone project.
There is no GPA requirement to join the Career Track Curriculum program but only students with a 3.5+ GPA are eligible for the internships.
IS there a GPA requirement?
Students interested in becoming a track lead for Fall 2023 should apply here.
How do I become a track lead?
Presidents receive $1,500/semester with the potential to earn a $500 bonus. Curriculum track leads receive $1,000/semester with the potential to earn a $250 bonus.
How much are student leads paid?
Yes. Please fill out the form below.