Birmingham, MI – Many Michigan young people are familiar with Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs—but not many know about the technology entrepreneur born and educated in their own “backyard.” On Wednesday, March 26, 2014. approximately 200 Detroit Public School students will gather to hear the inspirational story of engineer, entrepreneur and author W. David Tarver. Mr. Tarver’s presentation takes place at 11:00 a.m. inside the Clara Stanton Jones Friends Auditorium in the Detroit Public Library – 5200 Woodward Ave. A book signing will immediately follow.
Author of the book “Proving Ground: A Memoir,” Tarver will share his unique entrepreneurial journey as a young man coming of age during the turbulent civil rights era. He will describe how he navigated the opportunities and challenges to build a successful multi-million dollar international enterprise, and encourage the students in the audience to chart their own path success. Tarver is a proud Michigan native who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.
“I truly enjoy speaking to young people. This is the age at which we must inspire their creativity,” Tarver explains. David Tarver is teaming up with the University of Michigan and others to introduce a new initiative that challenges students to identify challenges in urban communities and develop for-profit solutions to solve them. Recognizing the first step in entrepreneurship is to identify the “problem” one wants to solve, at the March 26thevent Tarver will challenge the students in the audience to clearly identify a challenge they see in their communities and offer a prize to those who most clearly articulate those challenges. In addition, Tarver welcomes students to go one step further and offer a creative for-profit solution to the problem they identify.
Following is the event flyer produced by the Detroit Public Library:
