Chance Staples, a freshman at Salem High School has been accepted into Stanford University’s Pre-Collegiate Summer Institute to study law. Stanford’s Pre-Collegiate Summer Institute is an opportunity for academically talented and motivated high school students from all over the world when apply in competition. Chance is excited about being selected for this and also thrilled about spending the summer with his brother, Curtis Staples who is a freshman at Stanford.
Chance, who currently has a 4.4 GPA, is in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program and plans to graduate from high school with the full IB Diploma. At school he is a dedicated member of the Men’s JV Basketball Team, Spanish Club and Future Christian Athletes. In the community he is an active member of the youth ministry at Pilgrim Baptist Church and the youth division of the Roanoke Chapter NAACP. He is currently working on plans to start a non-profit program that will benefit children in the Roanoke Valley.
Chance’s brother, Curtis earned the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence during his freshman year. Curtis is a Symbolic Systems major which is interdisciplinary between the areas of Computer Science, Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics. This is one of Stanford’s business related majors as it allows aspiring entrepreneurs to learn concepts needed to succeed in the tech industry. Examples of Stanford students who have come out of the Symbolic Systems program are Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn and Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo. Curtis has always had a passion for business. During his freshman year of high school, he founded Designs by Ice, a custom apparel company. He also worked as a Sales Representative for Press Press Merch. In addition, Curtis started Kunobe, LLC in high school where he created an app, Bogo Smash that was published to the Itunes and Android app stores.
To further learn about entrepreneurship, Curtis joined the staff of StartX, a startup incubator in the Silicon Valley, as a volunteer this past fall. His area of expertise is Founder Support. In this role, he facilitates and manages relationships between start up founders and pitch coaches/fundraising architects. Pitch coaches are those who help entrepreneurs craft their pitches to investors and venture capitalists while fundraising architects help entrepreneurs with the actual monetary aspect of negation, and try to make sure founders get the best terms for their deal. This summer, Curtis’ role with StartX will expand as he is implementing a program to research minority entrepreneurship within Silicon Valley. In this program he will talk to founders and tech leaders to determine what obstacles minorities face in Silicon Valley and ways StartX and other tech leaders can resolve these problems.
Curtis’ memberships include: Black Student Union Political Services, Black Men’s Initiative, Black Recruitment Orientation Committee (coordinator) and the App Developer Club. He has plans to go to law school and become a leader in the field of business. Ultimately, he plans on using his position to increase the well being of others. In these philanthropic efforts, he will work to attack the wage and economic inequality in minority communities through volunteering and providing financial education. He is also inspired to cut healthcare costs for those in need by investing in medical technology, with the return used to pay medical debts for those who qualify.
The families are blessed to call these brothers their very own and are excited about their summer endeavors that will bring them together again. Curtis and Chance have been taught and understand that all of their strengths come from God.
Their very proud parents are Dwight and Taisha Steele, Jr. and Curtis (Alani) Staples. Their grandparents are John and Aileen Claytor, Rev. Dwight and Connie B. Steele Sr. Teresa Staples and Charles and Anita Price.
