Brian K. Smith seeks to be the 1st African American on The 2021 First All-Civilian Mission to Space
When people said that the sky is the limit, that never stopped Brian K. Smith from pursuing his dreams into the atmosphere and beyond. Growing up, Brian always knew that his life was meant for something great for the world to see, but he never dreamed that he could actually have an opportunity to fly into space and make history.
Brian K. Smith is the founder of EduSerc (https://www.eduserc.org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development and advancement of youth. Since 1996, he's been donating his spare time to help children find their passion and help their families learn how to support them as well. He discovered his talents inside of a family with a father and brothers that loved electronics, but his heart for the community came from his mother that would do anything for her three sons. This passion passed down into Brian and now, he's been going ever since serving the community and being innovative in STEM and other industries all around the country.
But now life has taken a turn with a potential opportunity to fly into space after watching a Super Bowl Ad in 2021 and later on watching the Today show about the first ever all-civilian mission. He believes he is the best candidate to be selected for the 'Prosperity Seat' on this mission, which is given to an inspirational entrepreneur who has used the power of Shift4Shop to launch their dream business. Brian has created a business at https://ipldinnovations.com to help bring attention to his leadership program at https://www.eduserc.org/ipld to help youth build industry projects to help them raise money for scholarships.
Inspiration4 is the world’s first all-civilian mission to space. The mission will be commanded by Jared Isaacman, the 37-year-old founder and Chief Executive Officer of Shift4 Payments and an accomplished pilot and adventurer. Inspiration4 (https://www.inspiration4.com) will leave Earth from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Launch Complex 39A, the embarkation point for Apollo and Space Shuttle missions, and travel across a low earth orbit on a multi-day journey that will continually eclipse more than 90% of the earth’s population. Named in recognition of the four-person crew that will raise awareness and funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, this milestone represents a new era for human spaceflight and exploration.
What makes Brian K. Smith an amazing candidate is his innovative spirit and impressive story of perseverance in life to excel no matter the circumstance. He started his career working on flight software for space at Motorola and later worked to solve technical problems with the United States Military. He started three technology companies as time went by and moved onto developing creative solutions to help businesses grow by teaching himself web and graphics design.
But his work with the community is so long and concentrated, it's hard to fit all of his work into 140 seconds, but this is part of the criteria for the competition. Brian has designed engineering projects with Northrop Grumman for high school students across the country, created a magazine for youth, created youth conferences at convention centers, tutors children in math, trains teachers in school systems and even submits recommendations for students to receive nominations for one of four military academies in the United States.
His profile is intense, dynamic and inspiration to say the least. But now his sights are set on space to be the best representative to place not only African American men on the civilian map globally, but also every student he's helped along the way as well and beyond.
VOTING TO MAKE THIS GO VIRAL: But to win a seat on this mission, he must also try to get his story going viral as part of the requirements on Twitter with people tweeting this link (https://twitter.com/EduSerc/status/1366178901177884676?s=20) and using the hashtag #inspiration4contest and liking/retweeting the video. He's never been an influencer, but he hopes his story influences and inspires others to tell his story through their feed. His spirit is galvanized on this mission, since this year is his 25th anniversary for all of the work he'd been doing nationwide. He's spent tireless and selfless hours helping others 7 days per week at times, that he now is asking for the public's help to launch him into space to serve as a global role model as the first African American man to fly into space on the first All-Civilian mission.
Here is Brian's amazing story in 140 seconds. Let's send him to the stars!!!!
