Victor Anthony Scotti, Jr. – A Different World: Moving Mountains in VR

Moving Mountains provides accessible, tech-enabled, and culturally-relevant job shadowing for Black male college students to help participants access navigational capital in Corporate America.

Moving Mountains, LLC equips Black college men for personal and professional alignment in Corporate America’s Fortune 500 companies. They accelerate Black boys’ self-efficacy through tangible professional experience, job shadowing, mentorship, and psychosocial and socio-emotional support. Their olution provides virtual job shadowing for a cohort of 10 Black male students with one partner Historically Black College or University (HBCU). Students will use Virtual Reality (VR) to explore career pathways with five Black men. Our subjects will occupy various intersecting and overlapping identities, such as sexual identity, age, socioeconomic status, educational background, and geographic origin. They will also span the talent journey; from entry-level to mid-career, to C-suite executives. Uniquely, videos integrate subjects’ professional and personal lives, giving viewers a holistic and realistic shadowing experience. Students exercise agency, choice, and autonomy through self-paced, on-demand simulation modules.

Funds provided through their Catalyze Challenge award will help cover: on-site filming, production, and post-production; participant licensure; and VR headsets for each student. Additionally, they will re-grant a portion of the award to student gap scholarships up to $1,000/student through the Scotti Scholarship Foundation. Over time, scholarship investments will help narrow the $10.14 trillion racial wealth gap fueled by the student debt crisis. Additionally, funds will support students in engaging with the project, including on-site, cohort-style connections with participants.

“Moving Mountains is a ‘counter-space’; a space that honors our intersecting and overlapping identities, resilience, and strengths while centering agency, wellness, power, and possibilities” – Victor Scotti, Jr., Founder & Chief Inspiration Officer, Moving Mountains, LLC.

For more information about Moving Mountains, LLC, go to www.movingmountainsllc.org.