At the tender age of 14, George Hofstetter, like many African-American young men, was well aware of his precarious place in relation to law enforcement as a black boy in America. In an effort to protect their son, his parents gave him "the talk," arming him with practical advice and tools to avoid the tragic fate met by the Trayvon Martin's, Michael Brown's, and Tamir Rice's of the world.

Still, the Oakland California native found himself feeling nervous in the presence of police officers, so he developed an app called CopStop – which basically administers the digital equivalent of "the talk" that he was taught at home. When activated, the app calmly reminds users to keep their hands in sight at all times and to be polite and respectful. That was in 2015, Hofstetter is working on taking the app live in the very near future.

Now a high school senior, 17-year-old Hofstetter has since started his own tech company, George Hofstetter Technologies Inc. He has participated in multiple tech events in his community, he's created web and mobile applications centered around social justice, and he has been an honoree of the Equal Justice Society. One of his most current projects, Connect The Dots, is a social networking app that connects African-American students attending predominately white private schools.

Kudos to young George Hofstetter, a symbol of #BlackExcellence. Click here to learn more about his greatness.

George Hofstetter

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