2016年夏天，攻读咨询和心理学博士的艾莎·奥古斯塔-帕勒姆（Aishah Augusta-Parham）在她经常光顾的一些企业中遇到了偏见。
尽管社会对公平的认识越来越广泛，但她的个人经历证明，有些制度并没有改变。
“I began realizing that as a psychologist, I could help individuals by targeting their specific symptoms, but when they left my office, I wouldn’t be able to impact those systems.”
奥古斯塔-帕勒姆博士(文学士 06年,文学士学位 2008年)决定，为了真正有效，她需要针对这些系统以及这些系统为某些人创造的不良体验。 SEPOW就是这样诞生的。
“SEPOW is the Yelp for diversity, equity and inclusion,” she says. “In the same way Yelp allows its users to rate their experiences, SEPOW will enable employees to rate their experiences at a business or company in relation to race, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, religion and sexual orientation – all on the app.”
组织将能够看到他们的评级，并选择SEPOW可以提供的定制解决方案，以解决员工的特定体验。
“Organizations will have real-time feedback on their multicultural initiatives, and see specifically what's working and what’s not working,” Augusta-Parham says. “They can have accurate information on race-related stress and how it’s impacting performance, morale and engagement with coworkers and employees.”
Augusta-Parham received support from 数字沙箱, which provides start-ups with feedback and funding to accelerate their businesses. She says this has been instrumental to SEPOW’s growth and development.
“Now organizations will have real-time feedback on their multicultural initiatives. They can see specifically what's working and what’s not working.” —Aishah Augusta-Parham
“It’s really important for a founder to get out to the market as quickly as possible to accelerate towards commercialization,” Augusta-Parham says
通过网络，奥古斯塔-帕勒姆结识了一位卓有成效的导师。 When she reached out to Bryan Shannon (B.A. ’04), who is an entrepreneur, he was impressed by her commitment and domain experience. 他意识到，她能够迎接挑战，将自己的创业公司推向市场。
“Aishah is the type of individual who looks for a pathway forward,” Shannon says. “SEPOW is attempting to fill a void that exists in a very sizable market.”
奥古斯塔-帕勒姆现在正在努力工作，但她对未来有更大的计划。
“Five years from now I want SEPOW to be the hallmark for diversity, equity and inclusion,” she says. “My goal is for employees to feel heard, supported and empowered, and for organizations to have the resources to help them move the needle on multicultural initiatives. ”
启动资金对她的成功至关重要。
“Without 数字沙箱, I wouldn't have this opportunity to move as quickly as I possibly can and get off the ground.”