Accelerated Visions

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Sterling, VA
Accelerated Visions

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Accelerated Visions (formerly Kyrus Charities) is focused on creating unique accelerant projects to help emerging nonprofits scale.

10/10/2026

For many children, the final school bell on Friday also means uncertainty about where weekend meals will come from.

Backpacks of Love works to eliminate hunger in school-age children across Central Virginia by providing food for their weekends. The organization works directly with schools and volunteers to make sure children have food when school meals are not available.

There are several ways to help:
• Fill a backpack for a child
• Support a child for an entire school year
• Volunteer to pack or deliver food bags
• Organize a food drive or fundraiser
• Share their mission with your community

We are grateful that our George Mason University student project can support the systems behind this important work, but today the spotlight belongs to Backpacks of Love and the community that makes its mission possible.

Learn more and get involved: https://www.backpacksoflove.org/support/

10/08/2026

Meet the George Mason University Information Sciences and Technology Capstone team partnering with Backpacks of Love this academic year.

Through this real-world experiential learning project, six students are working directly with the nonprofit to understand how its current systems support donors, volunteers, deliveries, communications, and reporting, and where technology could reduce manual work.

Guided by Professor Ron Therrien, the team includes:
• Saleam Sisay, Team Lead
• Longyi Chu, Communications Manager
• Alexandra Villalobos Rivera, Scope & Product Manager
• Denise Gomez Ramirez, Documentation & Risk Manager
• Minahil Babar, Business Process Analyst
• Gavin M. Cornell, Quality Manager; junior majoring in Information Technology with a concentration in Web Application Development

Their challenge is to help Backpacks of Love evaluate a more connected CRM and workflow approach that can bring scattered information together, improve volunteer and donor tracking, and support the organization as it grows.

This is the kind of applied learning Accelerated Visions is built to create: university students gaining hands-on experience on a real organizational challenge while a nonprofit receives thoughtful, practical support.

10/07/2026

Some of the George Mason University Backpacks of Love student team spent Friday in Powhatan, Virginia, getting to know the work behind their project in person.

We started the day together and then visited the Backpacks of Love pantry, where Tracy Guion, Evan Davis, and Juliette Oliva gave the students a closer look at how the organization operates day to day.

The team had the chance to see the pantry in action, ask questions, understand current workflows, and learn more about the systems supporting volunteers, donors, deliveries, and communication.

There is something different about seeing the work firsthand. It gives students context they cannot get from a spreadsheet or a Zoom call and helps them better understand the people and processes behind the technology challenge they are working to solve.

Students pictured: Alexandra Villalobos Rivera, Gavin Cornell, Saleam Sisay, and Longyi Chu.

Thank you, Tracy, Evan, Juliette, and the Backpacks of Love team for welcoming us and giving the students such a thoughtful look at your work.

10/02/2026

Our AI for Good Hackathon would not have been possible without the organizations that stepped up to support the students and make this two-day experience possible.

A huge thank you to our Lead Sponsor, Disruptive Solutions, for helping make the event possible and for also sending intern Shravan Aadithya to participate alongside the students.

Thank you to our Community Sponsors, State Farm and Pathfinders, whose support helped us create the experience for the students and Boys to Men Mentoring Virginia.

And thank you to our incredible in-kind partners, Wawa, Wegmans, McDonald’s, and Chick-fil-A, for helping us take care of the students with meals, supplies, and prizes throughout the event.

Their support allowed students to focus on learning, collaborating, and solving a real nonprofit challenge. We are incredibly grateful to every organization that believed in this first pilot and helped us bring it to life.

09/29/2026

Our first AI for Good Hackathon brought students together at Brightpoint Community College for two days to tackle a real-world challenge for Boys to Men Mentoring Virginia.

Students worked with synthetic data modeled on the nonprofit’s actual data structure, developing workflows, automation ideas, and recommendations that could help Boys to Men access and analyze information that previously required significant manual effort. Some students even continued working overnight because they wanted to deliver something meaningful for the organization.

A very special thank you to Brightpoint Community College for partnering with Accelerated Visions and hosting this first pilot. Thank you to Jayme Linton for supporting the partnership; Phyl Demetriou for first bringing the hackathon idea to the table, helping make it happen, and serving as an incredible emcee; and Beth Denson for developing such a thoughtful curriculum and structure for the two-day experience.

Thank you also to Chris Baker and the Boys to Men Mentoring Virginia team for trusting the students with a real challenge and giving them the opportunity to create something that could make a meaningful difference for the organization.

And most importantly, thank you to every student who showed up, collaborated, asked questions, challenged ideas, and put so much effort into their solutions. You made this event what it was.

09/25/2026

We’re excited to highlight Disruptive Solutions, LLC as the Lead Sponsor of the AI for Good Hackathon!

Their support is helping bring together students, technology, and real-world challenges to develop innovative solutions using AI, automation, and data. Together, we’re creating opportunities for the next generation to think boldly, solve meaningful problems, and drive innovation that can shape the future.

Thank you, Disruptive Solutions, for helping make this experience possible!

09/22/2026

Accelerated Visions is proud to have McDonald’s as an in-kind sponsor for the AI for Good Hackathon in partnership with Boys to Men Mentoring Virginia.

Thank you for supporting our mission and helping us empower the next generation of innovators!

09/21/2026

Introducing the AI for Good Hackathon, a student challenge with teams from Brightpoint Community College on September 25 and 26. Student teams will take on a real-world problem from Boys to Men Mentoring Virginia, a nonprofit that collects data from multiple schools, surveys, and attendance records and spends significant time cleaning and organizing it by hand.

Over two days, teams will explore how AI, automation, and other technology tools can streamline that process and make the data easier to understand and use. The goal is a working solution that helps Boys to Men reduce manual work, better visualize program outcomes, and more easily communicate its impact to staff, board members, and funders.

09/19/2026

A big thank you to Chick-fil-A for supporting the AI for Good Hackathon as an in-kind sponsor!

In partnership with Boys to Men Mentoring Virginia, this hackathon brings students, mentors, and community partners together to use technology and AI to create solutions for social good.

We’re grateful to Chick-fil-A for helping make this experience possible and investing in the next generation of innovators.

09/18/2026

A huge thank you to Pathfinder Wealth Partners for being a Community Sponsor of the AI for Good Hackathon, held in partnership with Boys to Men Mentoring Virginia!

Your support helps bring students, mentors, and community leaders together to explore how technology and AI can be used to create meaningful impact. We’re grateful to have Pathfinder supporting this experience and investing in the next generation of innovators.

Address

46040 Center Oak Plaza
Sterling, VA

Telephone

+18048747800

Website

http://acceleratedvisions.org/

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