EFTA01193034.pdf

ENHANCED EDUCATION a/k/a J. Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation, Inc. 6100 Red Hook Quarter, B3 St. Thomas, USVI 00802 Telephone: June 9, 2015 USCIS Vermont Service Center ATTN: I-129 O-1 75 Lower Welden Street St. Albans, VT 05479-0001 RE: 0-1 Nonimmigrant Petition by Enhanced Education a/k/a J. Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation Inc. on behalf of Ms. Dear Sir or Madam: I, Darren Indyke, am the vice-president of J. Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation Inc, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit philanthropic organization which also conducts activities under the registered trade name Enhanced Education (hereinafter, the "Foundation"). I have a juris doctorate from Cornell Law School and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Education from Colgate University. I have worked in various capacities for the Foundation since its inception and currently serve as its Vice President and as a Director. Founded in 2000, the Foundation uses its resources to support academic, scientific and medical research and other philanthropic activities by educational institutions and other not-for-profit institutions and organizations. The Foundation is also an active supporter of educational achievement and youth initiatives. Based in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, the Foundation seeks to support worthy educational, academic, scientific and philanthropic activities and programs both nationally and internationally. The Foundation is known for giving substantial grants to fund leading edge scientific research around the world. Over the years, we have supported many leading scientists including Martin Nowak, Gregory Benford, Lee Smolin, Seth Lloyd, Lawrence Krauss, and artificial intelligence scientist, Marvin Minsky. EFTA01193034 In addition, the Foundation has sponsored several symposia to allow students and academics at all levels to interact and exchange ideas with accomplished scientists, including renowned theoretical physicist, Steven Hawking, and Nobel Laureates Gerard't Hooft, David Gross and Frank Wilczek with the aim of advancing both science and society at large. The Foundation also provides general funds to support numerous universities and science institutes, including the Santa Fe Institute and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In 2003, the Foundation established the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University with a $35 million gift to the University. Under the direction of Martin Nowak, the Program is one of the first of its kind to study the evolution of molecular biology with the primary use of mathematics. It became one of the first departments to develop a mathematical model for the evolution of cancer cells, as well as infectious bacteria and viruses such as HIV. The Program's models have led to key discoveries towards fighting several diseases. More recently, pivotal work has been done in mapping colon cancer resistance to inhibitor drugs, mapping the progression of pancreatic cancer, targeting the topology of minority mutations that drive tumor growth and creating a database to predict and minimize resistance to HIV drugs. In addition to the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University, some of our other directly funded major projects include: NeuroTV: NEURO TV is a monthly videocast online conversation between neuroscientists, psychologists and philosophers to share current academic research about the brain and the mind. Every month NeuroTV airs one of these discussions with graphics and drawings to help the public at large understand the scientific questions at the heart of brain and cognitive research. NeuroTV's guest speakers include numerous eminent professors and scientists. Two recent guests, May-Britt and Edvard Moser, directors of the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, were awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of grid cells. Other guests include: Hank Greely, Director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences and Professor of Genetics, at the Stanford School of Medicine. 12 episodes are aimed for 2 EFTA01193035  2015. Guests include Michael Platt, Director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and Jeffrey Schell, Director of the Center for Integrative Cognition and cognitive Neuroscience. Open Cog Foundation: The Open Cog Foundation is an open source software programming non-profit organization in the field of artificial intelligence. Based in Hong Kong, Open Cog seeks to provide the most cutting edge AI programming to the academic public for purposes of accelerating research and development in this incredibly fast growing, dynamic field. Open Cog was founded by AI scientist, Ben Goertzel, PhD. Mr. Goertzel is CEO of AI software company Novamente LLC and bioinformatics company Biomind LLC; Chief Technology Officer of biopharma firm Genescient Corp.; Vice Chairman of Humanity+; Advisor to the Singularity University and Singularity Institute; External Research Professor at Xiamen University, China; and general Chair of the Artificial General Intelligence conference series. OpenCog is currently being used at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to power the next generation of intelligent game characters. The framework is also being used to control Nao Robots at the BLISS lab at Xiamen University, China, to enable them to learn about their environment and communicate more effectively with humans. STEM Science Fair in the USVI: The St. Thomas-St. John STEM Fair, the largest student science fair in the USVI, was organized by the Virgin Islands Department of Education and brought together hundreds of grade school students from across the Islands, to showcase their science work for awards at the University of the Virgin Islands Sports and Fitness Center. STEM stands for Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics. The Foundation supplied more than a hundred Microsoft Surface 2 computers, touch keyboards and nylon sleeves for Microsoft Surface. The Foundation also provided funds to host the STEM Fair, and travel and accommodations funds for the winners and chaperones to attend the STEM summer camps. The caliber of the 165 projects at the STEM fair were astounding. One 11-year old prize winner, Ricky James Jr., showed how to power a calculator with a penny instead of batteries. Other projects included a solar powered speed boat and a juicer made from a garbage door motor and 3 EFTA01193036  recycled dishwasher parts. The top scorers in each category were given a trophy, a STEM plaque, certificate and an electronic tablet. Categories ranged from science research, demonstrations, mathematics real world problem investigations, mathematics real world models, music technology and software programming. Our founder, Mr. Epstein, is a former member of each of the Mind, Brain and Behavior Committee at Harvard, the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the New York Academy of Science, and is a former Rockefeller University Board Member. Mr. Epstein is also an active member of the Edge Organization. As a non-profit philanthropic organization, not only do we provide direct financial support to various causes, but we also seek to assist worthy organizations in their direct fundraising efforts to locate other donors anxious to support their important activities. Moreover, the Foundation's support for our philanthropic beneficiaries is not limited to monetary support—we also seek to publicize and promote the research, success, and accomplishments of our donation recipients. Therefore, assistance with communications and public relations, as well as with the direct fundraising efforts of the organizations we support, is of utmost importance to us and will be essential to the Foundation in the foreseeable future. We met Ms. a few years ago. A professional and acclaimed model, we found, to our delight, that Ms. passions and our philanthropic goals and activities aligned almost perfectly. For the last few years, Ms. helped us, completely on a volunteer basis, with our communications and public relations efforts. Without Ms. amazing abilities, our STEM Fair in the Virgin Islands, our educational and health related activities in Africa and Haiti, and our work with the St. Petersburg Economic Forum wouldn't have happened. Therefore, we decided to formalize our relationship with Ms. and officially hire and retain her as our Spokesperson and Communications Director. In this capacity, Ms. will be the face of our philanthropic activities. She will be leading the efforts to assist us and the worthy organizations we support with communications and public relations activities, as well as any direct fundraising activities for which the organizations we support may seek our assistance in the future. 4 EFTA01193037 Her salary will be $100,000 per annum and she will enjoy standard Foundation benefits. With her amazing abilities, Ms. is the ideal person for our Foundation—we work with and support the world's leading scientists, and we need someone with the poise and intelligence to interact with them, someone who can explain to the world what we and they do in the most impactful manner possible, and, if requested, someone who can assist the worthy organizations and institutions we support in their efforts to directly raise additional funds that they may need. For such endeavors, organizations always look to professional spokespersons, usually talented celebrities. We are no different. Professional models, just like actresses, make great spokespersons. Communications and public relations, for many models, is a part, and to a certain extent, the continuum, of their modeling career. Ms. is no exception, and, in the attached documentation, and the exhibit addendum, we will give you the extraordinary story of Ms. For the last fifteen years, we supported and funded education throughout the world, and financed some of the most important scientists and scientific projects of our time. We are excited to continue on this trajectory. But, for our continued success, we need a Spokesperson and Communications Director of extraordinary ability. Therefore, we respectfully request your kind consideration and favorable adjudication of our O-1 petition on behalf of Ms. for the anticipated period of three years, beginning as soon as possible. In reviewing this file, we are certain that you will agree that Ms. is exactly the kind and quality of person that Congress envisioned in creating this category of nonimmigrant visa. The USCIS has agreed with this assertion, approving Ms. O-18 classification twice. Based on the foregoing, we respectfully request the approval of our 1-129 application on behalf of Ms. as an Alien of Extraordinary Ability for 3 years so that she may work at our Foundation, furthering our contributions to science, medicine and education. Thank you very much for your kind consideration of this matter. Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. 5 EFTA01193038 Very Truly Yours, Darren Indyke, Vice President 6 EFTA01193039