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MIAMI A local university helps young adults find their inner light. FIU Embrace provides students with developmental disabilities with meaningful education and the tools to work and live independently.

A program one parent says changed the ball game for her son.

"When we came here, it opened the door for everything," said Sandra Fertil, mother of FIU Embrace student Marcel.

27-year-old Marcel has cerebral palsy. And before enrolling at FIU Embrace in 2019, his mom worried about his future.

"What will happen to him after we are gone," shared Sandra. "That was a great concern."

Marcel was born premature, weighing one pound and 13 ounces.

"I'm a miracle baby," said Marcel. "My mom and dad take very good care of me."

Despite life's early obstacles, Marcel grew up with a loving, adventurous spirit. What he needed was an opportunity to show it.

"I used to be very shy and closed off," said Marcel. "Now, I'm more open."

Enter FIU Embrace, where Marcel developed a love and passion for cooking and being in the kitchen. He learned how to maneuver around campus by himself, make friends, advance his education, and became a proud FIU Embrace graduate last month, ready to work.

"I'm very confident in myself and my abilities and try not to worry about my disability," said Marcel. "I'm special in some way."

FIU Embrace Director Nicole Attong says creating confidence is key.

"Where they see themselves and who they see themselves becoming," added Attong.

The three-year program offers non-degree seeking and degree-seeking tracks, both geared for the individual to embrace their disability, find a career path, and land a job after graduation. Right now, the focus is on the non-degree seeking program.

"Getting the individual to learn more about themselves," shared Attong. "Fluent in areas you and I take for granted, cooking things and all the things we need to do to get through life."

It's precisely why FIU Embrace board member Cuong Do is glad his son Ben enrolled last year.

"He is thriving," said Do proudly.

Ben is on the spectrum. He lights up a room when sharing his animation projects. Ben plans to pursue a degree in digital animation. Cuong moved his family from New Jersey to South Florida to support Ben's dream and independence.

"We have to get into the mindset we will have to push them to be independent," said Do. "The more hands-off, the better."

"Number one fear is what's going to happen to my children or who is going to look after my children after I pass. Our answer is they will look after themselves."

And that's why Attong believes the single most crucial piece is pairing each student with a thriving student peer.

"See others like themselves who have jobs, enrolled in classes, living on campus in dorms, see themselves reflected in someone who was successful, believe then, for the first time they belong here," said Attong.

"I see the gleam in Ben's eye," said Do. "I see the gleam in the eyes of the other students here at Embrace. That's true happiness and true pursuit of passion."

Ben told CBS4 his dream job is to work for Nickelodeon, which happens to be part of our TV family, Paramount Global.

Attong adds community engagement and social networking create pathways for these exceptional students to land jobs after completing the program.

The program accepts young adults 18 through 28. The goal is to expand to 200 non-degree seeking students on campus by 2026.

Joe Gorchow joins CBS4 News as a seasoned reporter and anchor with extensive live and breaking news experience. Joe's competitive nature and passion for connecting with the community blend perfectly into his role at WFOR. He strives to provide the coverage our viewers deserve.

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FIU Embrace providing meaningful education to students with developmental disabilities so they can work and live independently - CBS Miami

Weibo Corporation (NASDAQ: WB) on Thursday reported lower revenues and net profit for the second quarter of 2022, despite an increase in the number of users.

The China-based social networking company reported adjusted profit of $0.46 per share for the most recent quarter, down 42% from the year-ago period. On an unadjusted basis, net profit decreased to $28.3 million or $0.12 per share from $81.03 million or $0.35 per share last year.

The bottom line was hurt by a 22% decrease in revenues to $450.2 million. At the end of the quarter, Weibo had around 582 million monthly active users and 252 million daily active users.

Read management/analysts comments on quarterly reports

On monetization, although broad-based headwinds weighed on advertising demand in the near term, we are encouraged to see resilient performance of certain sectors and the gradual pick-up of the overall advertising business after the pandemic. Weibo also delivered a non-GAAP operating margin of 32% in the second quarter, which further improved from the first quarter of 2022, as we executed against our efficiency initiatives to optimize costs and expenses, said Weibos CEO Gaofei Wang.

Go here to read the rest:
Earnings Infographic: Highlights of Weibos Q2 2022 results - AlphaStreet

LadBaby, a social media sensation, is said to have been caught on camera fondling the butt of an unidentified lady in a nightclub.

The 35-year-old, whose actual name is Mark Hoyle, has developed a cult-like following on Instagram and TikTok thanks to the family-friendly films he and his wife Roxanne post.

Hoyle seemed to embrace the lady in an 18-second film posted on TikTok this week.

The lady eventually finishes her drink and departs, leaving Hoyle alone himself in the bar.

The videos recording date and location are unknown, and some fans have speculated that the guy in the clip is not Hoyle but rather a doppelganger.

The 35-year-old, whose real name is Mark Hoyle, has gained a cult like following on TikTok and Instagram for the family friendly videos he makes with his wife, Roxanne (pictured together with their two children)

Just three hours ago, the couple shared another lighthearted video on their joint TikTok account, showing Roxanne dancing in activewear and hugging her husband

LadBaby, who has 5.6 million Facebook fans and 3.4 million TikTok followers, rose to stardom with his Christmas songs featuring sausage rolls, which have been at No. 1 for four years.

Despite being removed from the social networking platform for breaking its content policies, the original footage has nevertheless been shared hundreds of times.

If its not him, why did he stop groping the girl when he spotted the camera, wondered one fan?

Another person said: I believe people need to quit passing judgment on a subject they have no knowledge about. Give them space.

We all know Rox would have dropped and booted him out the door by this point, but she is as content as ever, so Im content with that.

Hoyles agents have been contacted by MailOnline for comment.

Hoyle, a former graphic designer, and his 37-year-old fellow YouTuber wife have two kids together. Their kids often appear on their social media accounts.

With his sausage roll-themed Christmas charity tracks, LadBaby has reached Christmas No. 1 for four years. He has 5.6 million Facebook fans and an additional 3.4 million on TikTok.

Link:
LadBaby, a social media sensation, is accused of groping a womans Bottom - TDPel Media

KOLKATA, India, Aug. 30, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hahalolo had the grand opening for the Indian branch office. In this event, Hahalolo announced their development plans for products and brands in the Asia-Pacific and Africa markets, as well as the upgrade plans for the US headquarters in late 2022, with the goal of achieving 25 million users.

As a leading travel social networking application, Hahalolo will face many challenges competing with the giants in the technology field. However, their powerful features can surely help them complete their missions and goals confidently.

A leading all-in-one application in the tourism industry

In the context of globalization, travel is no longer a trend but has become a necessity in life. The current tourism trend has been shaped as multinational associated, which means that associations, organizations, and companies will join hands to be a sustainable industry rather than stand alone.

This means an increasing need for limitless connection without worrying about languages or geographical distance.

Many technology applications for tourism promotion and development have been created to meet such demand. In particular, Hahalolo is considered a leading application on travel social networks in integrating convenient features for users, including OTA Online Travel Agent, social networking, and e-commerce.

This ecosystem makes it easier for travel enthusiasts to book tours, airline tickets, hotels, online shopping, and share their journey experiences. All with just one touch.

High-quality, high-value content

The explosion of social networks raises many concerns for managers and parents when negative and unhealthy contents take over.

As a social network made for travel and real experience, the content on Hahalolo is receiving positive reviews from users. According to Mr. James Dang - CEO of Hahalolo USA, this application has added features to encourage users to create high-quality and high-value content. This way, Hahalolo will become a super app with engaging contents to develop and preserve cultures.

Mr. James Dang - CEO of Hahalolo USA

This brings great benefits to users as they can access a variety of unique and diverse knowledge from cultures, lands, and destinations worldwide.

They can find information and experience for upcoming trips or share personal experiences with others. This platform has all the necessary features of a social network, from creating content to entertainment, sharing, and connecting with people with the same passion.

The "Haha" reactions button on Hahalolo carries a positive message and creates a happy feeling for users.

The opportunity to make money

Unlike other social networking platforms where users can only make money from creating video content, Hahalolo users (Halo -ers) can earn from posting articles and images. Viewers can show appreciation for the articles, photos, and videos by awarding points to the content creators. These points can then be used to pay for OTA and e-commerce services on Hahalolo.

With the cumulative coin mining feature, Halo-ers can earn money by regularly interacting on Hahalolo. New users will receive coins equivalent to 10 USD when creating an account and can receive a daily reward of 1 USD when using the social network. The accumulated coins can also be exchanged for vouchers on Hahalolo for airline tickets, hotel bookings, and tours.

Mr. James Dang affirmed that Hahalolo has a distinct direction for product and brand development. We do not consider existing brands as competitors but gear Hahalolo towards being the common property of everyone, serving many generations, - Mr. James added.

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/729bbba4-16a9-4bc9-934a-ce61549cb41e

See the article here:
Travel social network Hahalolo aims to achieve 25 million users by the end of 2022 - GlobeNewswire

The company behind last summers hot social app Poparazzi appears to be readying a round two following its $15 million Series Aannounced in June. A new listing in the App Store under the developers account, TTYL, is teasing a pre-release app called Made With Friends. The app offers a twist on Poparazzis original concept of social networking profiles crafted by a users friends, instead of by the users themselves, but adds support for other types of content.

Poparazzi had encouraged friends to post photos to each others social networking profiles as if they were their friends paparazzi hence the name. Made With Friends, meanwhile, expands on that concept by asking users to post all sorts of things to their friends profiles including text-based content like answers to questions or prompts, as well as photos and videos.

This Poparazzi spin-off seems partly inspired by todays popular Q&A apps, like Sendit or NGL, which tie into other social networks, like Snapchat and Instagram. On those apps, users receive questions in an inbox that they can answer and share to their social profiles or Stories elsewhere. But in the case of Made With Friends, users arent posting questions anonymously, nor is the app itself delivering fake questions to create engagement as the anonymous Q&A apps had been doing (at least, until Apples App Review team caught on and requested changes to be made).

However, based on some earlier screenshots of the new app, it does appear the Q&A responses in Made With Friends could be designed for social sharing to other platforms, like Instagram.

Image Credits: Made With Friends

TechCrunch reached out to the team behind Poparazzi to ask about its plans for the new app and whether or not this was an attempt to pivot into a new area. The company responded (after publication) to confirm the new app would be released in the fall and noted Poparazzi was continuing to grow. It clarified, through a spokesperson, that Made with Friends was an evolution of Poparazzis Challenges feature from the past summer, where it challenges users to post using a prompt.

But according to data from Apptopia, the Made With Friends app was originally titled Pop Made with Friends, and had described itself as a way you could pop someone by answering questions about them, tagging them on a prompt with a photo, video, GIF, quote or description. The updated version on the App Store today does away with the pop lingo and branding, but introduces the same concept of social profiles that are essentially made by friends.

It makes sense that Poparazzis team is beginning to test new options.

Despite Poparazzis early success, which led the app to top 5 million installs a year after its launch, its since lost ground to a new wave of social networking apps that are attracting a younger, Gen Z audience. Currently, this group is dominated by BeReal, which has been steadily holding onto its position as the No. 1 app on the U.S. iPhone App Store. In addition, younger audiences have also downloaded a range of other social apps in larger numbers than Poparazzi like video networking app Yubo, which counted some 60 million sign-ups as of May, and homescreen social app Locket with around 20 million installs as of its $12.5 million seed funding announcement announced this month.

These trends could be driving TTYL to look for new twists on its friends-focused social networking concept.

This would not be the first time the team at TTYL experimented with a new social networking concept. Before delivering a hit with Poparazzi, the company had developed nearly a dozen other apps, including OMG, CampusFM, TYPO, Lynx, Yearbook 2020 as well as TTYL, the audio social network and Clubhouse rival the companys name references.

As TTYL co-founder Alex Ma explained earlier this summer, most social networking apps fail and the best thing to do is to keep building and experimenting until one works. This multi-app business model has also been adopted by another consumer social app maker, 9count, which recently raised new funding as both Wink and its Gen Z dating app Summer took off.

We noticed TTYL has already begun to market the new app through TikTok influencers as there are posts that show Made With Friends in action, despite its preorder status. One such video was also reposted to the new Made with Friends TikTok profile which teases the app as coming soon.

Its not clear what this additional may mean for Poparazzis future, but its worth noting that TTYLs flagship app has still not made its way to Android.

The App Store shows an expected release date of October 1, 2022 for Made With Friends, which is now available for preorder.

Updated 8/30/22, 4:48 PM ET with responses from TTYL.

Read more:
Following its Series A, Poparazzis team is readying a new social app that goes beyond photos - TechCrunch