‘Anything can come out of Danville’

Danville: Dec. 28—”Anything can come out of Danville,” Aarian Forman said, and he knows what he’s talking about.

He and fellow DHS grad Brandon Yates just made it onto Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list for 2025. How cool is that?

Forman mentioned, “This shows younger kids that you can be recognized internationally for your work, even if you’re from Danville.” It’s a big deal!

He credits a former teacher, Thea Dodd, for pushing him to aim high. She told him to apply to six colleges before the quarter ended, and he did just that.

After getting accepted to several schools, he chose Tennessee State University, where he found his love for student government.

“It really lit a fire in me,” he said. “I loved leading and seeing how my actions impacted people.”

After earning his degrees, Forman co-founded Xceleader in 2018, a non-profit aimed at inspiring Black student leaders at historically Black colleges and universities.

Since then, they’ve helped over 8,000 students and raised a million dollars—pretty impressive for a non-profit!

When students join, they work in small groups, meeting weekly and tackling real-world skills that will help them in the future.

“It’s not just about leadership; it’s about human development,” Forman explained. “We want to create world-class citizens and change-makers.”

This year, they even held a 10-city tour, registering over a thousand students to vote to boost civic engagement.

Meanwhile, Yates and his co-founder, Anshul Shah, were busy making sidewalks more accessible for people with disabilities.

After getting his Civil Engineering degree, Yates wanted to improve city life but didn’t know where to start. So, he interviewed city engineers to find out what challenges they faced.

“ADA-compliant city planning kept coming up,” he said, which led them to start DeepWalk ADA Solutions.

They assumed city engineers wanted to help but faced huge costs to fix accessibility issues. So, they created a robot to assess sidewalks.

Eventually, this evolved into a 3D modeling software that helps city engineers identify accessibility problems.

“Danville was our first customer!” Yates said, grinning. They piloted their tech right there, which was a proud moment.

After a tough economic year in 2022, they bounced back and expanded to Chicago.

Now, over 70 cities use DeepWalk to enhance accessibility, and they’ve grown their team to 12 full-time employees.

Yates is passionate about helping those in the disability advocacy space, saying, “They need the right tools to do their important work.”

Like Forman, Yates feels his success is tied to growing up in Danville. “Our organizations wouldn’t have come from anywhere else,” he said.

Both were nominated for their respective categories before getting the big news months later.

“I thought I hadn’t made it,” Forman laughed, and Yates felt the same.

When they found out they made the list, they were invited to a networking event in New York City. Forman couldn’t go, but Yates said it was a great chance to connect.

While there’s no trophy for making the list, the visibility is priceless.

“Our network was mostly U.S.-based, but after I posted about it on LinkedIn, it blew up,” Yates said. “It really helped with exposure.”

As 2025 approaches, both are looking ahead.

Yates plans to enhance their software for building entrances and parking spaces, while Forman hopes to expand Xceleader globally.

“Think about all the greats from Danville, like Dick Van Dyke. Who would expect that?” Forman said. “It’s humbling, and I’m honored, but I still feel like just a kid from Danville.”