article by Michael Cavna via washingtonpost.com
JUST LAST month, Akilah Johnson was “surprised and overwhelmed” when she learned that she was a national finalist in the “Doodle 4 Google” contest for grade-schoolers.
Akilah, a sophomore at Eastern Senior High School in Northeast Washington, has just been named Google’s big winner in the national contest, topping the 53 state and territory champions, whose work had been culled from about 100,000 student entries.
“It is really overwhelming,” Akilah tells The Post’s Comic Riffs, minutes after receiving the news Monday during a ceremony at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. “I was so excited, I started crying,” Akilah says. “I didn’t even look at anybody — I was just looking at the framed copy [of the Doodle] they gave me.”
Akilah is the contest’s first winner from Washington, as D.C. was not eligible to enter the states-only competition in past years. (The Post’s Comic Riffs had joined the chorus of voices urging that the District be included.)
This year’s contest theme was: “What makes me…me.” Akilah drew a box-braided Doodle titled “My Afrocentric Life,” using color pencils, black crayons and Sharpie markers. The Doodle includes symbols of black heritage and signs representing the Black Lives Matter movement. “Although it felt like forever making this picture, it only took me about two weeks,” Akilah told Comic Riffs last month.
Posts published in “Commemorations”
article via jbhe.com
In December, a JBHE post noted that Duke University was contemplating how to best honor the memory of Julian Abele. A Philadelphia-based architect, Abele designed many of the Gothic buildings on the campus of Duke University.
But because of his race, the university did not originally celebrate the architect of many of its most important structures. Abele died in 1950 having never visited the Duke campus where he had played such an important role. Abele’s role in designing the Duke campus did not become widely known until 1988. That year the university hung a portrait of Adele in the main administration building and another portrait was placed in the Rubenstein Library.
But now the university has announced that the main quadrangle with the university’s initial academic and residential buildings will be named Abele Quad. A plaque will be placed at the center of the Quad. In addition, a plaque honoring Abele will be placed in Duke Chapel. The university also announced that it will purchase the rights to the mural “Shadow and Light (for Julian Francis Abele).” The mural will become part of the permanent collection at Duke’s Nasher Museum of Art.
A video exploring Abele’s contributions to Duke University can be seen below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVaocXBb9p8&w=560&h=315]
article by Emma Brown via washingtonpost.com
The Senate voted on Monday to confirm John King Jr. as U.S. Education Secretary, a move that shows that education has become a rare issue on which a polarized Washington can reach bipartisan compromise.
Seven Republicans joined Democrats in voting 49 to 40 in favor of King’s confirmation at a time when key GOP senators are refusing to even consider an Obama nominee to the Supreme Court.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) — chairman of the education committee who previously served as education secretary under President George H.W. Bush — urged his colleagues to confirm King, arguing that the education department needs a leader who can be held to account as the nation implements a sweeping new education law that replaced the long-maligned No Child Left Behind.
“This vote is not about whether one of us would have chosen Dr. King to be the education secretary. Republicans won’t have the privilege of picking an education secretary until we elect the president of the United States,” Alexander said Monday, 25 years to the day after his own Senate confirmation. “We need a United States Education Secretary confirmed by and accountable to the United States Senate so that the law to fix No Child Left Behind will be implemented the way Congress wrote it.”
King, 41, has been serving as acting secretary since his predecessor Arne Duncan stepped down at the end of 2015. A former teacher, principal and charter-school founder, he led New York’s state education department from 2011 until 2014, when he joined the U.S. Education Department.
article by Maeve McDermott via usatoday.com
Before last year, Kennedy Center hosting hip hop shows seemed like an unlikely prospect.
But after hosting Kendrick Lamar’s sold-out performance with the National Symphony Orchestra last year, the center’s 2016 season includes its first hip hop culture series, bringing on rapper and producer Q-Tip as their first artistic director of hip hop.
The social justice-oriented rapper is best known as a founding member of the seminal hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, and has worked with many of music’s biggest names, including Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, the Beastie Boys, Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige and Pharrell Williams.
The Kennedy Center, which celebrates John F. Kennedy’s 100th birthday this year, announced details of six events celebrating different facets of hip hop culture, including a poetry slam, a teach-in and a dance competition. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and soprano Renee Fleming were also appointed at-large artistic advisers for the 2016-2017 season, according to the AP.
“This new programmatic platform recognizes Hip Hop’s contributions to global culture and its role in promoting values such as courage, freedom, justice, and service,” the center announced in a release.
To read more, go to: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2016/03/08/q-tip-named-kennedy-center-first-hip-hop-director/81485882/
article by Rachel Axon via usatoday.com
NEWARK, N.J. – The world championships silver medal should have been enough to erase any doubt in Gabby Douglas’ comeback.
Yes, the reigning Olympic all-around gold medalist is trying to do what has been a sometimes insurmountable task for many talented gymnasts – come back for a second Olympics. And Douglas isn’t coming back for some sort of participation ribbon.
But in case any doubts lingered, she put more to rest on Saturday. Now 20, Douglas wants to achieve more in the Olympics. She set herself on that path by winning the American Cup at the Prudential Center, earning her first trip to the top of the podium since winning the Olympic all-around in London in 2012.
“From the bottom of my heart, I really believe that I can achieve more,” Douglas said. “And it’s just not for the wrong intentions. I’m like, ‘Guys, I’m back. I’m serious.’ I feel like gradually and the more and more I keep proving that, I really hope that people believe it.”
To be sure, part of those doubts are the challenge. Since 1980, only six American women have gone on to compete in a second Olympics. No woman has repeated as gold medalist since Věra Čáslavská in 1968.
Douglas hears the doubts about her and whether the comeback is for publicity. It’s not, or she wouldn’t be able to sustain herself through training. Instead, she has the incredible urge former national team coordinator Bela Karolyi has seen in many other Olympians.
article via jbhe.com
Alec Gallimore was named the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering at the University of Michigan, effective July 1. He is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and the Richard F. and Eleanor A. Towner Professor of Engineering. He also is serving as associate dean for academic affairs.
Professor Gallimore joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 1992 as an assistant professor of aerospace engineering. He was promoted to full professor in 2004. Dr. Gallimore is the founder of the university’s Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory. Also, he is the director of the Michigan Space Grant Consortium, funded by NASA and the director of the Michigan/Air Force Center of Excellence in Electric Propulsion.
To read more, go to: https://www.jbhe.com/2016/02/alec-gallimore-named-dean-of-engineering-at-the-university-of-michigan/
article by Nigel Roberts via newsone.com
Some 15,000 guests joined Teach For America at its Washington, D.C. gathering in February to celebrate the organization’s quarter-century anniversary. On this milestone, the group’s army of teachers, alumni, and allies – now numbering 50,000 – commemorated the past, but fixed their eyes on the future.
At the top of TFA’s agenda going forward is recruiting teachers of color to meet the needs of the nation’s exploding Latino student population and African-American pupils who are struggling to close the academic achievement gap.
The ballooning growth of Latinos and the simultaneous decline of the White population have resulted in a significant demographic shift among students. The 2014 – 2015 academic year marked the first time that minority schoolchildren—Latino, African-American, and Asian—outnumbered their White counterparts, Education Week reported.
However, the teaching force has failed to keep pace with this major shift. According to U.S. News, only 17 percent of educators are people of color.
The problem, according to numerous studies, is that minority students perform academically better under the guidance of teachers of their own race or ethnicity.
A study reported by the Washington Post states:
“We find that the performance gap in terms of class dropout and pass rates between white and minority students falls by roughly half when taught by a minority instructor. In models that allow for a full set of ethnic and racial interactions between students and instructors, we find African-American students perform particularly better when taught by African-American instructors.”
Why do minority students tend to perform better with teachers who look like them? The study reported in U.S. News says teachers of color are often better motivated to teach in racially segregated, poor schools. What’s more, they typically have higher academic expectations of their pupils and better understand their culture.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)
According to billboard.com, the late Marvin Gaye and Chic principles Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards (who died in 1996) are among the artists chosen to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 9 in New York City. Joining them will be Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, and 1960s hitmaker Chip Taylor.
The new inductees wrote such iconic songs as “What’s Going On,” “Mercy Mercy Me,” “Le Freak,” “Good Times,” “Wild Thing,” “American Girl,” “Everyday I Write The Book,” and many, many more.
“The 2016 roster of Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees is a beautiful mosaic of the best of late 20th Century popular music. With creators of Rock & Roll, Soul/R&B, Country and Funk/Dance represented, we are looking forward to an unforgettable and extremely exciting event and evening at the Marriott Marquis on June 9th,” said co-chairs Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff, who are serving their first year in that role.
The hall’s 47th Annual Induction and Awards Dinner will take place at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. Gaye and Edwards will be inducted posthumously.
The board of trustees of the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, has chosen Dr. Isiaah Crawford as the fourteenth president of the university. He will take office on July 1.
According to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Education, the University of Puget Sound enrolls about 2,500 undergraduate students and 300 graduate students. African Americans make up one percent of the undergraduate student body.
Dr. Crawford currently serves as provost of Seattle University. He has served in that role since 2008. Previously, Dr. Crawford served on the faculty at Loyola University in Chicago for more than 20 years. He held positions as chair of the psychology department and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
In accepting the role of the next president of the University of Puget Sound, Dr. Crawford stated that “I am humbled and excited by the opportunity to serve Puget Sound. It is a vibrant institution with a deep sense of community and place — it’s clear that Puget Sound looks not only to educate its students but to shape their abilities to look outside of themselves to find ways to use their education to make a difference in the world. The college is extraordinarily well-positioned to build on its accomplishments, seek continuous improvement, and attain its next level of distinction in fulfillment of its mission as a national liberal arts college.”
To read more, go to: https://www.jbhe.com/2016/02/the-next-president-of-the-university-of-puget-sound-in-tacoma-washington/
article by Mark Lelinwalla via bet.com
For the second straight year, Michael Jordan was named to Forbes‘ World’s Billionaires list, with a net worth valued at $1.14 billion.
The value makes MJ the 1,577th richest person in the world and 486th richest in the United States. That’s up nearly 200 spots from the 1,741st worldwide ranking that Jordan had on last year’s list, which marked his debut on Forbes‘ World’s Billionaires list in 2015. What makes his place all the more special is Jordan is the lone current or former athlete on the prestigious list.
Jordan’s 90 percent ownership share of the Charlotte Hornets accounts for about $500 million of his assets, while his Air Jordan line with Nike continues to thrive in the sneaker market with 32 years in the game.
Carmelo Anthony, whose sneakers are designed by the Jordan Brand, couldn’t be prouder of his mentor.
“It makes me proud. Yeah, it does,” Melo told ESPN. “I remember getting there and seeing where the business was then. I remember sitting in the airport in 2006, coming from the world championship, and I remember when the brand had just hit a billion, and to see where it’s at right now — [nearly $3 billion in sales] — that’s a lot. That’s a lot of growth to be a part of.”
To read more, go to: http://www.bet.com/news/sports/2016/3/03/michael-jordan-makes-forbes–prestigious-list-again.html