article via jbhe.com
Estella Atekwana, Regents Professor and director of the Boone Pickens School of Geology at Oklahoma State University, received the Outstanding Educator Award from the Society of Exploration Geophysicists. Professor Atekwana joined the faculty at Oklahoma State in 2008.
Dr. Atekwana holds bachelor’s and master’s degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She earned a Ph.D. at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Nikki Giovanni, University Distinguished Professor of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, has been selected to receive the 2016 Literary Lifetime Achievement Award from the Library of Virginia.
She is the author of many collections of poetry, children’s books, and works of nonfiction. Professor Giovanni will be honored at ceremonies in Richmond in October. Past winners of this award include Edgar Allan Poe, Tom Wolfe, Booker T. Washington, and John Grisham.
Professor Giovanni has been teaching at Virginia Tech since 1987. She is a graduate of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Posts published in “Education”
Destyni Tyree was living in a homeless shelter in Washington, D.C., when the 14-year-old girl enrolled in Roosevelt S.T.A.Y. High School. Two years later, she graduated with a 4.0 GPA, was appointed captain of the school’s cheerleading squad and voted prom queen — all while working a 25-hour per week job.
What’s more, she has secured a full scholarship to Potomac State College of West Virginia University and will continue her education in August. Her next stop after college is surely world domination.
The principal of Roosevelt S.T.A.Y., Eugenia Young, told ABC that Tyre is “a joy to be around, she has a good heart.” She continued to call Tyree a “bubbly person” and a “phenomal student.”
For Tyree, the hard life that she grew up in only served as motivation to secure academic success. “Quite frankly, I’m just ready to go and live life,” she said in an interview with ABC. “I know there’s a better life out there for me. It gets better. If you work hard enough, if you have that drive, if you have that motivation, it gets a lot better.” She continued to describe how she was able to achieve so much in such little time, saying, “I just time managed. I just wake up and do what I gotta do.”
What’s more, she has secured a full scholarship to Potomac State College of West Virginia University and will continue her education in August. Her next stop after college is surely world domination.
The principal of Roosevelt S.T.A.Y., Eugenia Young, told ABC that Tyre is “a joy to be around, she has a good heart.” She continued to call Tyree a “bubbly person” and a “phenomal student.”
For Tyree, the hard life that she grew up in only served as motivation to secure academic success. “Quite frankly, I’m just ready to go and live life,” she said in an interview with ABC. “I know there’s a better life out there for me. It gets better. If you work hard enough, if you have that drive, if you have that motivation, it gets a lot better.” She continued to describe how she was able to achieve so much in such little time, saying, “I just time managed. I just wake up and do what I gotta do.”
article by Brennan Williams via huffingtonpost.com
Hip-hop artist Big Sean wants to “Change the World” by helping to alleviate student homelessness.
On behalf of his Sean Anderson Foundation, the Detroit-native has committed $25,000 to Wayne State University’s HIGH (Helping Individuals Go Higher) program to provide “short-term support” to students who struggle to meet the needs of foods, shelter and childcare, according to the school’s website.
“We see the HIGH Program as an important component of ensuring success at Wayne State, and we are proud to help strengthen its mission,” Myra Anderson, president of the Sean Anderson Foundation and Sean’s mother, said in a press release. “We aim to boost graduation rates at the university by providing support to students facing hardship.”
Founded in 2013 by Wayne State’s first lady, Jacqueline Wilson, the program aims to provide students with financial and education assistance and return participants to long-term stability. Wilson stated in the release that the foundation’s investment in the program shows “their commitment to assisting those in need.”
“With this gift, we will be able to help Wayne State students who are experiencing homelessness work toward a brighter future,” she added.
Sean’s latest benevolent act to his home state comes on the heels of his recent #HealFlintKids campaign to aid victims of Flint’s water crisis, and the foundation’s first annual “Uplifting Our Youth“ scholarship fundraiser in 2015.
For more info on Wayne State University’s HIGH program click here.
On behalf of his Sean Anderson Foundation, the Detroit-native has committed $25,000 to Wayne State University’s HIGH (Helping Individuals Go Higher) program to provide “short-term support” to students who struggle to meet the needs of foods, shelter and childcare, according to the school’s website.
“We see the HIGH Program as an important component of ensuring success at Wayne State, and we are proud to help strengthen its mission,” Myra Anderson, president of the Sean Anderson Foundation and Sean’s mother, said in a press release. “We aim to boost graduation rates at the university by providing support to students facing hardship.”
Founded in 2013 by Wayne State’s first lady, Jacqueline Wilson, the program aims to provide students with financial and education assistance and return participants to long-term stability. Wilson stated in the release that the foundation’s investment in the program shows “their commitment to assisting those in need.”
“With this gift, we will be able to help Wayne State students who are experiencing homelessness work toward a brighter future,” she added.
Sean’s latest benevolent act to his home state comes on the heels of his recent #HealFlintKids campaign to aid victims of Flint’s water crisis, and the foundation’s first annual “Uplifting Our Youth“ scholarship fundraiser in 2015.
For more info on Wayne State University’s HIGH program click here.
article via ebony.com
Since hanging up his signature sneakers, basketball legend Michael Jordan has been focusing his attention on conquering the business world. And it’s worked.
Back in 2015, the NBA Hall of Famer joined the billionaires club, thanks to his investment in the Charlotte Hornets. Today, Jordan owns approximately 90 percent of the franchise, and his lucrative deals with Nike, Hanes, and Gatorade continue to pay hefty dividends years after he retired from the league.
Monday, Jordan announced he—along with corporate donors like Bank of America and Lowe’s—are investing $500,000 into the community that supports his team.
“When I took over majority control of the team, one of the biggest impacts I wanted…was to reconnect back to the community,” Jordan said on Monday during the team’s annual day of community service. “I felt (that connection) was lost a little bit with the previous ownership, and I felt it was very important.”
Jordan continued: “Six years later, here we are…I am very proud of the commitment of the organization to the community. My dedication, my drive, is to continue to connect with this community.”
Since taking over as majority owner of the Hornets from BET founder Robert Johnson, Jordan and the team have invested more than $3 million into the community. In 2010, he donated $250,000 to save Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ middle school sports programs, and now he’s turning his attention to literacy.
According to the Charlotte Observer, the $500,000 investment will include funding for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library Foundation, Freedom School Partners, Child Care Resources Inc., and CrossRoads Corp. Jordan and the team also plan to help build 18 libraries around the city and donate thousands of books.
Read more at EBONY http://www.ebony.com/entertainment-culture/michael-jordan-giving-back#ixzz4CGroSh9a
article by Katie Kim via nbcchicago.com
The families of Urban Prep Academy‘s 2016 graduating class shared a proud moment at the school’s commencement on Saturday. But this ceremony had a special meaning, as school administrators say all 252 graduating seniors have been accepted into a four-year college or university.
“I’m so excited. I’m going to get emotional,” said proud mom Ebony Muhammad.
The graduating seniors are all African-American males from the charter school’s Englewood, West, and Bronzeville campuses. The class of 2016 is carrying on a tradition, as every single Urban Prep graduate since 2010 has been accepted into four-year colleges and universities.
“It’s like a dream come true. I’ve been waiting on this a long time,” one student said.
Graduating senior Rudolph Long said he’s the first in his family to not only graduate high school, but to go on to college. And the young man from Auburn Gresham is doing so on a full-ride scholarship. “I don’t think it’ll ever sink in. It hasn’t, but it just means that I’m changing the narrative for people not only from my family, but for African-Americans as a whole,” Long said.
Juwaun Cooper-Muhammad is going to Georgetown University in the fall. “Urban Prep was the best thing that ever happened to me, along with my mother,” Cooper-Muhammad said. “We’re breaking barriers and this is a moment that I’m going to remember for the rest of my life.”
No one is more proud of Juwaun than his mother. “I was a teen mom and it makes me know that we can jump over these hurdles,” Ebony Muhammad said, choking back tears. “These obstacles that were in our way, we were able to do it.”
To add to the joy of the celebration, the seniors were awarded more than $11 million combined in scholarships to help pay for their tuition.
And these students say that this milestone is just the beginning.
“I just want to give back to whole city really, for making me who I am today,” Long added.
Source: Chicago High School Celebrates 100 Percent College Acceptance Rate | NBC Chicago http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Chicago-High-School-Celebrates-100-Percent-College-Acceptance-Rate-381905451.html#ixzz4Bf0oWiuc
article by Rachel L. Swarns via nytimes.com
More than a century after Georgetown University used some of the profits from the sale of 272 enslaved African-Americans to help ensure its survival, John J. DeGioia, the university’s president, took a first step on Monday toward making amends to their descendants.
He walked into the public library in Spokane, Wash., for a private meeting with Patricia Bayonne-Johnson, a great-great-great granddaughter of Nace and Biby Butler, two of the enslaved persons who were sold in 1838 to help keep the college afloat.
The 45-minute meeting, which was followed by a lunch at the nearby Davenport Hotel, may well have been a historic one.
More than a dozen universities have recognized their ties to slavery and the slave trade. But historians say they believe this is the first time that the president of an elite university has met with the descendants of slaves who had labored on a college campus or were sold to benefit one. “I came to listen and to learn,” Mr. DeGioia said in an interview, describing the discussion as “moving and inspiring.”
Ms. Bayonne-Johnson, an amateur genealogist and retired teacher, said she believed Mr. DeGioia was willing to take necessary steps “to honor the sacrifice and legacy” of her ancestors. “He asked what could he do and how could he help,” she said in an interview. “It was a very good beginning.”
The meeting comes as officials at Georgetown continue to grapple with how to address the college’s complicity in the slave sale. The slaves, who were owned by the Jesuit priests who founded and ran the college, were sold for about $3.3 million in today’s dollars.
article by Stephen A. Crockett Jr. via theroot.com
When 17-year-old Kevuntez King was just a preteen, he decided that not only was he going to college, but his mother, a single parent, wasn’t going to pay for it. “She just taught me how to be independent like she had it, [and] she just wanted me to go get it myself,” Kevuntez told Fox 13.
So, at the age of 12, Kevuntez got a job selling papers at a downtown Memphis, Tennessee intersection, and for five years he worked that job, saving the money he made. “When it came down to school, my mom didn’t have to come out of pocket to do anything or I didn’t have to take out any loans to go to school,” Kevuntez told Fox 13.
Making around $200 a week, Kevuntez reached his goal, earning enough money to pay all of his tuition at Tennessee State University, where he will study physical therapy.
Kevuntez says he knows that what he’s accomplished is just the tip of the iceberg, and he has advice for anyone who feels that life can be challenging: “Make sure you surround yourself with people that’s trying to go up in life and not trying to bring you down. Just stay positive and always believe in yourself and push for it.”
Read more at Fox 13.
article via jbhe.com
Shalisha and Shonda Witherspoon are identical twins. They dress alike every day and both recently graduated from the College of Engineering and Computing at Florida International University in Miami. They also had identical grade point averages of 3.95, which was the best GPA of any graduating student in the College of Engineering and Computing. The sisters also earned minor degrees in Japanese language and literature.
The sisters will stay on at FIU to pursue master’s degrees and to work as graduate assistants for Professor Naphtali Rishe in the High Performance Database Research Center.
Professor Rishe stated that “those two ladies are extraordinarily responsible. They are very smart, they have great attention to detail, they are always reliable. Any project they are asked to do, it’s done perfectly. They are experts in geographic data analytics. They manipulate very large big data sets, and they have excelled. They have a great career path in front of them.”
The sisters’ ultimate goal is to move to Japan and start their own software engineering business together.
article by Breanna Edwards via theroot.com
When Michael Tertsea was 14, he was offered the opportunity to get an education and play basketball at the John Carroll School in Bel Air, Maryland. To pursue his dreams, he left his village in Nigeria and his mother, the Washington Post reports.
Four years later, the towering 6-foot-10 teen, who has received a full scholarship to play Division 1 basketball at the University of Rhode Island, was set for graduation and holding on to hopes of making it to the NBA so that he would be able to bring his mother to the United States.
As it turns out, Tertsea’s classmates were one step ahead of him. They had decided that his mom, Felicia Ikpum, should be here for his big day and raised money to fly her all the way to the U.S. to see her son, whom she hasn’t seen in four years, graduate.
According to the Post, the amazing gesture was meant to be a surprise, but Ikpum let the secret slip in one of her weekly phone calls with her son. However, Tertsea was still in awe when he finally got to see her arrive at the Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on May 20 and give her a hug.
“I was so happy to see her,” Tertsea said. “I’ve changed a lot … she’s been amazed at the person I’ve become.”
The senior class had successfully pulled together some $1,600 for the trip, while a school coordinator worked with Ikpum to make sure she could get her visa on time. When it was finally confirmed, the school’s faculty put up another $500 to pay for the trip.
According to the Post, Ikpum had to travel some 12 hours to Lagos, Nigeria, to board her flight to London, from where she would then fly to Baltimore. It was Ikpum’s first time on an airplane.
Mother and son have been enjoying each other’s company since her arrival last week, the Post reports. Ikpum had pasta for the first time and is in awe of her son’s life in the U.S., from the paved highways to the computerized school her son attends. Tertsea plans to take her to Washington, D.C., to see the monuments and the White House before she returns to Nigeria next week. He also plans to take her to Ocean City, Md., to walk the boardwalk and see the beach, and even to Baltimore to see the National Aquarium.
Tertsea, according to the Post, is thankful for his friends for making his graduation so special. He said that the best part of his life in the U.S. is “seeing a lot of people who show love and care towards me.”
To read more and see video, go to: http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/05/classmates-pay-for-teens-mom-to-fly-from-nigeria-to-baltimore-to-attend-his-graduation/?utm_content=buffera63eb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer