article by Cristie Leondis via blackenterprise.com
NEW YORK (AP) — He’s been a rapper, actor, singer, entrepreneur, record producer and clothing designer. Now Sean “Diddy” Combs has taken on a new job as the founder of a charter school in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood.
Combs announced Monday that the new school will be named Capital Preparatory Harlem Charter School and it will open in the fall, according to the Associated Press. The venture has been in the works for five years. The school will be overseen by Capital Prep leader and founder Dr. Steve Perry, who started Capital Prep Magnet School in Hartford, Connecticut, in 2005.
Combs and the board have hired Orlando, Florida-based educator Danita Jones as the principal of Capital Prep Harlem. Combs says creating the school is “a dream come true.” In addition, Combs and Perry have been meeting in secret with community leaders and experts in education to build the program.
The school’s board also includes author and spiritual life coach Dr. Iyanla Vanzant, who has worked with Oprah Winfrey in the past.
According to Capital Preparatory Harlem Charter School’s official website, the school is a free, public school for children grades 6-12. The extensive program will provide a “year-round, college preparatory education.” College courses will also be available to the students once they reach high school.
For the opening year, 160 students are to be enrolled in 6th and 7th grades. The deadline to apply for the upcoming school year is April 1st.
To read more, go to: http://www.blackenterprise.com/news/sean-diddy-combs-launches-charter-school-in-harlem/
Posts published in “Education”
article via thegrio.com
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith are serious about seeing women succeed in Hollywood. The couple just donated $30,000 to New York University’s film school as part of a foundation project designed to help female filmmakers and to finance student television projects.
“Will and Jada Smith have a strong desire and commitment to the education of tomorrow’s storytellers, and we’re thrilled that they have decided to support some of out standout students and programs,” said Joe Pichirallo, chair of Tisch’s undergraduate film and TV department.
The money will go to finance two student-created television pilots and will also go toward the Fusion Film Festival, which supports up to five female filmmakers whose work is submitted to the festival.
article via jbhe.com
The Fund II Foundation of Austin, Texas, has the stated mission “to preserve the African-American experience; safeguard human rights; provide music education; preserve the environment while promoting the benefits of the outdoors; and sustain critical American values such as entrepreneurialism.”
To fulfill its first stated mission the philanthropic organization vows “to share the diverse and stirring stories of people of African descent, we support organizations that illuminate the richness of Black history and culture.”
Now the Fund II Foundation has teamed up with the United Negro College Fund to establish a new scholarship program to help African American students seeking careers in STEM fields. Over the next five years, The Fund II Foundation UNCF STEM Scholars Program will identify 500 African American high school students who are determined to pursue careers in STEM fields. These students will receive scholarships, internships, mentoring, and other tools to help them reach their goals. The Fund II Foundation is contributing $48 million for the STEM Scholars Program.
article via jbhe.com
The Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, D.C., has named Camille A. Nelson as its next dean. She will become dean on July 25.
Professor Nelson was dean of the Suffolk University Law School in Boston from 2010 to 2015. She continues to teach at the law school. Before joining the faculty at Suffolk University, Professor Nelson taught for nearly a decade at the Saint Louis University School of Law. Before entering the academic world, she was a clerk for the Supreme Court of Canada. She was the first Black woman to clerk for Canada’s highest court.
A native of Jamaica, Professor Nelson is a graduate of the University of Toronto and earned a law degree at the University of Ottawa. She also holds a master’s degree in law from Columbia University.
Many Black and Hispanic male students in Baltimore County schools need help navigating their way to a high school diploma. That’s why school officials are launching a minority male mentoring program, according to WBAL-TV.
“In grades seven to 12, 40 percent of our African-American students, male students in general, and 31 percent of our Hispanic males have been suspended, compared to 23 percent of their white male counterparts,”Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Dallas Dance highlighted at a luncheon with community stakeholders and educators, WBAL-TV reports.
The news station said some educators at the event expressed support:
“He talked about the mentoring program that we all know is so needed. I’m excited to see where that’s going to go and how we help these kids,” stated teacher Rachel Pfister.
The superintendent underscored that the program requires public and private funding to get off the ground. WBAL-TV reported that local taxpayers are contributing almost $500 million.
Baltimore County’s business community supported student programs in the past, and Dance hopes they continue to pitch in. Commenting after the announcement, businessman Leon Hobson gave a thumbs-up to the mentoring program and told WBAL-TV:
“That’s a major thing, that’s very important, absolutely, because we need to have a little bit more of that, so I was very excited to see that happen.”
Dance also announced a plan to assist the influx of English-learner students–about 5,000 of them since 2006. The school district is considering plans to establish a high school for them that focuses on college and career preparation.
SOURCE: WBAL-TV | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty | VIDEO SOURCE: Inform
“In grades seven to 12, 40 percent of our African-American students, male students in general, and 31 percent of our Hispanic males have been suspended, compared to 23 percent of their white male counterparts,”Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Dallas Dance highlighted at a luncheon with community stakeholders and educators, WBAL-TV reports.
The news station said some educators at the event expressed support:
“He talked about the mentoring program that we all know is so needed. I’m excited to see where that’s going to go and how we help these kids,” stated teacher Rachel Pfister.
The superintendent underscored that the program requires public and private funding to get off the ground. WBAL-TV reported that local taxpayers are contributing almost $500 million.
Baltimore County’s business community supported student programs in the past, and Dance hopes they continue to pitch in. Commenting after the announcement, businessman Leon Hobson gave a thumbs-up to the mentoring program and told WBAL-TV:
“That’s a major thing, that’s very important, absolutely, because we need to have a little bit more of that, so I was very excited to see that happen.”
Dance also announced a plan to assist the influx of English-learner students–about 5,000 of them since 2006. The school district is considering plans to establish a high school for them that focuses on college and career preparation.
SOURCE: WBAL-TV | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty | VIDEO SOURCE: Inform
article by Tommy G. Meade Jr. via hbcubuzz.com
Wiley College officially announced early Sunday that “Beyond the Lights” and “The Great Debaters” actor Nate Parker, who is also a director, producer, writer and musical performer, is starting a film and drama school there to help empower young people in East Texas and across the country.
(The film The Great Debaters depicts the black college debate team beating Harvard College in the 1930s, though, the team actually didn’t face off against Harvard. At the time, historically black Wiley College was David and University of Southern California was Goliath, and indeed David defeated Goliath in this matchup.)
KLTV reported on Friday that Nate Parker has been keeping tabs on the black college and “even using their a capella choir for the soundtrack of his film The Birth of a Nation,” as well as announcing his election to the college board of trustees, in which Parker said he’s “honored” to serve at the position.
Now when exactly does classes begin? Here’s what we know:
- The first classes for the Nate Parker School of Film and Drama will be held in the fall.
- Before that though, about 30 high school and college students, after being picked, will have the opportunity to join a nine day summer institute as a pilot program for the school.
- In addition, ten current seniors at the black college have already been picked to serve at the institute this summer as staff.
But those are short-term goals for the school. Nate Parker also wants to “bring Hollywood back to East Texas” and to “create a pipeline toward filmmaking physically through developing the college, having filmmakers be nurtured and cultivated here, and then having somewhere for them to go with respect for them actually being able to engage in filmmaking here in East Texas, then it kind of serves multiple purposes,” he said.
“You control the moving picture, you control the masses. So really getting them rallied around the idea of re-claiming the narrative of America, specifically through the eyes of people of color,” Parker said.
article via jbhe.com
The University of Cincinnati has announced that it has created the Provost Graduate Fellowship that will provide financial aid for students from underrepresented minority groups in the university’s graduate programs. The new program will provide a three-year, $25,000 fellowship that include free tuition for doctoral studies at the university.
Beverly Davenport, provost at the University of Cincinnati, stated that “as the chief academic officer of the university, I want to invest in graduate education. There are a whole host of academic issues that I could invest in, and I try to choose the ones that need the most support. There was a void at the university level for these types of fellowships, so I wanted to fill that. Your budget should follow your values.”
Dr. Davenport added her reasons for funding fellowships for minority students because “diversity adds value in every way. It brings a broader array of perspectives and intellectual contributions. It also changes the questions we ask, the ways in which we approach them, the creative endeavors we produce, and the results of our work. We cannot solve the world’s great challenges if we continue to sit at the table with people trained exactly the way we were.”
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 Kenrya Rankin via colorlines.com
A new study from the American Council on Education says that student-led protests are having an impact on college and university campuses across the country.
“Racial Climate on Campus: A Survey of College Presidents” anonymously surveyed 567 college and university presidents to uncover how they feel student activism is changing the way students and faculty alike address race-related issues.
The results show that students at nearly half (47 percent) of the four-year institutions surveyed have organized around racial diversity concerns. And 75 percent of the folks presiding over four-year programs say that campus events related to Black Lives Matter, immigration and Islamaphobia have increased the racial dialogue at their school. That number drops to 62 percent for two-year schools.
While one president reportedly wrote: “The national issues have manifested at my campus as a genuine focus on eliminating the disparity in student academic achievement by ethnicity and on being more proactive in diversifying the faculty,” the increase in conversation has only lead to modest administrative action.
On four-year campuses, just 55 percent of presidents said that the racial climate has become more of a priority, and 1 percent said its importance has actually decreased. Just 44 percent of leaders on two-year college campuses feel that it is more important now than three years ago.
A new study from the American Council on Education says that student-led protests are having an impact on college and university campuses across the country.
“Racial Climate on Campus: A Survey of College Presidents” anonymously surveyed 567 college and university presidents to uncover how they feel student activism is changing the way students and faculty alike address race-related issues.
The results show that students at nearly half (47 percent) of the four-year institutions surveyed have organized around racial diversity concerns. And 75 percent of the folks presiding over four-year programs say that campus events related to Black Lives Matter, immigration and Islamaphobia have increased the racial dialogue at their school. That number drops to 62 percent for two-year schools.
While one president reportedly wrote: “The national issues have manifested at my campus as a genuine focus on eliminating the disparity in student academic achievement by ethnicity and on being more proactive in diversifying the faculty,” the increase in conversation has only lead to modest administrative action.
On four-year campuses, just 55 percent of presidents said that the racial climate has become more of a priority, and 1 percent said its importance has actually decreased. Just 44 percent of leaders on two-year college campuses feel that it is more important now than three years ago.
article by Alana Vaggianos via huffingtonpost.com
As a follow up to her #62MillionGirls social media campaign, First Lady Michelle Obama is encouraging people to take the Change.Org 62 Million Girls pledge to help support more girls in school. Obama announced the pledge in an essay featured in Wednesday morning’s Lenny Letter just hours before she took the stage for her SXSW keynote event in Austin.
“So often when people talk about the issue of global girls’ education, they dive right into the policy weeds,” Obama began her essay. And while policy is important, the First Lady explained why experience is just as integral to the conversation.
“It’s also very much about attitudes and beliefs,” Obama wrote. “The belief that girls should be valued for their bodies, not their minds; the belief that girls simply aren’t worthy of an education, and their best chance in life is to be married off when they’re barely even teenagers and start having children of their own.”
Obama explained that the issue is personal to her because she’s met many of these young girls while traveling as First Lady. “They are so smart and hardworking, and so hungry for an education,” she wrote. “I’ve met girls who make long, dangerous journeys each day to school and then come home and study for hours each night. I’ve met girls studying at rickety desks in bare concrete classrooms who are raising their hands so hard they’re almost falling out of their chairs.”
Big stars like Kelly Clarkson, Janelle Monae, Missy Elliot and more have already signed the 62 Million Girls pledge. Obama commissioned the artists to create a song about women’s empowerment titled “This Is For My Girls,” produced by MAKERS, AOL’s digital platform that highlights women’s stories.
To Preview “This Is For My Girls”: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/this-is-for-my-girls-single/id1093266044