The second annual “Daddy Daughter Dance” was held in Chicago over the weekend, and the event sponsored by the Chicago Police Department proved to be a success.
The event, which was held at the South Shore Cultural Center, matched up Chicago police officers with girls who don’t have fathers in their lives. Also in attendance were officers and their own daughters.
“After last year’s event, we had several officers and the young ladies that they escorted, they kept up with one another and it really bridged a gap,” said Sgt. Kimberly Woods. “It let the girls know that officers are just people too and we dance, and we dance funny like your dads do.”
The Chicago Police Department and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives planned the dance to encourage healthy relationships between daughters and their fathers.
Elaine Welteroth poses for a photo during Spring 2016 New York Fashion Week, Sept. 14, 2015, in New York City. (ROBIN MARCHANT/GETTY IMAGES) article by Angela Bronner Helm via theroot.com Elaine Welteroth, who made headlines when she became Teen Vogue’s first African American beauty director, has been made the title’s new editor-in-chief.
She will be the youngest editor in the company’s 107-year history. She is also the second black woman named to head a Conde Nast book; Keija Minor has been at the helm of Brides magazine since 2012. According to her Linkedin profile, Welteroth, 29, has held editorial positions at Glamour and Ebony magazines, and has been at Teen Vogue for more than three and a half years. She received her degree in Mass Communications/Media Studies with a minor in journalism from Cal State Sacramento.
The current EIC of Teen Vogue, Amy Astley, will be moving to the head position at Architectural Digest. To read more, go to: African-American Woman Named as Head of Teen Vogue
A team of Cleveland teens just won the FIRST Robotics World Championship, in a championship competition that included 20,000 students from 42 countries. Youth Technology Academy Team 120: Cleveland’s Team, along with students from Illinois, California and Virginia, took the top prize on April 30.
“Everybody worked, had a part to do in the robot, it’s just teamwork,” said Peng Zhou.“Some nights we stayed until 10 or 11 o’clock,” said Mark Goeser. “Friday night consisted of this, we didn’t go to parties, we’re just here working on the robot, it’s a lot of work!”
The team, which consists of hundreds of students from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, all of whom are looking forward to STEM and engineering careers.“This is where we aspire, it’s where we learn to innovate and become the future,” said Iris Harris. “I feel like this is not only a big win for Cleveland but it’s also a big win for us and this helps our future!”
Source: Cleveland teens win Robotics World Championship
A 15-year-old high school sophomore got a perfect score on the ACT (American College Testing) exam, reports Blavity.com. Dwight Moore, a student at Christian Brothers High School in Memphis scored a 36 out of 36 on the college entrance exam putting him in rare company—less than one percent of the 1.9 million test takers received a perfect score in 2015.
His school put out a statement this week congratulating him, reading in part: The ACT consists of tests in English, mathematics, reading and science. Each test is scored on a scale of 1–36, and a student’s composite score is the average of the four test scores. Some students also take the optional ACT writing test, but the score for that test is reported separately and is not included within the ACT Composite score.
“Please join me in congratulating sophomore Dwight Moore for his perfect composite score of 36 on the ACT,” said CBHS principal Chris Fay. “Dwight is an incredibly polite and humble young man, who is respected by both his peers and teachers. He is a model student at CBHS.”
Moore reportedly said that he thought the score was a mistake when he first saw it.
“I sat there in shock for a second. There is no way this is right,” he said. “It didn’t have the writing score so I thought this was just a placeholder for later so I am not getting my hopes up; when the writing score came out too, I actually got a 36.”
And he’s only in his second year! Bravo, young man, bravo! Read more at Blavity.com.
After much speculation, Malia Obama, the eldest daughter of the President and First Lady has announced her plans to attend Harvard University, but not until 2017.
The White House announced her plans on Sunday, as well as her intention to take a “gap year” so that when she begins, her father will be out of office.
Malia is continuing the tradition of the Obamas who were both Ivy League graduates. Harvard is where both of her parents attended law school, and President Obama graduated from Columbia undergrad and Michelle Obama attended Princeton.
Malia will join a long list of presidential children who have attended the Ivy League school, including John Quincy Adams and his son, John Adams II; Abraham Lincoln’s son Robert; the sons of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt; Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John F. Kennedy; and George W. Bush, who went to business school there. The New York Times reports that Malia visited Harvard and a handful of other Ivy League and liberal arts schools last March on the East Coast, but because she accompanied her father to California last month, many believed Stanford was at the top of her list. Apparently Crimson won her heart. Read more at the New York Times.
Prince performs at the 19th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Monday, March 15, 2004, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. (photo via sfgate.com) article by Katie Dowd via sfgate.com
In the days since the death of music legend Prince, stories of his secret, wide-ranging philanthropy efforts are finally being told. Two of Prince’s major charitable endeavors were centered in the Bay Area: bringing solar panels to Oakland and helping young people of color learn how to code.
In an interview with CNN, political activist Van Jones revealed that, while he was the face of environmental group Green For All, Prince was the driving force and checkbook.
“There are people who have solar panels right now on their houses in Oakland, California that don’t know Prince paid for them,” Jones said.
But that wasn’t all. Prince also helped found #YesWeCode, an initiative to help young people from “low opportunity backgrounds” learn the necessary skills for jobs in the tech sector. “He insisted we create ‘Yes We Code,'” Jones told USA Today, “so that kids in hoodies could be mistaken for kids in Silicon Valley.”
In fact, Jones says that concerts in Oakland (and other cities) were a “cover” so he could visit and check in on charitable organizations and local community groups.
“He did not want it be known publicly, and he did not want us to say it. But I’m gonna say it because the world needs to know that it wasn’t just the music,” Jones said. “The music was just one way he tried to help the world, but he was helping every day of his life.”
All eight Ivy League schools — Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown, University of Pennsylvania — have offered Long Island, New York high school senior Augusta Uwamanzu-Nna places in their freshman class.
In addition to the Ivies, she was accepted by Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Augusta is valedictorian at Elmont Memorial High School, where she has a 101.64 weighted grade point average. The school is no stranger to academic superstars: Last year, senior Harold Ekeh scored the same number of Ivy acceptances.
“I am elated, but most importantly, I am thankful,” Augusta, 17, told school officials at Sewanhaka Central High School District.
Augusta’s older brother Johnson told NBC News that Augusta’s “initiative and perseverance,” as well as the family’s emphasis on learning, were responsible for his sister’s success. And the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as both their Nigerian-born parents are college-educated, and her father has a master’s and doctorate from the University of Indianapolis.
“Education is very paramount in our family,” said her brother, who also made his way to the Ivies. He is a freshman at Cornell University, studying biological engineering.
Tobias and Basillia Nna immigrated to the United States in 1994 and settled first in Indiana then New York City. They moved to Elmont in 2000. Their father has worked for various companies as a physical therapist. All four of their children were born in this country. “Augusta’s school days start from 7 in the morning until around 8 at night,” said Uwamanzu-Nna. “Not to mention all of the homework assignments, scholarship and other miscellaneous things she gets done.”
He said that while his sister was co-founder of her own tutoring service, she also works at another tutoring center on Saturdays.
“I am humbled by all of the college acceptance letters that I recently received,” Augusta says on her high school website. “I am reminded that I have a responsibility to be a role model for others and use my experiences to encourage and inspire others, especially young women.” To read more, go to: http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/college-game-plan/long-island-high-school-student-accepted-all-eight-ivies-n551901?cid=sm_tw&hootPostID=9c3ca1968651804b658563b28ec6dd2c
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, speaks during a news conference on Feb. 2, 2016. (Photo: MIKE GROLL/AP) article by Kenneth Lovett via nydailynews.com
New York has become the first state to enact a program touted by President Obama to help at-risk black and Hispanic boys and young men, state officials said.
Known as “My Brother’s Keeper,” the program is designed to keep young males of color out of prison by focusing on family and community engagement, professional development and new school practices aimed at improving outcomes. Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature included $20 million in the state budget enacted last week to create a state version of the program. “I was born and raised in the Bronx and I have seen firsthand the challenges that so many boys and young men of color face every day,” Carl Heastie, New York’s first black Assembly speaker, told the Daily News.
Heastie said studies show that black and Hispanic males are more likely to drop out of high school and “become trapped in the revolving door of the criminal justice system.”
“We need to change the conversation around the achievement rates of African-American and Latino men so that successful futures become the rule and not the exception,” he said. “With this funding we are taking some meaningful steps toward a more holistic and comprehensive approach to improving the prospects of all our children, especially those who need our support the most.”
Obama, who has talked about his first job scooping ice cream, created a My Brother’s Keeper task force in 2014, with the idea of targeting minority boys so they can read at grade level by third grade, complete college education or training, and enter the workforce more prepared. It also seeks to reduce violence. To read more, go to: http://m.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-enact-obama-brother-keeper-program-article-1.2587149?cid=bitly
Rev. Clementa Pinckney (photo via postandcourier.com) article via jbhe.com
A group of anonymous donors has endowed a scholarship fund to honor the late Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney. Rev. Pinckney, who was a member of the state Senate in South Carolina, was murdered at the Mother A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina, along with eight other parishioners.
The $3.2 million fund will be administered by the Coastal Community Foundationin Charleston. Proceeds from the endowment will fund scholarships for African American college students. The Reverend Pinckney Scholars Program will award scholarships for students in need and provide them with other support services.
Scholarships will range from between $5,000 and $10,000 and will be renewable for up to four years. Preferences will be given to students of substantial financial need, high academic achievers, and those with leadership qualities. Immediate family members of the victims of the massacre at the Mother A.M.E. Church will also be given preference.
Harvard student and Students of Strength founder Rahsaan King (photo via seas.harvard.edu) article by Adam Zewe via seas.harvard.edu
Harvard student Rahsaan King, A.B. ’17, is acutely aware that his life could very easily have taken a tragic turn.
While growing up in a tough neighborhood in Houston, King fell in with a rough crowd of young men, many of whom dropped out of school, wound up in prison, or became victims of gang violence. All signs pointed to King following a similar path—he was expelled from the private boarding school he attended, Chinquapin Preparatory School, squandering his first chance for success.
“During my time away from prep school, I realized how beautiful that experience was—what a great opportunity it had been for me—and something in me changed,” he said. “I studied harder. I became more focused and ambitious. I was hungry for excellence and education.”
Readmitted to Chinquapin, King was given a second chance and this time he buckled down. He was elected to lead the student council, graduated at the top of his class, and was accepted into Harvard, earning a prestigious Gates Millennium Award to supplement his tuition.
“Education was my way out of darkness. It was my way out of poverty,” he said. “Once I succeeded, I felt compelled to help other people do what I have done.”
So after beginning his education at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences where he is an applied math concentrator, King took a small-time tutoring business he had started in high school and expanded it into a nationwide educational social enterprise, Students of Strength, that connects underachieving students with on-demand tutors.
Students of Strength is unique because it enables middle and high school students to receive academic help instantly from coaches at prestigious universities, including Harvard, Yale, and MIT. The system incorporates a user-friendly mobile app that makes it easy for students to reach tutors and ask questions.
Beyond tutoring, academic coaches also serve as mentors who offer advice on preparing for/applying to college, and encouragement when students feel lost, overwhelmed, or hopeless. The program provides test pep and character-building curricula that use videos, games, and practice problems to prepare students for the intellectual and emotional challenges inherent to pursuing higher education.
“Because the students are interacting with peers instead of professionals, it makes it much easier for them to relate to their academic coaches,” King said.
Having relatable mentors is especially important for the underserved students who are the focus of the program. For every two sessions the organization sells, it donates one to a low-income student. Corporate sponsors are able to “adopt” low-income schools to provide Students of Strength coaches for entire classes of underprivileged students.
A dedicated group of volunteer liaisons help King recruit new academic coaches at universities across the nation. He hopes to have 10,000 tutors on board by the end of 2016.
