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.
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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.
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 Lilly Workneh via huffingtonpost.com
Three black women in congress made history on Tuesday when they announced the formation of the first and only Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls.
U.S. Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) and Yvette D. Clarke (D-N.Y.) confirmed the news in a press release issued by the U.S. House of Representatives. The release described the caucus as a group devoted to creating public policy that “eliminates significant barriers and disparities experienced by black women.”
The formation of the caucus marks a hugely significant moment for minority communities as it is the first of 430 registered congressional caucuses and member organizations that is specifically designed to make black women and girls a priority.
“Black women and girls are disproportionately affected by myriad [of] socioeconomic issues that diminish their quality of life and threaten the well-being of their families and communities,” Rep. Kelly said in a release obtained by The Huffington Post.
“The Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls gives black women a seat at the table for the crucial discussion on the policies that impact them while also providing a framework for creating opportunities and eliminating barriers to success for black women,” she added.
The caucus was inspired by Ifeoma Ike, the co-founder of Black and Brown People Vote, and a collective of six other women involved in the #SheWoke committee which is comprised of leading black women activists who consistently advocate for black women’s rights, including Ike, Nakisha M. Lewis, Tiffany D. Hightower, Shambulia Gadsden Sams, Sharisse Stancil-Ashford, Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever and Sharon Cooper.
Lewis shared the news on Twitter Tuesday:
“The Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls gives black women a seat at the table for the crucial discussion on the policies that impact them while also providing a framework for creating opportunities and eliminating barriers to success for black women,” she added.
The caucus was inspired by Ifeoma Ike, the co-founder of Black and Brown People Vote, and a collective of six other women involved in the #SheWoke committee which is comprised of leading black women activists who consistently advocate for black women’s rights, including Ike, Nakisha M. Lewis, Tiffany D. Hightower, Shambulia Gadsden Sams, Sharisse Stancil-Ashford, Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever and Sharon Cooper.
Lewis shared the news on Twitter Tuesday:
We officially have a Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls! Let’s get this work done #SheWoke https://t.co/3rbcV3ziAB
— Nakisha M. Lewis (@NakLew) March 22, 2016
Collectively, these women along with members of congress helped to launch a caucus that will aim to address issues important among black women, like economic equity, education, wellness and safety, among others.
“We want to get everyone, including our sisters, aware of where we statistically fall within these issues. Knowledge is definitely power,” Ike told The Huffington Post. “We’re looking at this space as one of idea-sharing and policy creation. We’re making sure we’re included as a demographic that deserves to be addressed.”
The caucus said in the press release it aims to achieve similar success in the lives of black women and girls that President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative has done for black men and boys. Ike, who worked to help form Obama’s well-respected campaign, expects to apply her expertise and share her experiences as she helps to execute the mission of the new caucus.
“I felt like I was supporting my brother but I didn’t feel like my story or any of my sister’s stories were included,” Ike said of her experience working for the My Brother’s Keeper campaign to The Huffington Post. “Through this work, and meeting other dynamic women, it’s very important, especially in this political climate, that politicians look at our issues. By addressing black women, you address everyone.”
“We want to get everyone, including our sisters, aware of where we statistically fall within these issues. Knowledge is definitely power,” Ike told The Huffington Post. “We’re looking at this space as one of idea-sharing and policy creation. We’re making sure we’re included as a demographic that deserves to be addressed.”
The caucus said in the press release it aims to achieve similar success in the lives of black women and girls that President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative has done for black men and boys. Ike, who worked to help form Obama’s well-respected campaign, expects to apply her expertise and share her experiences as she helps to execute the mission of the new caucus.
“I felt like I was supporting my brother but I didn’t feel like my story or any of my sister’s stories were included,” Ike said of her experience working for the My Brother’s Keeper campaign to The Huffington Post. “Through this work, and meeting other dynamic women, it’s very important, especially in this political climate, that politicians look at our issues. By addressing black women, you address everyone.”
“Black women deserve a voice in a policy making process that frequently minimizes, or altogether ignores the systemic challenges they face.”Rep. Watson Coleman
Ike said the idea for both the caucus and the #SheWoke committee came about during a conversation in her apartment earlier this year, which, among other topics, touched on recent developments in the case of Sandra Bland. Two days later, the #SheWoke committee was formed as was a petition which called on congress members to create a space that puts black women’s issues at the forefront.
“Black women deserve a voice in a policy making process that frequently minimizes, or altogether ignores the systemic challenges they face,” Rep. Watson Coleman said in the release. “This caucus will speak up for them.”
The launch reception of the Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls will be held on April 28 in Washington, D.C.
To read full article, go to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/official-congressional-caucus-on-black-women-and-girls_us_56f18294e4b09bf44a9eae8c
“Black women deserve a voice in a policy making process that frequently minimizes, or altogether ignores the systemic challenges they face,” Rep. Watson Coleman said in the release. “This caucus will speak up for them.”
The launch reception of the Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls will be held on April 28 in Washington, D.C.
To read full article, go to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/official-congressional-caucus-on-black-women-and-girls_us_56f18294e4b09bf44a9eae8c
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.
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 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
article by Nigel Roberts via newsone.com
Teachers increasingly give assignments that require online access, a task that’s becoming ever more difficult for scores of students from low-income families.
How big is this problem? The Pew Research Center estimated last year that about 5 million households with school-age children can’t afford Internet service. Not having broadband at home creates a so-called “homework gap,” which the researchers say disproportionately affects Black and Latino children.
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama announced ConnectALL, an initiative to enable all Americans to afford broadband. It seeks to eliminated the digital divide—an ongoing problem that captures the public’s attention from time-to-time.
In a recent article, the New York Times shined a spotlight on the issue. The paper told the story of a sister and brother—Isabella and Tony Ruiz—who routinely stand outside an elementary school near their home to use its wireless hot spot.
With their parents struggling to make ends meet, Isabella, 11, and her 12-year-old brother don’t have Internet service at home. By standing outside the school building, Isabella was able to watch her teacher’s math guide on the family’s mobile phone.
The article drew a Facebook comment from President Obama:
“All of America’s students should be able to get online, no matter where they live or how much their parents make.”
by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)
Walt Disney World Resorts, in conjunction with Essence Magazine and comedian Steve Harvey, recently hosted its 9th Annual Disney Dreamers Academy in Orlando, Florida. After selecting from thousands of applications, Disney rewarded 100 U.S. high school students and their chaperones with a four-day seminar (March 3-6) geared towards inspiring, exposing and guiding them on how to achieve their dreams.
After kicking off the long weekend leading a parade down Main Street in the Magic Kingdom and being welcomed by Walt Disney World President George Kalogridis, Walt Disney World Vice President and Executive Champion Tracey Powell, Essence Editor-At-Large Mikki Taylor, gospel singer Yolanda Adams and host Steve Harvey, the Dreamers are immersed in intensive sessions with motivational speakers such as Jonathan Sprinkles and Capital Prep School Founder and Principal Dr. Steve Perry to help them understand how to overcome obstacles, learn from failures and how to work hard to make their dreams become reality.
Additionally, the Walt Disney World theme parks become vibrant “classrooms,” where Dreamers participate in hands-on, intensive “Deep Dive” workshops led by industry experts. Covering a myriad of career paths ranging from animation to imagineering to marine biology, the Deep Dives do more than expose students to a career choice; they bring to life an opportunity that otherwise might seem distant or impossible.
Celebrities such as MC Lyte, Tamera Mowery, Loni Love, Lance Gross, Lamman Rucker, Silento and film producer Will Packer also gave their personal time and shared their knowledge with the Dreamers on what it takes to gain and maintain an unconventional career.
“It has literally been so amazing,” said Dreamer Deja Kirk from Oklahoma City, who is interested in becoming an elasmobranchologist (a marine biologist who specializes in sharks and rays). “I’m not one to be corny at all, I’m usually a very stoic person, so for me to be so excited about this is really huge. Even if you don’t know what you’re going to do, just getting the general exposure to everything I feel like not only am I prepared to pursue my career, if I were to change it in any way I still have a really good foundation for whatever I want to do.”
This week, Good Black News will be bringing you even more stories from this unique event, including spotlights on several Dreamers, perspectives from their parents, as well as interviews with some of the dedicated professionals who gave their time and wisdom to DDA this year.
To learn more about Disney Dreamers Academy, go to: https://www.disneydreamersacademy.com or https://www.facebook.com/DisneyDreamersAcademy/