Dwyane Wade, a star player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association and an alumnus of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has pledged to donate $195,000 over three years through his Wade’s World Foundation to support a program to reduce the racial literacy gap among inner-city children.
The funds will be used to launch the Live to Dream summer reading program for second and third graders in Milwaukee public schools. Tutors from the university’s Ralph C. Hartman Literacy and Learning Center will help the children overcome any reading problems. Children will receive free transportation to the center for tutoring sessions. A book drive was held at a recent men’s basketball game at Marquette where attendees were asked to donate a book appropriate for young readers that will given to children in the summer reading program.
“Marquette has always been a champion of literacy, and this significant gift from Dwyane Wade and his foundation will give more children at risk of reading failure a much greater chance at a high quality of life,” said Dr. William Henk, dean of the College of Education. “To ensure their success in today’s world, we need to help them become skilled and confident in terms of their ability to read, write and listen.”
article via jbhe.com
Hundreds of medical students wore white coats at “die-ins” and other protests on campuses to spotlight racial bias as a public health issue.
The medical students joined others who have demonstrated since grand juries in Ferguson, Missouri, and in New York City declined to indict white police officers in the killings of unarmed black men. Some of the protests have involved students, including those in high schools, colleges and Ivy league schools.
Pictures that circulated Wednesday showed medical students holding signs that read, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” and, “We Can’t Breathe” — rallying cries for those protesting the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York.
The effort was endorsed by Students for a National Health Program, an affiliate of Physicians for a National Health Program, an organization of more than 19,000 medical students and professionals that advocates for improved universal Medicare.
“We as medical students feel that this is an important time for medical institutions to respond to violence and race-related trauma that affect our communities and the patients we serve,” says a statement on the organization’s website.
“We feel it is essential to begin a conversation about our role in addressing the explicit and implicit discrimination and racism in our communities and reflect on the systemic biases embedded in our medical education curricula, clinical learning environments, and administrative decision-making.”
Here are photos from medical students in the #WhiteCoats4BlackLives protests Wednesday:
100 medical students at the USC Keck School of Medicine participated in a protest:
Cooper Medical School of Rowan University students:
University of Illinois College of Medicine students:
Howard University students:
University of California, San Francisco students:
To see more photos of this nationwide protest, and to learn about future protests against the police killing of black men, click here.
article by Lilly Workneh via huffingtonpost.com
LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — A week after their “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” show of solidarity, several St. Louis Rams players made another societal statement Sunday with the message: “I Can’t Breathe.”
