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Posts tagged as “Dr. Michael L. Lomax”

Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation Launches $2M Grant to HBCU Scholarship Program

Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation Launches $2M Grant to HBCU Scholarship Program

By goodblacknews on January 2, 2022

The Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation announced a $2 million commitment to support scholarships for Black, African and African American students, including those at Morehouse College, Spelman College and 10 additional historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) through the United Negro College Fund (UNCF).

These scholarships are part of Ralph Lauren Corporation’s previously announced commitments to address systemic racism and racial injustice by creating more pathways for equity within the fashion industry and beyond, beginning with education.

“Students represent the best of the human spirit – passion, curiosity and boundless dreams,” said Ralph Lauren, Executive Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Ralph Lauren Corporation. “When all students have an equal chance to succeed, their dreams become realities and inspire us all.”

“The Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation works to make the dream of a better life a reality by championing equity and investing in historically underserved communities,” said Roseann Lynch, Ralph Lauren Corporation’s Chief People Officer and Head of the Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation. “Our hope is that these scholarships will deepen pathways of access to education for our future leaders and help enable them to pursue their own dreams.”

“Morehouse has a common cause with partners like the Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation who believe that equity begins with education,” said David A. Thomas, Ph.D., Morehouse College president. “Through educational investments, which help elevate the creativity and professional competence of talented students of color, we today empower the innovators who will develop the fashions, products and services the world will demand tomorrow.”

“This new scholarship will allow high-achieving students in need of financial support to graduate with less debt, ready to step into their careers,” said Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., president of Spelman College. “We’re extremely proud to join forces with the Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation in its effort to increase equity and access in the fashion industry.”

United Negro College Fund Mobilizes to Aid Struggling HBCUs and Students During COVID-19 Crisis

By goodblacknews on April 8, 2020
(image via uncf.org)

Recently, The United Negro College Fund worked in concert with several organizations, institutions, and elected representatives to secure $1 Billion in funds for Historically Black Colleges and Universities from the $2Trillion stimulus relief package passed by Congress and signed by Donald Trump in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

Getting those funds to those in present need, however, is another story.  So the UNCF is concurrently making aggressive efforts to support HBCUs and displaced students who face new issues because of the growing pandemic, such as need of technology support to continue learning, housing, and food.

Many UNCF-supported students come from communities where, even if they have the tools to get online, broadband access is limited or unavailable, so continuing their education solely online is made all that more difficult. Students’ part-time jobs have been temporarily eliminated. Some students find it financially difficult to get back home, and some have no homes to which to go.

“We pray that students, our member institutions, families, friends and colleagues are staying safe and taking necessary safety provisions to protect themselves. This is an unprecedented situation for all of us, but we are up to the challenge. UNCF is working rapidly to help address the critical emergency needs of our students and HBCUs particularly because the needs of these institutions are especially acute,” said Dr. Michael L. Lomax, UNCF’s president and CEO.

“We at UNCF know that foundational HBCU legacies, dreams of a college education and brighter futures, and the important work of UNCF must not be washed away by such turbulent times.”

UNCF has established an emergency fund to help students continue their education and to maintain the sustainability of our member institutions, and is currently working with several partners to provide member HBCUs with the tools, technologies and training to support distance learning and provide emergency resources for their student bodies that includes students’ access to laptops, tablets and broadband to continue their studies.

UNCF is also activating donors and supporters and ramping up fundraising efforts, so it can support students, colleges and universities and itself through this unprecedented trial.

“Donations to UNCF.org will help UNCF to continue to support our work and to provide vital support to our schools and their students with these issues during this critical time,” Lomax said.

“We are laser-focused on mitigating what’s happening now and, on our work, ahead. While UNCF, HBCUs and our students are in uncharted waters, we will persevere together with our partners, foundations, corporations and other generous individuals, like you, who make our work possible and believe so strongly in our mission. Our commitment to closing the educational attainment gap for African Americans and other underserved populations is as strong as ever. Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste, but a wonderful thing to invest in.®”

To help HBCUs and their students in need via UNCF, click here.

Teach For America Marks 25th Anniversary With A Commitment To Recruit More Teachers Of Color

By goodblacknews on March 4, 2016

World History teacher Derrick Sanders on Thursday, January 7, 2016. Mr. Sanders, whom graduated from Howard University, is in his first year of being a teacher with the Teach For America program in Dallas. (photo: Brandon Thibodeaux for Education Week)
World History teacher Derrick Sanders on Thursday, January 7, 2016. Mr. Sanders, whom graduated from Howard University, is in his first year of being a teacher with the Teach For America program in Dallas. (photo: Brandon Thibodeaux for Education Week)

article by Nigel Roberts via newsone.com
Some 15,000 guests joined Teach For America at its Washington, D.C. gathering in February to celebrate the organization’s quarter-century anniversary. On this milestone, the group’s army of teachers, alumni, and allies – now numbering 50,000 – commemorated the past, but fixed their eyes on the future.
At the top of TFA’s agenda going forward is recruiting teachers of color to meet the needs of the nation’s exploding Latino student population and African-American pupils who are struggling to close the academic achievement gap.
The ballooning growth of Latinos and the simultaneous decline of the White population have resulted in a significant demographic shift among students. The 2014 – 2015 academic year marked the first time that minority schoolchildren—Latino, African-American, and Asian—outnumbered their White counterparts, Education Week reported.
However, the teaching force has failed to keep pace with this major shift. According to U.S. News, only 17 percent of educators are people of color.
The problem, according to numerous studies, is that minority students perform academically better under the guidance of teachers of their own race or ethnicity.
A study reported by the Washington Post states:
“We find that the performance gap in terms of class dropout and pass rates between white and minority students falls by roughly half when taught by a minority instructor. In models that allow for a full set of ethnic and racial interactions between students and instructors, we find African-American students perform particularly better when taught by African-American instructors.”
Why do minority students tend to perform better with teachers who look like them? The study reported in U.S. News says teachers of color are often better motivated to teach in racially segregated, poor schools. What’s more, they typically have higher academic expectations of their pupils and better understand their culture.