Bowie State University has selected a student advocate in Amani Jennings, who will be the HBCU’s new Dean of Students. Learn more in the story by the BSU release below.
Higher Education Administrator Brings Over 20 Years of Experience
Amani Jennings, dean of students
Amani Jennings has been named the new Dean of Students at Bowie State University (BSU) effective immediately. He will serve as the voice and advocate for students while working closely with Academic Affairs and other departments to ensure that students’ well-being is the foundation of decisions made by BSU administrators.
Jennings brings two decades of higher education executive leadership experience in student affairs including retention, judicial affairs, student development, and academic support to BSU that encompasses budget management, human resource development and higher education policy research.
“Students must be sufficiently supported in all areas of college life and not just in the classroom,” said Dr. Brian Clemmons, BSU’s Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs. “As Dean of Students, Jennings will also direct, organize and manage student non-academic programs and activities.”
Prior to joining BSU, Jennings was the Dean of Students and Title IX Coordinator at Georgian Court University in Lakewood, New Jersey, where he was responsible for the leadership, administration and management of the Office of Dean of Students, Student Affairs, the Counseling Center, Student Life & Engagement, Residence Life and Health Services. He was also responsible for developing comprehensive Title IX policies and procedures for campus community members and overseeing counseling, sexual and gender-based misconduct and student conduct.
“I believe that higher education must rely on innovation and the development of new best practices to meet the unique challenges facing the industry,” said Jennings. “My mission is to support BSU’s graduation of highly employable global citizens by developing a campus environment that blends the academic experience with career competencies and the success skills attained through transformative leadership,” he said.
“Bowie State University is honored to have Amani Jennings join our team,” said Dr. Clemmons. “I believe Amani will do great things at BSU and confident he will be the partner and leader our students need as Dean of Students.”
Jennings earned a bachelor’s degree in English and master’s degree in basic and urban education from Jersey City State College. He is a candidate to receive his Ph.D. in Educational Management from Hampton University.
John Lewis, an alumnus of Fisk University and American Baptist College, has made an eternal impact. One of the people forever changed by Lewis’ work is a young boy who found his fascination in civil rights sparked by the political figure. Learn more in the story by Dana Bash and Abbie Sharpe at CNN.
Photo Credit: CNN
Walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge is a powerful experience for pretty much anyone who knows the history of Bloody Sunday, a 1965 march for voting rights in Selma, Alabama, that was stopped by violent, racist state troopers.
The power of Selma is next-level for young Tybre Faw.
It’s where he met his hero, John Lewis, four years ago when he was just 10 years old. Lewis led the march in 1965 and nearly died after state troopers hit his skull with a billy club.
“It feels emotional,” Tybre said while walking across the storied bridge last month. “Every time I come to Selma or get near this bridge, I can still feel his presence.”
Tybre’s interest in the civil rights movement began after his elementary school performed a play on Martin Luther King Jr. and his teacher talked about a relative who had known King. After checking out books to read more about King and other leaders of that era, he learned about Lewis. When Tybre realized Lewis was then a congressman from Georgia, he became determined to meet him. In 2018, when Tybre heard that Lewis would be in Selma for the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, he asked his grandmothers to make the seven-hour drive with him from his home in Tennessee.
“I wanted to meet him and just say thanks to him for fighting for my rights, and many other people’s rights,” Tybre said of that first trip to Selma. The then-10-year-old wasn’t sure if he was even going to see Lewis that day. “I got way more than what I wanted.”
Meeting your hero
We, too, were in Selma in March 2018, following Lewis on his annual civil rights pilgrimage to commemorate the anniversary of the march.
We spotted Tybre standing in the parking lot outside the church where Lewis was attending a service. He was standing quietly, holding a handmade sign:
“Thank you, Rep. John Lewis. You have shown me how to have courage, raw courage. Selma was the turning point.”
It was striking how still this young boy was, standing for so long, waiting for hours.
“I was serious then,” he recalled, “It’s your hero. You’ve got to make a good impression.”
We brought him over to the door where Lewis was meant to exit, and when the congressman emerged, he noticed the boy immediately, read his sign and gave him a hug.
“Before I met him, I was standing on the side, and I was telling myself, ‘Do not cry. Do not cry. Do not cry.’ And I could feel my tears watering up, and then when I saw him, I just broke down,” Tybre explained. “It was powerful and emotional.”
As Lewis and a large group of lawmakers, including future Vice President Kamala Harris, prepared to march across the bridge, Lewis beckoned the young boy over to walk alongside him.
“I was so little, so the moment was really big,” Tybre remembered. “I [kept] thinking about what he did on this bridge and how he fought for my rights, and many more. It was just very overwhelming.”
A special bond
Their friendship lasted beyond that day in Selma. They stayed in contact and spent more time together.
“I got to see him just as a friend, and the relationship started to grow,” said Tybre. They had fun.
He once joined the Georgia Democrat on the floor of the US House of Representatives and went to a football game at Benedict College with him. They talked often, and Tybre recalls FaceTiming the congressman on his birthday. As a gift, he sent him a library card.
“One of the things that started John Lewis to civil rights is he can’t go to the library and get a book because he was Black. He couldn’t get a library card. So we thought that would be a good gift for him,” Tybre explained.
Lewis’ family invited Tybre to read the poem “Invictus” at the congressman’s funeral. It was Lewis’ favorite.
Among the slew of notable speakers, including three former Presidents, was a 12-year-old boy. It spoke volumes about their relationship and how important it was to Lewis to pass his hard-fought experiences and determination on to younger generations.
“I got through it, and then I couldn’t hold it in anymore, and the tears let out, but I was very proud of myself at that moment,” Tybre said of the funeral. “I felt strong, and like he was right beside me when I did it.”
Following in his footsteps
As a teenager, Lewis had reached out to his own civil rights icon — Martin Luther King Jr.
King took a special interest in the young activist, just as Lewis did with Tybre more than 50 years later.
“I think he [saw] that, and maybe that’s one of the reasons why he took me under his wing,” Tybre said.
Their unforgettable story is depicted in a new children’s book from Scholastic — “Because of You, John Lewis: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship.” It captures Lewis’ impact on this one young man, whose life has been forever changed.
“He taught me honor and integrity. He taught me how to be humble and how to be a good student, how to be a good person,” Tybre said.
And how to get into what Lewis famously called “good trouble.”
Tybre says that when he sees a bully on the playground, he thinks of Lewis’ famous phrase.
“Good trouble means you’re going to go over there, stand up for the other kid, and fight for what’s right. And good trouble, to me, is fighting for what’s right, standing out and speaking up,” he said.
It’s been two years since the congressman died, and though the two had only a short time together, Lewis’ legacy lives on in Tybre.
“I never thought I would be so involved in marches, and I just got to see the world bigger. And my little corner wasn’t enough. He changed my entire life,” Tybre said.
At 14 years old, he’s already decided he wants to run for office one day.
“I hope I can get into government and have a national voice so I can tell more people to get in good trouble and to be more involved,” Tybre said. “I do want to be in John Lewis’ place. I want to get in his office. If that can be possible, that would be amazing.”
Tybre is also a football player — he’s a lineman on both sides of the ball — and said most of his friends are more focused on sports and activities other than history and civil rights. But he is trying to change that.
“My goal is to get every kid to know John Lewis, about his legacy and what he stands for,” he said. “Get in good trouble and follow in his footsteps. That’s my goal.”
An HBCU sports figure is making history with his latest role! Learn more in the story below from Kyle T. Mosley at Sports Illustrated, in collaboration with SWAC PR.
Dr. Charles McClelland has been rising within the NCAA Division 1 basketball ranks for several years. Today, the NCAA announced his historic appointment as the Chair of the Division 1 men’s basketball committee, the first for an HBCU representative in the history of the governing body.
SWAC ANNOUNCEMENT
Southwestern Athletic Conference Commissioner Dr. Charles McClelland will be the first person representing an HBCU league or institution to chair the Division I men’s basketball committee when he assumes that duty for the 2023-24 season. McClelland, who has been on the committee since 2019, will be the vice chair for the upcoming season, supporting incoming chair Chris Reynolds, the director of athletics at Bradley University.
McClelland has been at the SWAC since 2018 and previously served as Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics at Texas Southern University, a position he held for a decade. Prior to going to Texas Southern, he spent seven years as director of athletics at Prairie View A&M University, from which he received his undergraduate degree in 1993 and his MBA in 1997. McClelland also holds a doctoral degree in higher education from Texas A&M.
“It is a tremendous honor to be selected by my colleagues and I am very excited to continue the important work of the men’s basketball committee,” McClelland said. “In my opinion, the NCAA tournament is the greatest sporting event in the world, and we will continue to work tirelessly to ensure the future success of this great enterprise.”
In other news pertaining to the committee’s makeup, the Pac-12 Conference has appointed University of Arizona Athletics Director Dave Heeke as its new representative, replacing UCLA Athletics Director Martin Jarmond.
Reynolds, McClelland and Heeke will serve on the 2022-23 committee with Greg Byrne, the director of athletics at Alabama; Barry Collier, the director of athletics at Butler; Mark Coyle, the director of athletics at Minnesota; Bubba Cunningham, the director of athletics at North Carolina; Keith Gill, the commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference; Bernadette McGlade, the commissioner of the Atlantic 10 Conference; Martin Newton, the director of athletics at Samford University; Jamie Pollard, the director of athletics at Iowa State; and Tom Wistrcill; the commissioner of the Big Sky Conference.
That group, along with 2021-22 committee chair Tom Burnett, discussed a variety of topics at its annual summer meeting in Kissimmee, Fla. this week, including ticketing, selections, tournament operations, officiating, ancillary events, broadcast and media issues, long-range planning and the Men’s Final Four site selection process, which is scheduled to conclude with the announcement of the 2027-2031 sites in November.
Darian “DJ D Baby” Lewis is being mourned after she tragically fell from a balcony earlier this month, later causing her death. Learn more about the young star, who had attended Texas Southern University, in the story from AJ McDougall at The Daily Beast below.
The musician known as DJ D Baby landed on a pool deck on the building’s ninth floor and was hospitalized for over a week.
In the early hours of July 4, a DJ just beginning to make a name for herself on the Houston music scene plummeted from the balcony of a high-rise apartment building, falling four floors to a pool deck below. The only other person present on the balcony that morning—the DJ’s girlfriend—said she watched her partner climb up on a patio chair and pitch over the railing.
“There’s no way I could have pushed her over” the edge, Nishia Jackson wrote in a Facebook post, claiming her girlfriend “was only able to get over because she climbed on to the furniture.”
“I would have literally had to pick her up & throw her over which is absolutely absurd!” Jackson continued. “WE WERE NOT FIGHTING!”
Darian Lewis, who spun under the name DJ D Baby, died more than a week after being hospitalized from the fall, her mother said Wednesday.
“My youngest and only daughter has transitioned,” Terri Lewis wrote on Facebook, “please pray for the family, my heart is heavy and broken.”
Darian Lewis had celebrated her 23rd birthday only weeks before her death. Details of her 5 a.m. fall, which took her from the 13th to the 9th floor of the downtown building, remain murky. Her girlfriend, Jackson, took to social media just prior to the announcement of Lewis’ death, writing that she’s been silent “out of respect for D, watching so many of you turn this tragedy into something it’s not.”
Lewis, who usually “barely drank,” had been intoxicated that night, Jackson recounted. After being dropped off at Jackson’s apartment by an “associate,” Lewis rushed out to the patio when she was told she couldn’t drive herself home, Jackson said. The DJ then allegedly climbed up on the chair and “fell over before I could save her,” according to Jackson.
“I’m aware there are a lot of rumors going around & they’re all very disheartening,” Jackson wrote. “We were far from perfect. We had issues like most however, I would never hurt her whom I love, nor anyone in such a manner.” She added that she’d been “devastated” by similar gossip that Lewis had been trying to hurt herself.
Houston authorities have told local outlets that Lewis’ death appeared to be an accident but that an active investigation into the matter remains ongoing.
“We’re going to trust the system, and we’re going to let them do their job,” Darrin Lewis, the DJ’s father, told Fox 26 Houston.
Claiming to be the “youngest female DJ in Houston,” Darian Lewis was a rising social media star with more than 27,000 followers on Instagram as of Thursday. “She did things people that are 56—my age—haven’t done,” her father said.
Lewis was 12 years old when she first fell in love with music, according to an electronic press kit, playing both the flute and, later, the guitar. She was given a DJ controller as a high school graduation gift and began introducing herself as D Baby to her classmates at Texas Southern University soon after.
“The crazy part about is at the time, I could barely DJ. I saw going to college as a way to reinvent myself and start a new journey,” Lewis told VoyageHouston last year. “The rest is history in the making.”
Andrew White, a Lawson State Community College alumnus, is opening up about the fruitful life that bloomed from his marriage and education. Learn more in the story by Je’Don Holloway-Talley at the Birmingham Times.
“You Had Me at Hello’’ highlights married couples and the love that binds them.
ANDREW AND STELLA WHITE
Live: Birmingham
Married: July 17, 1971
Met: Fall 1970, at work inside the AT&T Building in downtown Birmingham. Stella was 18 and worked as a cord board long-distance operator, and Andrew was 23, and a communications technician.
“I saw Stella in the cafeteria. We’d all go down and have lunch and all the guys would sit together and all the ladies would sit together and one day she came into the cafeteria and I finally got up enough nerve to say something when she walked by. That was the initial spark, I said ‘hello, how are you?’ and asked her for her number,” Andrew recalled.
“I remember it differently, I remember a friend of his stopping me. Andrew was kind of shy and [his friend] spoke up for him… He said that Andrew wanted my number and Andrew was kinda cute so I gave it to him,” Stella said.
“I called within the next two or three days, and the call went well. It was some general [conversation] so there weren’t a lot of words, like she said, I was kinda shy, but I figured I needed to get my foot in the door and set up a day for a date,” Andrew said.
“I hadn’t been on too many dates at that time because I was kinda young so I was looking forward to it. I didn’t get to go too many places, my dad was a preacher…,” said Stella.
First date: Fall 1970, a few weeks after their first phone conversation. The couple went bowling and sightseeing around the city. “. . . We went on the Southside of Birmingham and he was dressed casual and I had on church clothes,” Stella laughed. “I was in the church, I didn’t know how to dress for a date, but we made it work, I could bowl in a dress.”
“We just drove around, I was not a club guy or a dinner guy, so it was just about us being together,” Andrew said.
“I just remember his car, it was a 1965 Chevy Impala, and we were just driving around the city and talking. We were talking and seeing each other at work every day and so we just [kept the conversation going],” Stella said.
The turn: “It went very quickly . . . we married within six months of meeting. One day we were driving and having a discussion about something, I can’t remember what, but he said, ‘when we get married blah blah blah,’ that’s the first I heard that he was serious enough to be thinking about marriage,” Stella said.
“As far as I knew we were only dating each other exclusively, so I thought she might be the one,” Andrew said. “In my mind, I was already ready for marriage. I was thinking this was what I wanted, I was ready for it, so all I needed was the right candidate.”
There was never a life-changing discussion, “he’s a man of few words, even to this day,” Stella said.
The proposal: Spring 1971, at Stella’s parent’s house in Mason City. “I didn’t ask her father for her hand in marriage, I told him,” Andrew recalled. “It was like ‘by the way, pop, I’m gonna marry Stella’, I hadn’t read the book on proposals so I didn’t know I was supposed to ask,” he laughed. “I was just ready to get married, I already had my suit ready.”
“He never did ask, he would always assume [I’d marry him],” Stella said. “We would talk on the phone for long hours, I would be in my family room closet and my mother would come and pull the long cord around midnight and tell me I need to go bed… and all he used to talk about was when we get married. ‘When we get married, we’ll do this, when we get married, that’, so I always knew where it was going.”
The wedding: At Stella’s father’s church, Union Bethel Independent Methodist Church, on Birmingham’s Southside, officiated by her father’s friend [whose name they couldn’t recall]. Their colors were sunflower yellow, and white, and the bridesmaids wore “cute little straw hats,” Stella said. “Me, my mother, my sister, and my cousin made all the dresses. My mother made my wedding dress and we made the bridesmaid dresses.”
Most memorable for the bride was “my dad stopping at the gas station on the way to the church. He had to stop and get gas, and there I was in the gas station standing in the line with a wedding dress on, it was pouring down rain, and he was standing outside getting gas,” Stella remembered, “I was so perturbed with him. And we also had a groomsman not show up.”
Most memorable for the groom was the no-show groomsman. “I had screwed up picking this guy [to be my groomsmen] and with him not showing up one of the bridesmaids had to walk alone,” Andrew said. “He said he had to work, but that was no excuse not to show up.”
The couple had two wedding receptions. “One that was immediately after, and it was at the Birmingham YMCA,” Stella said. “That was the more formal one, and then we had a night reception at a hotel [no longer standing], and that was the real party. My two brothers had a band, ‘The Dynamic Soul Machine’ and they were very good, they were popular (they opened for The Commodores and Isaac Hayes before),” Stella said.
“They brought the funk,” Andrew said.
The couple honeymooned in Chicago, IL. “…it was a big city and there was a lot to do in the entertainment district,” Andrew said. “We went to the Gold Coast, it ran along Lake Michigan, and it was full of shops and entertainment. That was something we weren’t quite used to in Alabama,” Stella said.
(The Whites recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in Birmingham at a restaurant named “Blueprint on 3rd.)
Words of wisdom: “When you come to up on a roadblock, you just have to dust yourself off and start over again, you have to regroup. Early in our marriage we were in a tornado, I was at home and he was at work. I had just had Tiffany, she was two months old, and we were thrown out into the yard by the tornado, so we had to start over. Every time you have some big difficulty in your marriage, you just have to regroup and start over again, you can’t let it stop you,” Stella said.
“You gotta be very flexible because you are the one that picked that person to be with and be with you. So you’re gonna have to be flexible on things you disagree on, you have to give a little. You can’t walk away every time you hit a bump in the road because you’re going to see a lot of them,” Andrew said.
Happily ever after: The Whites have three adult daughters, Andrea, Tiffany, and Toosdhi, a son, Justin, and four grandchildren.
Stella, 70, is a Birmingham Southside native, Ullman High School grad who attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham [UAB] where she earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, and a master’s degree in public administration. Stella is retired and worked 25 years for Bell South, and 20 years teaching at Trace Crossings Elementary in Hoover.
Andrew, 73, is a Titusville native, and Wenonah High School grad. He attended Wenonah Trade School where he studied radio and tv repair, and Lawson State Community College where he earned an associate’s degree in business management. He retired as a communications technician with AT&T Long Lines after 38 years.
A new Morgan State University partnership is opening the door for students to secure Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) Fellowships in Vaccines Medical Development. Learn more in the release by MSU.
Pfizer Doctoral Fellowship is First-of-Its-Kind in Partnership with an HBCU, Inaugural Recipients Selected
As part of an effort to facilitate more diversity in medical development and expand perspectives on vaccine-related real-world data and analysis, Morgan State University has partnered with Pfizer, one of the world’s premier biopharmaceutical companies, to establish the new Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) Fellowship in Vaccines Medical Development. Offered in collaboration with the University’s School of Community Health and Policy (SCHP), the two-year immersive fellowship is a pilot predoctoral program that will provide fellows with a wide range of experiences, including invaluable training and networking opportunities, designed to prepare DrPH-credentialed professionals for future leadership roles in the biopharmaceutical industry. The collaboration with Morgan marks the first-of-its-kind for Pfizer with an Historically Black College and University (HBCU).
To officially kick-off the program, Pfizer worked in conjunction with SCHP to select the inaugural fellowship cohort from Morgan. Monica Ochapa and Nguhemen Tingir, two current DrPH candidates, will begin the program this August.
“We appreciate this tremendous opportunity to partner with Pfizer in putting the call for diversity, equity and inclusion into action, this is a milestone moment,” said Kim Dobson Sydnor, MPH, DrPH, dean of SCHP at Morgan. “The DrPH Fellowships in Vaccines Medical Development is a unique initiative between a leading, global biopharmaceutical company and a rising research university dedicated to ensuring that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. We look forward to seeing our students gaining access to the additional skills and acumen, traditionally afforded to so many others, and becoming successful within this industry.”
Kim Dobson Sydnor
The DrPH fellowship is rooted in aligning a comprehensive public health strategy and Pfizer leadership with next generation public health doctoral candidates. Morgan fellows, Ochapa and Tingir, will engage in a rigorous full-time course of study that comprises therapy area expertise development, scientific community engagement and technical skills practicum. In addition to the fellowship’s on-site and online trainings, upon completion of the two-year intensive, fellows will receive Certification in Medicines Development from the IFAPP Academy in partnership with King’s College London.
“The DrPH Vaccines in Medical Development Fellowship represents a true momentous occasion and milestone moment for Morgan’s School of Community Health and Policy as it marks the first relationship, to our knowledge, between Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and an HBCU,” said Kim Dobson Sydnor, MPH, DrPH, dean of SCHP at Morgan. “We are absolutely thrilled to partner with Pfizer in this capacity as we give action to diversity, equity, and inclusion in public health and the pharma industries.”
In teaming with Morgan for the fellowship program, Pfizer has uniquely positioned itself at the forefront of fostering diverse talent pipelines, creating dynamic work environments and launching rewarding successful careers within the pharmaceutical industry. The Fellowship in Vaccines Medical Development is designed with this purpose in mind. Tapping talent from the nation’s leading HBCUs, who are known to produce more than half of all African American professionals and 25% of African American graduates in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, was central in forming the alliance with Morgan and developing the fellowship.
“It [the fellowship] is of tremendous importance that companies like Pfizer engage HBCUs and foster greater diversity among BIPOC talent because it provides the opportunity to level the playing field and create a more equitable society for the future.” –Nguhemen Tingir
“This landmark partnership with Maryland’s preeminent public urban research university is the seminal public health fellowship within the Pfizer Biopharma organization,” said Ronika Alexander-Parrish, RN, MAEd clinical scientist at Pfizer, founding director of the Doctor of Public Health Fellowship in Vaccines Medical Development and graduate from Morgan’s SCHP DrPH program. “There are fewer than five HBCUs with DrPH programs in the United States. As such, we recognize and appreciate the unique value this fellowship brings to both Pfizer and Morgan.”
The fellowship leadership team consists of strong advocates for the fellows, including executive sponsors, program directors, and preceptors. The engagement and network opportunities with these key constituents within Pfizer’s network will be critical. Among the core competencies fellows will enhance through participation in the program include:
“…[The fellowship] will provide me with a platform to advance solutions for health inequity, increase healthcare for underserved populations, and create innovative approaches to disease prevention through public health research and practice.” – Monica Ochapa
Partnering with key thought leaders, professional societies, and patient and disease advocacy groups to better understand and gain insights into areas of unmet medical need for patients
Understanding and interpreting clinical data, emerging scientific trends, and the competitive landscape, and align internal stakeholders on a balanced benefit-risk proposition
Performing in-depth research, analysis, and interpretation of the medical literature from both external and internal sources
Providing input regarding the development of medical publications and ensure the scientific accuracy of manuscripts
Supporting appropriate dissemination of clinical trial results and real-world evidence
Morgan first launched its Public Health Program in 1999, intent on fostering a new generation of public health professionals. It became the first HBCU to offer the DrPH degree, awarding its first four doctoral degrees in 2003. In 2005, the School of Community Health and Policy was established to expand the University’s health mission and academic programming to meet a growing need for a well-prepared, diverse, culturally responsive health professions workforce. Today, the school is comprised of four programs: the Public Health Graduate Program, the Nursing Graduate and Undergraduate Program, the Nutritional Sciences Undergraduate Program, and the Health EducationUndergraduate and Pre Professional Track programs with a collective focus on urban communities, elimination of health disparities, and a practice-based service-learning framework. The school awarded its 123rd DrPH degree and 240th MPH degree in May 2022.
A new Slutty Vegan Restaurant is coming to an Alabama community, making a first for the company. Learn more about how Clark Atlanta alumna Pinky Cole plans to serve t in the story from the Birmingham Times.
Cult-favorite eatery Slutty Vegan will be opening its Woodlawn location in just a few weeks, according to Abra Barnes, President and Qualifying Broker at Birmingham’s Barnes & Associates.
Barnes, the real estate broker for the property, purchased from REV Birmingham, made the announcement in a recent Facebook post.
Birmingham will be the fourth location for Slutty Vegan ATL, the Atlanta-based restaurant whose comfort-food, plant-based burgers have changed the way people think about vegan food.
Pinky Cole, CEO and Founder of the restaurant has purchased the building in Birmingham’s Woodlawn community for her first location outside the state of Georgia.
“The Woodlawn area is a culturally rich neighborhood that reminded me of my very first location in the West End of ATL,” said Cole. “We specifically wanted to go into food deserts and locations right in the middle of economic and community revitalization. It feels good to be a Black woman in business right now. We are representing Black excellence and will continue to do so as we bring Slutty Vegan to Birmingham.”
REV Birmingham and Woodlawn Foundation help lead revitalization efforts in the Woodlawn business district. Cole’s restaurant will be located on 55th Place, in the heart of Woodlawn’s historic downtown.
“It has truly been an honor to work as the real estate broker on the team that brought the visionary Pinky Cole and Slutty Vegan ATL to the Magic City and the great state of Alabama,” said Barnes. “Pinky understands the power of real estate ownership; it’s a requirement for her when she approaches any new market. By layering ownership with philanthropic work and small business mentorship, she goes into inner city neighborhoods and uses the Slutty Vegan Concepts as a catalyst for revitalization.”
Slutty Vegan’s philanthropic arm is an additional way Cole’s business model is a good fit for Woodlawn.
The Pinky Cole Foundation focuses on empowering generations of color to win in life, financially, and in the pursuit of their entrepreneurial dreams.
Cole has counted celebrities including Snoop Dogg, Usher, Taraji P. Henson, Tiffany Haddish, Will Smith, Colin Kaepernick, Tyler Perry, Martin Lawrence and Missy Elliott among The Slutty Vegan’s customers at her Georgia locations.
Charley Williams, veteran NRCS soil conservationist, conducts a site visit at the property of a landowner who received EQIP funds for planting timber. – Submitted photo
Socially-disadvantaged farmers in Arkansas benefit from a decades-old partnership between the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, according to Charley Williams, a UAPB alumnus and veteran NRCS soil conservationist.
“This cooperation helps empower a broad range of producers in the state, including those with limited financial resources, those who are new to farming, and women, veteran and minority farmers or ranchers,” a news release said.
“Cooperation between UAPB and NRCS started a long time ago,” Williams said in the release. “UAPB began inviting NRCS personnel to its annual Rural Life Conference to share important information about USDA programs to small and socially-disadvantaged farmers.”
The partnership between the 1890 land-grant university and the USDA agency is mutually beneficial, Williams said.
“NRCS wants to get timely information out to the public and provide resources to farmers and landowners to aid them with conservation,” he said. “UAPB wants to help socially-disadvantaged farmers apply conservation practices to their land so their operations will be more sustainable and profitable. So, it makes sense that these two entities would work together to reach out to minority farmers — a group that has been historically underserved by USDA programs in the past.”
In addition to bolstering conservation efforts, this partnership also has a positive effect on the producers’ bottom line, Williams said. The official NRCS mission is “helping the people help the land.” However, he said it is important to make an addition to this statement when thinking about outreach to small producers.
“We at the UAPB Small Farm Program like to say our mission is ‘helping the people help the land to help the people,'” he said. “It is important for small farmers to realize that by taking advantage of conservation programs, they are not only going to be benefiting their land, but also will be adding to their own economic prosperity.”
Providing direct support to producers
Williams said the partnership between UAPB and NRCS picked up momentum in 2010 when he was appointed coordinator for the Arkansas StrikeForce initiative, a project that aims to implement effective conservation and housing programs in impoverished communities and help residents take advantage of farm loans.
“We were tasked with increasing the participation of socially-disadvantaged farmers in USDA programs, and we had to show our progress,” Williams said. “Being a graduate of UAPB, I got in touch with the head of the UAPB Small Farm Program, Dr. Henry English. I told Dr. English that this could be a potential grant opportunity — UAPB could receive funds to help small farmers apply for USDA funds.”
English “saw potential in Williams’ vision. And during discussions with NRCS program coordinators, Williams explained that UAPB could essentially act as a ‘technical service provider'” on behalf of the agency, the release said.
It was at this point that the NRCS started training UAPB Extension personnel to help producers apply for the NRCS Environmental Quality Incentive Program, or EQIP. EQIP financial assistance allows producers to install conservation practices in areas such as improving irrigation efficiency, promoting soil health or restoring pastureland on their farm or ranch. In some cases, access to assistance has helped producers keep their family farm in business.
“Now we are to the point where UAPB has a workforce of associates trained by the NRCS who are able to connect small farmers to new NRCS initiatives — everything from the installation of high tunnels to irrigation and water management,” he said. “We have a staff that includes trained foresters, conservationists and retired NRCS employees — everyone knows EQIP like the back of their hand. This is our silver bullet to success.”
UAPB’s ability to directly help transform its clients’ operations for the better was boosted tremendously when the university launched the “Keeping it in the Family” Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Program in 2016, Williams said. The program provides educational resources and technical assistance to African American forest landowners to protect and retain their family land for future generations.
“UAPB’s Keeping it in the Family Program showed so much promise in terms of the number of people it could benefit, that it received its own NRCS funding code,” he said. “This means the people we provide outreach services to are able to obtain forest management plans and be approved for EQIP cost-share funding much faster than usual. This has been a game-changer — we are now seeing record numbers in terms of EQIP applications, the amount of EQIP funding awarded to farmers and the number of people served.”
Williams said he feels he used to just be a mouthpiece for NRCS and EQIP. But now, he says he and other team members of the UAPB Small Farm Program feel empowered to take direct action in getting farmers to apply conservation practices.
“When a new landowner contacts us, we learn about their operation and goals and then go on a site visit as a team,” he said. “Experts from the Arkansas Department of Agriculture — Forestry Division accompany us and write a forest management plan for the landowner. Now, that landowner essentially has a road map for how to apply conservation practices on their land.”
Acting as a role model for other institutions
Williams said UAPB’s success in reaching socially-disadvantaged producers has attracted the attention of other state and regional institutions and organizations. Recently, he and English have participated in planning sessions hosted by universities and agencies hoping to start projects similar to UAPB’s Keeping it in the Family Program.
“There is no other group besides UAPB that has such a strong connection with the state’s socially-disadvantaged farmers,” Williams said. “The people on our team have the training and personality to earn the trust of producers who have never participated in USDA programs before. It takes a special personality to look these farmers in the face and tell them that the USDA is going to help them develop their land and not take it away.”
Williams said mistrust of USDA programs is still an issue among minority and limited-resource producers. And some producers think EQIP and other programs offered through the U.S. Farm Bill are “freebie programs.”
“But that is not the case,” he said. “I tell producers that these programs are funded thanks to their own tax dollars. Since they’ve already paid into these programs, why not take advantage of them? I remind them that this is a partnership — the USDA wants to partner with you to keep your land productive.”
Williams said there is also a cliché among USDA agencies that minority and limited-resource audiences are hard to reach and connect with.
“I always tell them, ‘Give me the phone — give them my number,” he said. “In our work, we have to remember we are working with a group that has been left out for a long time. Sure, connecting with them might take some effort, but it is possible.”
Today Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. debuted a special double cover of its Ivy Leaf magazine, and four iconic faces are on the front! To order to celebrate sorority’s 2022 “Boule” national conference in Orlando, the digital double cover features honorary members Yolanda Adams, Ruth E. Carter, Suzanne de Passe, and Lynn Whitfield all wearing green. Their story is aptly named “Alpha Kappa Alpha ICONS — Film Music & Television: The Honorary Members Edition.
Each honoree has, in her own way, embodied the work and contributions that align with the sorority’s standards of achievement and service. As honorary members, they behold the sorority’s highest honor. In the statement released today, the sorority connected their AKA honors to the accolades they have won throughout their careers. “The Academy Award (also known as The Oscar), the Grammy Award and the Emmy Award are the highest honors awarded in film, music and television.”
AKA is celebrating how the four honorees’ accomplishments help achieve one of five national program targets. In an effort to expose students to visual and performing arts, Target 4 is “The Arts!” The sorority has worked to showcase artistic talent such as entertainers, writers, and others. Particular attention has been paid to celebrate the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement. The other four targets focus on HBCUs, women’s healthcare and wellness, financial literacy, and an increased global impact. In addition to fulfilling the fourth target, it’s important to note that Ruth E. Carter is an alumna of Hampton University, indirectly also supporting Target 1 — “HBCU for Life: A Call to Action.”
Learn more about the honorees featured in the Alpha Kappa Alpha ICONS — Film, Music & Television: The Honorary Members Edition covers below:
Gospel Singer Yolanda Adams / Grammy Award Winner for
Mountain High…Valley Low, The Experience, Be Blessed, Victory
Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter / Academy Award Winner & Emmy Award Nominee for
Black Panther, Malcolm X, Amistad & Roots
Producer and Writer Suzanne de Passe / Emmy Award Winner & Oscar Nominee for
Motown Returns to the Apollo, Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever & Lady Sings The Blues
When it comes to student retention and growth, Bowie State University is outpacing other colleges in its state. Learn more in the story by John Domen at WTOP News below.
Most of Maryland’s public colleges have been seeing declines in enrollment in recent years. Between fall 2018 and fall 2021, the University System of Maryland saw a decline of more than 6%.
The exceptions are the University of Maryland-Baltimore — which enrolls less than a thousand undergrads (87% of the students enrolled are in graduate level programs), the flagship University of Maryland at College Park, and Bowie State University, the state’s oldest historically Black college or university.
Wrapping up her fifth year as Bowie State University president, Aminta Breaux said the school’s HBCU connection and the growing awareness of such institutions are part of the reason why the school is growing. But she also said a greater emphasis on fundraising and new programs and simply improving marketing efforts are also having an effect.
“We have seen around a 3% growth since 2017,” she said. “Our applications are up, just since last year, by 37%.
“We’re promoting the excellence across this country,” Breaux said. However, she also argued that improving academics on the school’s campus is also having an impact.
“Every business, every organization, is focused on cybersecurity,” she said. “We’re one of the leading producers here in Maryland for cybersecurity analysts. We have a center of excellence that’s supported by the Department of Homeland Security and the (National Security Agency).”
It also helps that the school is in proximity to various federal agencies and private sector companies.
“Our employers have taken advantage of our proximity to them in recognizing us as a talent pipeline,” Breaux said.
A new building that houses an expanded nursing program is also meeting a need in a post-pandemic world.
“With COVID-19, we recognize that there are nurses that may leave the profession. But we need to reinforce nursing as a pipeline,” Breaux said.
After a yearslong lawsuit filed by Maryland’s four HBCU’s against the state has been settled, Maryland is required to increase funding to those schools. And Breaux said there are plans for the money coming in.
“We’re hoping that we’ll be able to have more academic programs that are relevant for workforce needs,” she said.
At the same time, the school is celebrating its most successful fundraising campaign ever — raising over $41 million in recent years as part of its BSU Bold Campaign for Excellence.
And there’s also a realization that future growth will require a growing campus.
Just off Maryland Route 197 lies the school’s new Entrepreneurship Living and Learning Community, a maxed-out dorm and instructional building school leaders call the “Gateway” to the school. Breaux said the school wants to continue building around the “Gateway” to make it more of a destination around the region.
That means her eyes are on the property around the campus: its MARC Train Station, which is otherwise totally undeveloped.
“To have that serve as a hub of excitement with amenities, making sure that this is a destination place, we hope that we will be able to create an innovation hub for businesses to come here and work with our faculty and students,” Breaux said.
She also envisions a parking garage and hotel.
“It’s at the early stages right now, but we’re looking at a transit-oriented development zone, where there will be great excitement taking advantage of that train station,” she said. “When you drive along 197, there isn’t much along that corridor. But when you think about us being right between 295 and Route 50, there really is a great deal of opportunity.”
Mary McLeod Bethune, whom Bethune-Cookman University was named after, has a statue that is making history in the U.S. Capitol! Learn more in the story by Gillian Brockell at The Washington Post.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks during a congressional statue dedication in honor of Mary McLeod Bethune in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. Bethune, a civil rights leader whose parents were enslaved, was the Director of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
A statue of Mary McLeod Bethune will be unveiled Wednesday in the U.S. Capitol, making her the first Black American in the National Statuary Hall collection.
Bethune was a civil rights activist, a presidential adviser and the founder of the Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, which became Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach. Her statue will represent the state of Florida.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will host an unveiling ceremony Wednesday morning, with many other lawmakers expected to attend.
Since 1864, each state has been able to send two statues of distinguished citizens to represent it in the U.S. Capitol, constituting the National Statuary Hall collection. Since 2000, states have been able to remove and replace existing statues with new ones. A handful of states have done so, but none of those new additions have depicted Black Americans.
The statue of Bethune replaces one of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith. The change was directed by a state law signed by then-Gov. Rick Scott (R) in 2018. The Smith statue was removed in 2021.
A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is removed from the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington on Dec. 21, 2020. (Jack Mayer/AP)
The Bethune statue will be joined by others in the next few years. Virginia removed its statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in 2020 and plans to replace it with one of civil rights leader Barbara Johns. In 2019, Arkansas decided to replace both its statues — of white supremacist James Paul Clarke and Confederate sympathizer Uriah Milton Rose — with depictions of civil rights activist Daisy Bates and musician Johnny Cash, though both of the old statues remain in the Capitol.
Neither Congress nor the Architect of the Capitol, the agency that maintains the statues, has the authority to remove them. Under current law, statues representing a state may only be replaced with the approval of that state’s legislature and governor.
Mary McLeod Bethune with a line of students at her Florida school in 1905. (Library of Congress)
Although the Bethune statue will be the first of a Black American in the Statuary Hall collection, it is not the first statue of a Black American in the Capitol building. There are also statues of Frederick Douglass and Rosa Parks, and busts of Martin Luther King Jr. and Sojourner Truth. The latter three were commissioned by Congress and don’t represent any single state. The Douglass statue was a gift from D.C.
Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) is currently trying to get Congress to commission a statue of abolitionist and Union spy Harriet Tubman. A 2011 Maryland effort to replace one of its Capitol statues with Tubman failed in the state legislature.
The U.S. Capitol was built using enslaved labor.
Bethune was born in a cabin in South Carolina in 1875, the daughter of two formerly enslaved people. She had 16 siblings and was the only one able to attend a mission school,the only school available to Black students there at the time.She then went to seminary in North Carolina. Bethune taught in Georgia, South Carolina and Florida before starting her own boarding schoolin 1904. In 1936, she began serving as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s director of Negro Affairs for the National Youth Administration.
She also served in his unofficial “Black Cabinet” and was a close friend of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She was a civil rights activist and helped start the United Negro College Fund before her death in 1955.
Norfolk State University was affected by a rash of bomb threats in Virginia on Tuesday. Learn more from Angelique Arintok and staff at 13 News Now.
Photo Credit: 13 News Now
Multiple Hampton Roads colleges and universities received bomb threats on Tuesday morning, officials confirmed.
Regent University, Tidewater Community College, Norfolk State University, Virginia Peninsula Community College and Paul D. Camp Community College all investigated threats.
Regent University in Virginia Beach was ordered to evacuate.
The Virginia Beach Police Department confirmed that Regent received a bomb threat, and police were searching the campus. Shortly after 12:30 p.m., Regent’s website listed an alert asking people to evacuate the campus until further notice. The university got an all-clear around 1:10 p.m.
“After a thorough sweep of the campus, the Regent University campus is clear and open,” Spokesperson Chris Roslan said.
At TCC, a caller reported a bomb in a backpack at the Cedar Road campus at 11:21 a.m, according to the Chesapeake Fire Department.
Police and fire officials searched the area, but no bomb was found, and the scene was given an all-clear.
The next threat to come in was reported at Paul D. Camp Community College in Franklin at 11:26 a.m. Someone called police to say they’d found a bomb at the school.
A police spokesman said they evacuated campus buildings, and came through with explosive-sniffing dogs to search the area. The Virginia State Police helped scour campus. Officials gave the all-clear at 2:04 p.m.
Police at Virginia Peninsula Community College got a report of a bomb threat at its Hampton campus shortly after 12:15 p.m., the college said.
The Hampton Police Division and the Hampton Division of Fire & Rescue were notified, and a canine unit swept Hastings Hall.
No one was hurt or ever in danger and everyone was given an all-clear shortly after 2:15 p.m.
NSU sent out an alert stating the following around 1:17 p.m.:
“In reference to the bomb threat that Norfolk State University received, several law enforcement agencies responded along with bomb detection dogs, who conducted a search and yielded negative results. An all clear has been issued and all staff and students can resume normal operations and activities.”
“I was just like ‘here we go again,'” said NSU senior “Lenise Dupree, who learned of another bomb threat on her campus on Tuesday.
Earlier this year, a series of historically Black colleges and universities — including NSU — received unfounded bomb threats.
“It’s always the trending topic on my social media and stuff, too. I hate seeing it,” Dupree added.
NSU officials said Norfolk FBI and the Norfolk Police Department are assisting campus police with their investigation.
Retired law enforcement officer with decades of experience in public service, Kenny Miller, said it’s more than likely that all agencies involved are responding with every valuable asset to keep each campus safe.
“This is probably an all-hands-on-deck. We won’t see it from a public perspective because there’s so much behind-the-scenes work going on right now,” he said.
TCC Criminal Justice Professor Dr. Antonio Passaro said police will leverage their resources — such as technology — to trace the source, “You can find it. You double back.”
At this point, it’s not clear whether the threats came from the same place. However, both men believe whoever’s responsible will face great consequences.
“It’s a serious crime. It’s a felony,” said Dr. Passaro.
“Why do such a thing when our country is going through so much right now?” Miller posed. “They think that they’re winning. They’re not. Yes, it causes disruption. Yes, it causes fear. Yes, it causes slowdown. But it doesn’t cause a stop.”
Miller expressed belief in the resilience of students, staff and anyone using campuses this summer, in spite of the suspect or suspects’ efforts.
Law enforcement agencies urge anyone in the community with information about any of the threats made today to call 1-888-LOCK-U-UP. You can remain anonymous.
At least two HBCUs in Virginia will not be raising tuition prices thanks to guidance from the state’s governor. Learn more in the story by Eric Kolenich at Richmond Times-Dispatch.
At least 10 state colleges will flatten tuition costs for in-state undergraduates this fall, as many have responded to a request by Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
While students and parents have been impacted by inflation, public schools in the state have found ways to tighten their belts, or they’ve received more funding than initially expected.
But the University of Virginia has declined the governor’s request, which caused Youngkin to feel “deeply disappointed,” he said this week in a telephone interview.
Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison University, Virginia Military Institute, the University of Mary Washington, Longwood University and Old Dominion University have changed course and announced freezes in the past week, joining Virginia Tech, the College of William & Mary, Virginia State University and Norfolk State University, which planned no tuition increases from the beginning.
George Mason University hasn’t made a decision yet. It will wait until December to reconsider tuition costs for the remainder of the school year.
Three others either did not respond to requests for comment or could not immediately provide information Thursday: Radford University, Christopher Newport University and the University of Virginia’s College at Wise.
“Of course, all these universities went and did this work because they know it’s the right thing to do,” Youngkin said in an interview this week.
“We are committed to access, affordability and excellence,” he added.
It would cost UVA $7.5 million to flatten tuition, Youngkin said, which he termed a small commitment for a school with a “giant budget” of almost $2 billion, an endowment valued last year at $14.5 billion and state funding that increased 18% from the previous biennium.
“I think that’s a really poor statement on their behalf,” he said.
Asked if there would be consequences for UVA’s actions, Youngkin declined to provide a specific response.
“This is actually a moment for goodwill to prevail,” as opposed to threats, he said.
A month ago, most of the state’s 15 public colleges planned to raise tuition, citing an average 5% increase to salaries, higher utility costs and increased expenses for maintenance.
The average cost of tuition and fees for public colleges in Virginia before scholarships and grants is roughly $13,000 annually. Room and board costs an additional $12,000.
Now, colleges have found a way to keep tuition flat. JMU, Mary Washington and VMI cited increased state funds as a reason they were able to freeze tuition costs.
Karol Kain Gray, VCU’s chief financial officer, noted that flat tuition would lead to an $11 million budget shortfall and the elimination of 62 jobs through attrition — but no layoffs. Forcing the school to continually freeze tuition will lead it down a path of mediocrity, she said.
“I don’t want anyone to think this won’t be difficult,” VCU rector Ben Dendy said last week.
Several schools have said they will raise fees and the cost of room and board next year.
Schools that have recently flattened tuition have followed Virginia Tech’s approach — raise the price on paper but offer a one-time scholarship to in-state undergraduates that covers the cost of the increase. Out-of-state students and graduate students will still pay the increase.
Though they have frozen tuition now, these schools are banking on an increase next year. Youngkin said he won’t worry about that until next year and that he understands inflation has hit colleges, too.
Virginia’s government funds its colleges less than other states, awarding $6,500 per student, roughly half the cost of education. Forty states provide a higher level of funding.
The state’s funding model, Youngkin said, “has resulted in great schools across the commonwealth.”
Several Buildings owned by HBCUs like Shaw University and Rust College will be receiving the funding and repairs they need thanks to grants from the National Park Service! Learn more in the story by Derek Major at Black Enterprise below.
Photo Credit: nps.gov
The National Park Service (NPS) announced it would award $9.7 million in grants to assist 21 preservation projects for historic buildings on HBCU campuses.
According to an NPS press release, the agency has awarded more than $87 million in grants to more than 85 active HBCUs since 1990. Congress appropriates funding for the program through the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF), which uses revenue from federal oil and gas leases on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to assist a broad range of preservation projects without using tax dollars.
“For more than 180 years, Historically Black Colleges and Universities have provided high-level academics, opportunities, and community for generations of students. These grants enable HBCUs to preserve the noteworthy structures that honor the past and tell the ongoing story of these historic institutions,” NPS Director Chuck Sams said in a statement.
Projects receiving grant money this year will preserve buildings and resources, including:
– Washington Hall: The building was founded in 1905 and is part of the Mississippi Industrial College Historic District. Rust College, located directly across the street, purchased the building and is working to reimagine the space. The NPS grant will address repairs to the roof.
– Dinkins Memorial Hall: Part of the proposed Selma University Historic District, the NPS grant will fund the replacement of the roof and upgrades to the HVAC and electrical systems.
Applications for $10 million in funding for the fiscal year 2022 can be filed here. Accredited HBCUs are eligible to apply for the grant program, and eligible projects include physical preservation sites listed in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
The NPS-HBCU grants can fund pre-preservation studies, architectural plans and specifications, historic structure reports, campus preservation plans, and National Register nominations.
Students at Elizabeth City State University will be able to focus on health on all levels after the HBCU received over $76,000 in funding. Learn more in the ECSU release below.
Photo Credit: Elizabeth City State University via Twitter
Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) has been awarded $76,150 from Sentara Healthcare to support a year-long university initiative called WELL. Through this new program, ECSU will sponsor a series of events over 12 months for both the campus and surrounding community to encourage individuals to recognize the physical, mental, emotional, social, intellectual, and spiritual impacts on his/her wellness.
ECSU will host experts who will share reliable, easy-to-understand information on a variety of topics, and bring in speakers as part of the university’s Community Connections: Performance and Lecture Series. The overarching goal of WELL is to ensure people in Pasquotank County are living their healthiest life by taking a holistic approach to wellness.
“We want to ensure our community both on- and off-campus have the facts and support needed for their overall wellness. Many people have a distrust of medicine as and lack the needed resources to live healthy lives as we’ve witnessed throughout the COVID pandemic,” says Dr. Gary Brown, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. “Our event series will help individuals connect the dots between the behaviors and feelings they may be experiencing and possible causes. We are still recovering as a community, and the more we learn, the healthier we will be.”
“The university is such an integral part of our region, and it’s important we have the funds needed to support our students, faculty, staff, and community,” adds Anita Walton, Vice Chancellor for University Advancement. “We are proud to partner with Sentara Healthcare to strengthen the health and well-being of our society.”
ECSU will focus on increasing general knowledge and causes of mental health issues, such as the stress and isolation created by the COVID pandemic. The objective is to remove the stigma surrounding mental health – many people experience mental health symptoms; it is nothing to be ashamed of and we want individuals to know where to get help. On campus, students, faculty, and staff should have the knowledge needed to identify a mental health issue early so he/she is empowered to take action and control by accessing resources they need. This will also help students complete their degree successfully.
The Division of University Advancement and the Division of Student Affairs collaborated to submit the grant on behalf of the ECSU Foundation.
The Southern University community is mourning former Jaguar Bradley Coleman, who was fatally injured in a tragic carjacking attempt. Learn more in the story by Ellyn Couvillion at The Advocate.
A former Southern University player died Sunday when three assailants tried to steal his vehicle in his hometown of Norcross, Georgia, the Gwinnett County Police Department told TV station Fox 5 Atlanta.
Bradley Coleman, 29, who played for the Jaguars from 2012-16, was at the air pumps of a convenience store filling the tires of his vehicle on Sunday afternoon when three people in a vehicle backed in beside him, the TV station reported.
When one of the people got into the driver’s seat of Coleman’s vehicle, Coleman began to fight off two of them.
The driver of a third vehicle, unaware of the attempted carjacking underway, pulled up behind the suspects’ vehicle; the suspects crashed into that vehicle when they shortly fled the scene, media reports said.
One of the assailants fatally shot Coleman as they left, police said.
The search is underway for the assailants, the Gwinnett County Police Department said.
Coleman was a graduate of Norcross High School.
At Southern, he was a wide receiver and played on the 2013 Southwestern Athletic Conference championship team.
“It is with great sadness to share with the Norcross family that we lost a brother this weekend,” the high school posted. “Bradley Coleman was a friend, father and an ambassador of goodwill. We will keep everyone informed about any arrangements and ways to help support the family.”
On Monday, Southern University President Dennis Shields said on social media, “On behalf of the Jaguar Nation, I offer sincere condolences to the family, teammates and other loved ones of Bradley Coleman, former Jaguar wide receiver.”
Shields noted that the Georgia native played on the 2013 Jaguar team “that brought the SWAC trophy home to Baton Rouge.”
