November is National Scholarship Month NOW is the time to start applying for scholarships

Education

SALT LAKE CITY–TFS Scholarships is the most comprehensive free online resource for higher education funding connecting students to more than 7 million scholarships representing more than $41 billion in aid.

It was founded in 1987 after Richard Sorensen’s father, an inner-city high school principal, bemoaned the lack of good scholarship resources for his students.

High school seniors now applying for college should also be applying for scholarships, according to Richard Sorensen, an expert with more than 30 years experience helping students find scholarships.

“College bound students should spend four to five hours a week looking for scholarships, starting in the fall of their senior year,” says Sorensen, President of TFS Scholarships. “They should think about finding scholarships like it’s a part time job.”

A scholarship, unlike a student loan, is free money and should always be the first place students look for help in funding their college education. The majority of the scholarship opportunities featured on the TFS Scholarships website come directly from colleges and universities, rather than solely from competitive national pools, thereby increasing the chances of finding scholarships.

“There are new scholarships posted on the site every month, each with different deadlines and time frames,” says Sorensen. “There is plenty of aid out there and a lot of it goes untouched. If a student is diligent, they’ll find it.”

TFS Scholarships also posts a new scholarship opportunity every day on its Twitter, Facebook and Instagram social media accounts (@TFSscholarships), making it easy to find new scholarship opportunities. “We call it ‘The Scholarship of the Day,’” says Sorensen. “Most of the scholarships are available for all students so if a student or their parents follow us, they will have the opportunity to apply for more than 300 scholarships every year from this source alone.”

TFS takes it a step further, digging deeper into localized scholarships. “If you wanted to go to Arizona State, for example, we have scholarships specific to that school,” says Sorensen.

Each month TFS adds more than 5,000 new scholarships to its database in an effort to stay current with national scholarship growth rates – maximizing the number of opportunities students have to earn funding for their education.

Once students have their scholarships in hand, how they manage them can have important implications. It is up to the student to inform the school of the scholarship.

“The truth is, the money is going to be sent to the school in most cases,” says Sorensen. “If the money is going to tuition and books, it’s tax free. But it is taxable if they use it for living expenses. And if students get more money in scholarships than their direct expenses, they get the difference back from the school,” says Sorensen.

The TFS website also provides financial aid information, resources about federal and private student loan programs, and a Career Aptitude Quiz that helps students identify the degrees and professions that best fit their skills.

Thanks to the financial support of Wells Fargo, TFS has remained a free, online service that effectively connects students with college funding resources to fuel their academic future. “Students trust us with a lot of their personal information and we respect that,” says Sorensen. “With TFS, they never have to be worried about being bombarded by spam.”

For more information about Tuition Funding Sources visit tuitionfundingsources.com.

About TFS Scholarships

TFS Scholarships (TFS) is an independent service that provides free access to scholarship opportunities for aspiring and current undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. Founded in 1987, TFS began as a passion project to help students and has grown into the most comprehensive online resource for higher education funding. Today, TFS is a trusted place where students and families enjoy free access to more than 7 million scholarships representing more than $41 billion in college funding. In addition to its vast database that’s refreshed with 5,000 new scholarships every month, TFS also offers information about career planning, financial aid, and federal and private student loan programs as part of its commitment to helping students fund their future. Learn more at tuitionfundingsources.com.

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$2 Million Awarded to Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Education

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), is announcing grant awards of nearly $2 million to four Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

In June 2018, MBDA invited HBCUs to propose projects that will achieve one or more of the following objectives: increase their ability to compete for and receive Federal research and development funds; establish partnerships with Federal laboratories and other technology resources; increase Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) entrepreneurship; and compete for Federal contracts.

“Historically Black Colleges and Universities served as the catalyst to creating the black middle class in America and will continue to be the incubator for minority business talent, innovation, and leadership. These important schools generate billions in economic impact annually and are engines for job creation in their local economies across the United States,” said MBDA National Director Henry Childs II. “These grant awards will provide seed money for these institutions to pursue innovative projects and to build more revenue-generating infrastructures to better serve our nation’s future entrepreneurs and workforce.”

The HBCUs that received grant awards include:

Clark Atlanta University ($499,497) to develop a STEM entrepreneurship curriculum that increases student interest in the innovation economy at three Atlanta University Center Consortium campuses.
Howard University ($359,891) to design a technical support model for 11 HBCUs in the mid-Atlantic region to compete for Federal research and development funds and leverage partnerships with Federal laboratories.
South Carolina State University ($404,992) to launch regional training sessions for HBCUs to compete for Federal research and development funds.
Tougaloo College ($695,412) to establish a partnership among multiple HBCUs, private companies, federal labs, and research institutions to increase capacity for HBCUs to participate in federal research and contracting opportunities.

These programs are part of the 2018 MBDA Broad Agency Announcement, a new initiative. More than $13 million was awarded for 35 projects focused on Department of Commerce and MBDA priorities from resources that increase disaster preparedness and relief to programs that increase access to capital.

Source: Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA)

How MBA Programs are diversifying

Education

During orientation at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Scheller College of Business, first-year MBA student Jasmine Howard received a lesson on the neurochemistry of unconscious bias, which explored “how the brain takes shortcuts and makes stereotyping decisions,” she explains.

In another exercise, students were asked to stand up if they identified with certain groups or preferences. “There was a mix of visually obvious traits like race and ethnicity, but also some less obvious ones like ‘I am or love someone who is LGBTQ or struggling with addiction,'” she says. The point: “To learn on a deeper level all the different aspects that make up a person and what they bring to the table.”

Bias training and similar exercises are becoming routine at business schools around the country seeking to boost the ranks of female and traditionally underrepresented groups in graduate programs – and make them feel welcome on campus. The push can’t come soon enough. Only 16 percent of GMAT test-takers in the U.S. are from underrepresented populations, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the test, and many schools have dismal numbers of minority students.

That’s in spite of a growing consensus that diversity in every form – from race and gender to country of origin – improves both the educational experience and the field of business itself, experts say.

“You will learn a lot more when you are interacting with people who think differently than you do than if you’re dealing with people who already think and believe the same things you do,” says Bruce DelMonico, assistant dean for admissions at the Yale School of Management.

And research consistently shows that diverse business teams perform better and achieve superior outcomes, such as greater creativity and innovation. Of the more than 700 business leaders surveyed by the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill in 2016, 95 percent said an inclusive culture is critical to their organization’s future success.

No wonder schools are stepping up their efforts to recruit minority candidates for MBAs and other graduate degrees. According to Juliane Iannarelli, senior vice president and chief knowledge officer for AACSB International, a nonprofit that accredits business schools globally, the institutions making the biggest strides are those “tackling multiple dimensions.”

This can mean engaging minority high school students to think about careers in business, assessing the climate for inclusion and diversity on campus, and staging recruiting events or diversity weekends for prospective business students.

Continue on to U.S. News to read the complete article.

Meet the Women Fighting to Save Black Mothers: ‘There’s a Lot of Work to Do’

Education

In recent years, birth stories from stars like Serena Williams and Beyoncé have served to highlight the state of Black maternal health in the United States — Williams, 37, underwent an emergency c-section and endured a a pulmonary embolism and Beyoncé, 37, suffered from preeclampsia and also had an emergency c-section.

The stars’ experiences brought attention to the dire state of medical care for pregnant Black women in the U.S., particularly in poorer communities. Black babies in the country are twice as likely to die in their first year of life than white babies, according to the Brookings Institution, a Washington D.C.-based research group. Additionally, Black women are three to four times more likely than white women to suffer pregnancy-related deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Black women are also more likely to have a stillbirth, give birth prematurely, have low birth-weight infants, have a miscarriage even. There are a lot of challenges that folks are dealing with,” Black Mamas Matter Alliance co-director Elizabeth Dawes Gay tells PEOPLE. “It boils down to toxic stress, racism in society, in the healthcare setting, disparities in access to care. There’s a lot of work to do. I think we will see a change but it is going to take a long time.”

That’s why Black maternal health advocates are trying to raise more consistent awareness about birth outcomes and establish policy changes to close what is known as the Black-white gap. One example is Black Mamas Matter Alliance’s Black Maternal Health Week, an effort to shed light on the challenges and opportunities in the fight for Black women’s maternal and reproductive justice.

For the complete article, continue on to People.

Jade Colin is the Youngest Black Woman to own a McDonald’s Franchise

CareersEducationFinance

Colin and her employees pose in the lobby of McDonald's

Meet Jade Colin, the youngest black woman to own a McDonald’s franchise.

The New Orleans native, has always been independent and a hard worker. The 28-year-old started her career in college while working the night shift at a local McDonald’s.

There, she earned promotions and awards, inspiring her to purchase her own franchise.

After graduating from the University of Louisiana with a business degree in 2012, Colin applied for the Next Generation program for children of McDonald’s owners. During the program, Colin earned several awards for her business management skills.

She received a Ray Kroc Award and was recognized as one of the top McDonald’s restaurant managers in the country.

After she finished the two-year program, Colin became a manager at her parents’ franchise. From there, she planned to open her own – and she succeeded.

Colin opened her first franchise in 2016, and she is still the youngest black franchise owner.”

As an African-American community, we need more men and women to know that it’s not just about right now, but it’s about the generations to come,” she told The Black Professional.

LeBron James “I Promise School” Showing Early Signs Of Success

Education

The scene might be expected on a special occasion at any other public school. At LeBron James’s I Promise School, it was just Monday.

Every day, they are celebrated for walking through the door. This time last year, the students at the school — Mr. James’s biggest foray into educational philanthropy — were identified as the worst performers in the Akron public schools and branded with behavioral problems. Some as young as 8 were considered at risk of not graduating.

The academic results are early, and at 240, the sample size of students is small, but the inaugural classes of third and fourth graders at I Promise posted extraordinary results in their first set of district assessments. Ninety percent met or exceeded individual growth goals in reading and math, outpacing their peers across the district.

“These kids are doing an unbelievable job, better than we all expected,” Mr. James said in a telephone interview hours before a game in Los Angeles for the Lakers. “When we first started, people knew I was opening a school for kids. Now people are going to really understand the lack of education they had before they came to our school. People are going to finally understand what goes on behind our doors.”

For the complete article, continue on to New York Times.

One Of The Largest Class Of Black J.D. Candidates At Harvard University Are Making Sure They Make A Statement

Education

With over 60 Black students, Harvard Law School’s class of 2021 is one of the largest class of Black J.D. candidates in the educational institution’s history. To showcase this excellence, the students created a photo-based social media campaign using the hashtag #BlackatHarvardLaw.
With this initiative, Black students in Harvard Law’s freshman class aim to mark their place on campus, while also encouraging the next generation of Black lawyers to fearlessly follow in their footsteps.

Co-organizers of the campaign Sarah Rutherford, Shane Fowler, Daniel Oyolu and Armani Madison sat down with Blavity to talk about the purpose of the campaign and their collective experiences as Black students while attending Harvard Law.

“This campaign is important because so many folks have invested in our success, and inspired and encouraged us to set our sights high. It’s important [that] we do the same for those who come after,” Oyolu told Blavity.

“There are 60-plus people that represent the African diaspora in the photo,” Rutherford said.

According to Rutherford, the campaign’s timing was strategically designed to align with the school’s annual event series for prospective and newly admitted students.
“This campaign was really important for us to launch ahead of Harvard Law’s two Admitted Students Weekends,” Rutherford explained. “We want this year’s admitted students and those who are considering applying to know that there is a supportive Black community at Harvard Law School.”

For the complete article, continue on to Blavity.

Kenyan Teacher Who Gives Away 80 Percent Of Salary To Poor Communities Wins $1 Million Global Prize

Education

Peter Tabichi poses for camera wearing a blue sweater and white collared shirt

A rural Kenyan teacher who gives 80 percent of his monthly income to poor communities, just won a $1 million global prize, proving that the blessings you bestow usually come right back to you.

Peter Tabichi, a Franciscan brother who teaches math and physics, was honored with the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize on Sunday in Dubai, United Arab Erimates.

The Varkey Foundation definitely chose well. Tabichi teaches at a Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School in Pwani Village, making use of only one computer, poor internet connection and a staggering student-teacher ratio of 58:1. Still, he visits internet cafes when he can to make sure he gets the proper content for his students, and then uses them offline. Students walk just over four miles along roads that are often impassable in the raining season to learn, the Varkey Foundation noted in Tabichi’s profile.

He and four of his colleagues also go the extra mile to ensure that low-achieving students get one-on-one tutoring outside of class and over the weekends, visiting students’ home and meeting with their families to help identify the challenges they have and face them together.

According to the profile, most of Tabichi’s students, 95 percent of them, come from poor families. Almost a third of these students are orphans or only have one parent. And many go without food when at home. Drug abuse, teenage pregnancies, dropping out of school, young marriages, and suicide are also issues that his students face.

Still, Tabichi soldiered on, working with his amazing students, who he mentored through the Kenya Science and Engineering Fair in 2018, in which they came in first. Currently, the Mathematical Science team is qualified to participate in the INTEL International Science and Engineering Fair in 2019 in Arizona, which they are prepping for.

Under the guidance of Tabichi and his colleagues, Keriko’s enrollment has doubled to 400 in over three years, and more of his students are moving on to college after they finish their education with him.

Continue on to Essence to read the complete article.

Community college names first African-American as president

Education

Tyrone Jackson poses outside in suit and tie with a brick wall background

MOORHEAD, Miss. — Mississippi Delta Community College is naming a native of the Delta region as president. Tyrone Jackson will become the college’s first African-American president and its ninth overall.

Larry Nabors is retiring after six years as president.

College trustees chose Jackson, now a Hinds Community College vice president, to lead the 2,400-student institution beginning July 1.

“It’s very special,” Jackson told The Greenwood Commonwealth . “As an African-American, to come back to the Mississippi Delta and to be the first African-American to lead this institution, it’s definitely an honor to have this opportunity.”

A Rosedale native, Jackson currently leads the Utica campus for Hinds and oversees administrative services. He earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Delta State University. Jackson worked there in a series of jobs, including associate director of housing and residence life, director of multicultural affairs and director of graduate studies.

He left Delta to work for two years as associate vice president at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, where he served for two years as associate vice president for student services. He worked for Hinds for five years.

Jackson says he intends to listen to students, faculty and staff to learn about the college and to also maintain the college’s profile in the community, as well as working to recruit students. He said he’d like to work to raise pay for faculty.

Continue on to Westport News to read the complete article

11-Year Old Prodigy Receives Full-Ride Scholarship

Education

This Black child prodigy is wasting no time making his mark on the world. At just 11-years old, Elijah Precciely is a full-time student at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is also the youngest full-ride scholarship recipient the university has ever signed.

While he just began his career as a full-time student in the 2019 spring semester, he has been taking classes at the university since he was 8 years old.

The opportunity to start his college career early began when his mother reached out to a member of Southern University’s Physics department, Dr. Diola Bagayoko. While initially looking for lab space for his inventions, the professor invited Elijah to sit in on his classes.

While being homeschooled, he went on to take classes in biology, physics, and business. Now enrolled at the university as a full-time student, he will be studying physics and mechanical engineering through the honors college. Due to his previously earned credits, he already has a Sophomore class ranking.

“When I reflect on this Joseph S. Clark Presidential Scholars Award it means absolute legacy, nothing but legacy to me,” Elijah said while signing his letter of acceptance. “Those that have paved the way, I want to thank you for paving the way in my education, and I will absolutely pave the way for others to do the impossible. I am elated.”

For the complete article, continue on to Black News.

Black Migration Was Hot Topic at 93rd ASALH Black History Month Luncheon

Education

By Roy Betts

More than 1,000 educators, historians, students and community and government leaders convened for the 93rd annual Black History Month luncheon hosted by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) in Washington, D.C.

The nation’s premier Black History Month event focused on ASALH’s 2019 theme Black Migrations, which emphasizes the movement of people of African descent to new destinations and subsequently to new social realities.

Black migrations are stories of “pain and unbridled hope” that “ultimately are about our striving, about our endurance, and about our perseverance in America,” said Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, ASALH national president and history department chair and Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and African and African American Studies at Harvard University.

The luncheon featured a panel discussion on Black Migrations led by Dr. Jelani Cobb, the Ira R. Lipman Professor of Journalism at Columbia University. Other panelists were Dr. Gloria Browne-Marshall, professor constitutional law at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice; Kojo Nnamdi, host of radio shows “The Politics Hour” and “The Kojo Nnamdi Show” on WAMU 88.5 at American University; and Dr. G. Derek Musgrove, associate professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

As reported in an article written by LaMont Jones for Diverseeducation.com, speakers on the panel noted that Black Americans continually forged new identities with each major transfer of population, from the Great Migration from the agricultural south to the industrial north to a current reverse migration of sorts back to the south.

“Folks are constantly negotiating what it means to be African American on the back end of these migrations,” said Musgrove.

Events that have triggered forced or voluntary Black migration punctuate “400 years of perseverance” seeking economic progress, safety, and respect, yet “when we reinvent ourselves, laws change to undermine our progress,” said Browne-Marshall.

Immigration from the Caribbean, Africa, and across the African diaspora can affect and be affected by Black migration events in the United States, and racism and oppression of Blacks everywhere has created a common bond, said Nnamdi.

Current implications of Black migration are informed by various demographic shifts, particularly ones that have seen African Americans move outward from major cities such as the District of Columbia and New York — where they had been a large part or the majority of the population — because of economic factors.

The large Black population of Prince George’s County in Maryland was partly a response to cost and quality of living issues in D.C., and it’s important to understand such phenomena when considering how Black Americans are “on the move” today, said Musgrove.

Black people tend to migrate where they perceive opportunities to be, which may be behind the decision of large numbers to return to southern roots from the North and Midwest in recent years, observed Browne-Marshall.

She questioned where the next Black migration should be.

“Out of this country?” she asked. “Back down South? Are we going from the frying pan to the fire? Or do we want another frying pan?”

Roy Betts is a member of ASALH’s Marketing and Public Relations Committee.

Mark Dean: Computer Engineering’s “Hidden Figure”

EducationTechnology

Chances are, if you’ve ever stuck a disk drive into a computer or printed from a computer or even used a computer with a color screen, you have computer scientist and engineer, Mark Dean, to thank for all of that.

While he may not be as known as computer gurus like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, Mark Dean’s contributions to the personal computer aren’t any less notable.

He holds some of the largest, most groundbreaking personal computer patents including the first color PC monitor and the first gigahertz chip. He also co-invented the Industry Standard Architecture system bus, which allows for computer plug-ins such as disk drives and printers.

Born in Jefferson City, Tennessee, in 1957, Dean helped launch the personal computer age with work that made the machines more accessible and powerful.

From an early age, Dean showed a love for building things; as a young boy, Dean constructed a tractor from scratch with the help of his father, a supervisor at the Tennessee Valley Authority. While still in high school, he also built his own computer, radio and amplifier.

Dean also excelled in many different areas, standing out as a gifted athlete and an extremely smart student who graduated with straight A’s from Jefferson City High School. In 1979, he graduated at the top of his class at the University of Tennessee, where he studied engineering.

As an engineer, Dean proved to be a rising star at the company. Working closely with a colleague, Dennis Moeller, Dean developed the new Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) systems bus, a new system that allowed peripheral devices like disk drives, printers and monitors to be plugged directly into computers. The end result was more efficiency and better integration.

But his groundbreaking work didn’t stop there. Dean’s research at IBM helped change the accessibility and power of the personal computer. His work led to the development of the color PC monitor and, in 1999, Dean led a team of engineers at IBM’s Austin, Texas, lab to create the first gigahertz processing chip chip—a revolutionary piece of technology that is able to do a billion calculations a second.

For the complete article, continue on to Black Doctor.

The 2019 Oscars broke boundaries, especially for women of color

Education

Over the past few years, the #OscarsSoWhite and Time’s Up movements have been pushing unceasingly for more diversity in Hollywood, both in front of the screen and behind the scenes. And while the Oscars are still overwhelmingly white and male, that work has started to pay off, with the Academy adding multiple women and people of color to its voting body in 2017.

That was evident at the 2019 Oscars: Multiple Oscars milestones were reached, with people of color and women taking home awards that have never been claimed by anyone from their identity group before.

They’re milestones worth celebrating — but it’s also worth noting how absurdly long it’s taken to get even this far.

Black Panther led the charge in multiple categories

Black Panther’s black-focused, women-led production team set multiple milestones. As Alyssa Klein noted on Twitter, Ruth E. Carter and Hannah Beachler — winners for best costume and best production design, respectively — became the second and third black women ever to win a non-acting Oscar, and the first to win in more than 30 years. (Their predecessor, Irene Cara, won in 1984 for writing the “Flashdance” song.)

And together with Regina King, who won Best Supporting Actress for If Beale Street Could Talk, the three wins represented the first time that more than one black woman has won an Oscar in the same year. Beachler was also the first black woman to even be nominated for production design, so her win was a triple milestone.

(Via Washington Post)

For the complete article, continue on to Vox.

Black Panther led the charge in multiple categories

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