I so plan on making any challenges that they make open to the public.
-Ace of Ramables
Showing posts with label in the news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label in the news. Show all posts
17 March 2010
Top Chef in D.C.= SUPER EXCITED!!!!!
I LOVE cooking shows and Top Chef is one of my favorites, so when I read on DCist that rumors of it being filmed here have been confirmed I almost fainted with excitement!! Whoooooooooooo hoooooooooooooooooo!!!
I so plan on making any challenges that they make open to the public.
-Ace of Ramables
I so plan on making any challenges that they make open to the public.
-Ace of Ramables
12 March 2010
Successful Young Black Men
I have read 2 stories this week that have truly made me proud. Working at an all boys school I see first-hand what tools are needed to ensure the success of young Black men in America. Shout out to those parents, family, teachers, and friends that make it happen. Happy reading!
"Something just clicked," Alexander, now 18, said. "I knew I had to do something."
On Friday, Alexander proudly swapped his high school's red uniform tie for a striped red and gold one — the ritual at Englewood's Urban Prep Academy for Young Men that signifies a student has been accepted into college.
As the Roseland resident and 12 others tied their knots, Chicago's only public all-male, all-African-American high school fulfilled its mission: 100 percent of its first senior class had been accepted to four-year colleges.
Mayor Richard Daley and city schools chief Ron Huberman surprised students at the all-school assembly Friday morning with congratulations, and school leaders announced that as a reward, prom would be free.
The achievement might not merit a visit from top brass if it happened at one of the city's elite, selective enrollment high schools. But Urban Prep, a charter school that enrolls all comers in one of Chicago's most beleaguered neighborhoods, faced much more difficult odds.
Only 4 percent of this year's senior class read at grade level as freshmen, said Tim King, the school's founder and CEO.
"There were those who told me that you can't defy the data," King said. "Black boys are killed. Black boys drop out of high school. Black boys go to jail. Black boys don't go to college. Black boys don't graduate from college.
"They were wrong," he said.
Every day, before attending advanced placement biology classes and lectures on changing the world, students must first pass through the neighborhood, then metal detectors.
"Poverty, gangs, drugs, crime, low graduation rates, teen pregnancy — you name it, Englewood has it," said Kenneth Hutchinson, the school's director of college counseling, who was born and raised in Englewood.
He met the students the summer before they began their freshman year during a field trip to Northwestern University, the first time many of them had ever stepped foot on a college campus. At the time, Hutchinson was Northwestern's assistant director of undergraduate admissions. Inspired by what he'd seen, he started working for Urban Prep two months later.
"I'm them," he said Friday as he fought back tears. "Being accepted to college is the first step to changing their lives and their communities."
Hutchinson plays a major role in the school, where college is omnipresent. Students are assigned college counselors from day one. To prepare students for the next level, the school offers a longer than typical day — about 170,000 minutes longer, over four years, than other city schools — and more than double the usual number of English credits, King said
Even the school's voice-mail system has a student declaring "I am college-bound" before asking callers to dial an extension.
The rigorous academic environment and strict uniform policy of black blazers, red ties and khakis isn't for everyone. The first senior class began with 150 students. Of those who left, many moved out of the area and some moved into neighborhoods that were too dangerous to cross to get to the school, King said. Fewer than 10 were expelled or dropped out, he said.
At last count, the 107 seniors gained acceptance to a total of 72 different colleges, including Northwestern University, Morehouse College, Howard University, Rutgers University and University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Alexander was accepted to DePaul University.
While college acceptance is an enormous hurdle to jump, school leaders said they know their job isn't done; they want to make sure the students actually attend.
To that aim, King said, staff made sure that every student has completed the dreaded Free Application for Federal Student Aid, lest the red tape deter them.
Later in the year, the school plans to hold a college signing day where every student is to sign a promise to go to college, he said. Staff will stay in touch through the summer and hopefully in the first years of school.
"We don't want to send them off and say, ‘Call us when you're ready to make a donation to your alma mater,' " King said. "If we fulfill our mission, that means they not only are accepted to college, but graduate from it."
For now, students are enjoying the glow of reaching their immediate goal.
Normally, it takes 18-year-old Jerry Hinds two buses and 45 minutes to get home from school. On the day the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana was to post his admission decision online at 5 p.m., he asked a friend to drive him to his home in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood.
He went into his bedroom, told his well-wishing mother this was something he had to do alone, closed the door and logged in.
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" he remembers screaming. His mother burst in and began crying.
That night he made more than 30 phone calls, at times shouting "I got in" on his cell phone and home phone at the same time.
"We're breaking barriers," he said. "And that feels great."
_______________________________________________________
At thirteen years of age, Stephen Stafford is causing quite a stir at Morehouse College. Stafford has a triple major in pre-med, math and computer science. Though he loves playing video games and playing his drum set, he is no typical teenager.
"I've never taught a student as young as Stephen, and it's been amazing," said computer science professor Sonya Dennis. "He's motivating other students to do better and makes them want to step up their game."
Stafford began his college career at the age of 11, after being home-schooled by his mother. Stafford's mother said that when Stafford began to teach her instead of being taught by her, she knew he needed to be in a college environment.
Now THAT'S what I'm talking about. Stephen Stafford, in my opinion, represents exactly what black men are about: Intelligence, ambition and high academic achievement. This is not to disrespect men in other walks of life, but the truth is that you will never see Stephen Stafford's accomplishments promoted like a rap music video.
We must, as a community, applaud and uphold this young man. We must cheer for him as if he averages 40 points a game. We should converse about his achievements as if he had released a platinum hip-hop album. He should get the same respect as every linebacker, point guard or hip-hop artist in America.
Corporate America will not blow Stephen's trumpet, but I will. I also want all the other Stephen Staffords to make themselves seen. There are hundreds of thousands of Stephen Staffords out there who've been convinced by a culture of thuggery that they should do their best to hide their greatness. Rather than acing math class, they've been taught to measure grams and kilos or to memorize football playbooks that are 100 pages thick. Our young men can analyze the triangle offense in basketball and break down a nickel defense, but then become mentally deficient when it comes to doing algebra, science and social studies. The time for mediocrity is over, since education is the key to making your dreams come true. Sports only creates more nightmares for most of the young men who sacrifice their education in order to be athletes (even those who become professionals). This doesn't mean that athletes don't deserve our respect; instead, it means that we've got to learn to separate the hype from reality.
Stephen will make more money than nearly all of his athletic friends, because education produces economic empowerment. He will also have more personal freedom and professional fulfillment. He will live the American dream, and I encourage all of you to make your own sons into the next Stephen Stafford.
The recipe for our kids is simple:
1) Spend as much time studying as you spend playing sports or working at fast food restaurant jobs. If a kid can work 8 hours for McDonalds, then he can study 4 hours a day in the library.
2) Don't let anyone convince you that you can't achieve whatever you put your mind to. No one has the right to define you or your child. Because my grades were horrible in high school, I was told that I wasn't smart enough to go to college and (like millions of black boys across America) recommended for special education. Later on, I became the only African American in the world to earn a PhD in Finance during the year 2002. I didn't earn the degree because I was brilliant. I actually earned it because I finally realized that I had the ability and determination to make my dream into a reality.
Just by studying 4 to 5 hours per day (less than the number of hours they would put in to working a minimum wage job), almost any child in America can get a college degree and become a doctor, lawyer or whatever they want. If George Bush can go to Harvard, then every kid in America can graduate from college if they choose to do so. I've taught college for 16 years, and I can tell you that the term "college material" needs to be abolished. Every child is college material if they want to be. That's the truth.
I LOVE stories like these.
-Ace of Rambles
Every Urban Prep senior is college-bound
100 percent of first senior class at all male, all African-American Englewood academy is accepted to universities
By Duaa Eldeib, Tribune reporter
8:43 PM CST, March 5, 2010
Four years ago, Bryant Alexander watched his mother weep.
"Something just clicked," Alexander, now 18, said. "I knew I had to do something."
On Friday, Alexander proudly swapped his high school's red uniform tie for a striped red and gold one — the ritual at Englewood's Urban Prep Academy for Young Men that signifies a student has been accepted into college.
As the Roseland resident and 12 others tied their knots, Chicago's only public all-male, all-African-American high school fulfilled its mission: 100 percent of its first senior class had been accepted to four-year colleges.
Mayor Richard Daley and city schools chief Ron Huberman surprised students at the all-school assembly Friday morning with congratulations, and school leaders announced that as a reward, prom would be free.
The achievement might not merit a visit from top brass if it happened at one of the city's elite, selective enrollment high schools. But Urban Prep, a charter school that enrolls all comers in one of Chicago's most beleaguered neighborhoods, faced much more difficult odds.
Only 4 percent of this year's senior class read at grade level as freshmen, said Tim King, the school's founder and CEO.
"There were those who told me that you can't defy the data," King said. "Black boys are killed. Black boys drop out of high school. Black boys go to jail. Black boys don't go to college. Black boys don't graduate from college.
"They were wrong," he said.
Every day, before attending advanced placement biology classes and lectures on changing the world, students must first pass through the neighborhood, then metal detectors.
"Poverty, gangs, drugs, crime, low graduation rates, teen pregnancy — you name it, Englewood has it," said Kenneth Hutchinson, the school's director of college counseling, who was born and raised in Englewood.
He met the students the summer before they began their freshman year during a field trip to Northwestern University, the first time many of them had ever stepped foot on a college campus. At the time, Hutchinson was Northwestern's assistant director of undergraduate admissions. Inspired by what he'd seen, he started working for Urban Prep two months later.
"I'm them," he said Friday as he fought back tears. "Being accepted to college is the first step to changing their lives and their communities."
Hutchinson plays a major role in the school, where college is omnipresent. Students are assigned college counselors from day one. To prepare students for the next level, the school offers a longer than typical day — about 170,000 minutes longer, over four years, than other city schools — and more than double the usual number of English credits, King said
Even the school's voice-mail system has a student declaring "I am college-bound" before asking callers to dial an extension.
The rigorous academic environment and strict uniform policy of black blazers, red ties and khakis isn't for everyone. The first senior class began with 150 students. Of those who left, many moved out of the area and some moved into neighborhoods that were too dangerous to cross to get to the school, King said. Fewer than 10 were expelled or dropped out, he said.
At last count, the 107 seniors gained acceptance to a total of 72 different colleges, including Northwestern University, Morehouse College, Howard University, Rutgers University and University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Alexander was accepted to DePaul University.
While college acceptance is an enormous hurdle to jump, school leaders said they know their job isn't done; they want to make sure the students actually attend.
To that aim, King said, staff made sure that every student has completed the dreaded Free Application for Federal Student Aid, lest the red tape deter them.
Later in the year, the school plans to hold a college signing day where every student is to sign a promise to go to college, he said. Staff will stay in touch through the summer and hopefully in the first years of school.
"We don't want to send them off and say, ‘Call us when you're ready to make a donation to your alma mater,' " King said. "If we fulfill our mission, that means they not only are accepted to college, but graduate from it."
For now, students are enjoying the glow of reaching their immediate goal.
Normally, it takes 18-year-old Jerry Hinds two buses and 45 minutes to get home from school. On the day the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana was to post his admission decision online at 5 p.m., he asked a friend to drive him to his home in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood.
He went into his bedroom, told his well-wishing mother this was something he had to do alone, closed the door and logged in.
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" he remembers screaming. His mother burst in and began crying.
That night he made more than 30 phone calls, at times shouting "I got in" on his cell phone and home phone at the same time.
"We're breaking barriers," he said. "And that feels great."
_______________________________________________________
At thirteen years of age, Stephen Stafford is causing quite a stir at Morehouse College. Stafford has a triple major in pre-med, math and computer science. Though he loves playing video games and playing his drum set, he is no typical teenager.
"I've never taught a student as young as Stephen, and it's been amazing," said computer science professor Sonya Dennis. "He's motivating other students to do better and makes them want to step up their game."
Stafford began his college career at the age of 11, after being home-schooled by his mother. Stafford's mother said that when Stafford began to teach her instead of being taught by her, she knew he needed to be in a college environment.
Now THAT'S what I'm talking about. Stephen Stafford, in my opinion, represents exactly what black men are about: Intelligence, ambition and high academic achievement. This is not to disrespect men in other walks of life, but the truth is that you will never see Stephen Stafford's accomplishments promoted like a rap music video.
We must, as a community, applaud and uphold this young man. We must cheer for him as if he averages 40 points a game. We should converse about his achievements as if he had released a platinum hip-hop album. He should get the same respect as every linebacker, point guard or hip-hop artist in America.
Corporate America will not blow Stephen's trumpet, but I will. I also want all the other Stephen Staffords to make themselves seen. There are hundreds of thousands of Stephen Staffords out there who've been convinced by a culture of thuggery that they should do their best to hide their greatness. Rather than acing math class, they've been taught to measure grams and kilos or to memorize football playbooks that are 100 pages thick. Our young men can analyze the triangle offense in basketball and break down a nickel defense, but then become mentally deficient when it comes to doing algebra, science and social studies. The time for mediocrity is over, since education is the key to making your dreams come true. Sports only creates more nightmares for most of the young men who sacrifice their education in order to be athletes (even those who become professionals). This doesn't mean that athletes don't deserve our respect; instead, it means that we've got to learn to separate the hype from reality.
Stephen will make more money than nearly all of his athletic friends, because education produces economic empowerment. He will also have more personal freedom and professional fulfillment. He will live the American dream, and I encourage all of you to make your own sons into the next Stephen Stafford.
The recipe for our kids is simple:
1) Spend as much time studying as you spend playing sports or working at fast food restaurant jobs. If a kid can work 8 hours for McDonalds, then he can study 4 hours a day in the library.
2) Don't let anyone convince you that you can't achieve whatever you put your mind to. No one has the right to define you or your child. Because my grades were horrible in high school, I was told that I wasn't smart enough to go to college and (like millions of black boys across America) recommended for special education. Later on, I became the only African American in the world to earn a PhD in Finance during the year 2002. I didn't earn the degree because I was brilliant. I actually earned it because I finally realized that I had the ability and determination to make my dream into a reality.
Just by studying 4 to 5 hours per day (less than the number of hours they would put in to working a minimum wage job), almost any child in America can get a college degree and become a doctor, lawyer or whatever they want. If George Bush can go to Harvard, then every kid in America can graduate from college if they choose to do so. I've taught college for 16 years, and I can tell you that the term "college material" needs to be abolished. Every child is college material if they want to be. That's the truth.
I LOVE stories like these.
-Ace of Rambles
16 February 2010
11 January 2010
No Pants Metro Ride?!?!?
I meant to post this yesterday, but here it is today!
On Sunday, January 10th riders participated in the No Pants Metro Ride. It was VERY cold in the DC metro area yesterday, but that didn't stop folks from participating. This is just another one of those silly things that people in DC do. Here are some pictures from the event courtesy of the organizers' Flickr group. Enjoy!
On Sunday, January 10th riders participated in the No Pants Metro Ride. It was VERY cold in the DC metro area yesterday, but that didn't stop folks from participating. This is just another one of those silly things that people in DC do. Here are some pictures from the event courtesy of the organizers' Flickr group. Enjoy!
08 January 2010
Bra Colors Show Support For Breast Cancer Awareness
Many of you may have logged onto Facebook yesterday and saw women posting colors in their statuses and wonder, "What the heck?" Some of my favorites were: hot pink with black polka dots, turquoise with black lace, and Betty Boop print! Mass text messages and emails were being sent that said: Ladies! Post your bra color in your status to show support for Breast Cancer Awareness, and in honor of survivors and suffers. Also, DONT TELL MEN! The fun was in seeing all the guys go crazy trying to figure out why we were posting just colors in our statuses. *Hi-5* to whoever came up with the idea and to the ladies that participated.According to the National Cancer Institute, in 2009 there were 192, 370 new cases of women with Breast Cancer and 1, 910 new cases for me. There were 40, 170 females who dies from Breast Cancer in 2009 and 440 men. Some people thought that posting your bra color in your status was silly, but I dont think there is anything silly about prompting a conversation that could save lives. I'm glad I participated.
-Ace of Rambles
UPDATE--Story posted on Washington Post
2U9BKZ0zY1C-!~~_3.JPG)
07 January 2010
Are You Freaking Kidding Me?!?!?
So in the light of news headlines from yesterday that made me say, "Are you freaking kidding me?!?!" I have decided to title this blog the same....and discuss said articles.
First up, Use of word Negro on 2010 census forms raises memories of Jim Crow--NY Daily News. This may be the HBCU in me, but get the heck outta here!! I definitely don't use words that were used to describe my ancestors when they were thought of as 3/5 of a human. I identify with being of African decent and
Many African Americans (or Black people) still consider and call themselves the N word, but does that mean it is appropriate for the Census? I think not...way to go Congress for approving this nonsense *eye roll* Oh, and here is the actual form.
Next, Sandra Bullock is nominated for a NAACP Image Award for her role in 'The Blind Side'. Not that I dont like Sandra Bullock's work, but the purpose of NAACP Image Awards is to celebrate "outstanding achievements and performances of people of color in the arts as well as those individuals or groups who promote social justice." In a time where African American actresses still struggle to get leading roles in movie and television, let alone be nominated for their work, I think that nomination should have gone to a different actress. I guess Beyonce's role in 'Obsessed' wasnt good enough...lol
Thirdly, Chris Henry's Fiancee won't be charged. I can't say that I am surprised though. When I was discussing this incident with some friends I was trying to explain to them that if the police can't prove that she acted unlawful (i.e. driving over the speed limit) then they would not be able to charge her. (Shout out to my Legal Communications degree and B+ in Business Law...lol). The people I was having my discussion with believe that if the genders were switched then Chris Henry would have been charged. I disagree, and my argument would still be the same. If there isn't proof of illegal activity, then he/she shouldn't be charged.
Lastly, Arenas suspended indefinitely--ESPN.com Did Gilbert not learn anything from Plaxico Burress?? SMH But no seriously, what in the world made Arenas think bringing a gun into the arena would be a good idea? All I can do is wish Gilbert luck because DC has some of the most serious gun laws in the nation.
-Ace of Rambles
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
