Um, OK, so your point again IS?
Black people are too often unaware of their own accomplishments
- Thread starter Greed
- Start date
For the record, this was never meant to be a black history thread.
Investing joins 3 R's at unusual school
By DAVE CARPENTER, AP Business Writer
2 hours, 4 minutes ago
CHICAGO - Like their peers elsewhere, the students at a one-of-a-kind public elementary school on the South Side of Chicago are dazzled by pop-culture stars — Beyonce and Common, Kanye West and Lil' Wayne, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
ADVERTISEMENT
Listen closely to the hallway chatter at Ariel Community Academy, though, and you may hear unexpected references to uncool dudes like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. After all, these kids have their portfolios to worry about.
The Ariel school is an experiment in financial literacy with real-life oomph: Each incoming first-grade class gets $20,000 that the children ultimately get to pick stocks for and manage. The goal is to add an I — investing — to the three R's, according John Rogers Jr., chairman and chief executive of Ariel Capital Management, the Chicago-based money management firm that established the school in 1996.
At a time when pensions are being phased out and people must rely more on their own investment smarts, Rogers thinks saving and investment should be an integral part of the curriculum at schools across the country.
"It's important to have all the reading and writing and arithmetic skill sets, but we can't think of anything else more important than to be able to be financially viable and competent as you start to build your working career," he said.
Experts say easy credit, aggressive marketing and the dizzying array of financial products and cashless spending options have led many American consumers astray, making it more essential than ever for kids to learn about money.
Iowa State University professor Tahira Hira, a member of the newly formed President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, is among those advocating that personal finance be required teaching at every elementary school.
"People who were brought up with some lesson in saving or borrowing act differently than those who weren't," Hira said. Opening bank accounts for children, buying them stock in a fast-food company or the company that makes their favorite toy, teaching them to spend some, save some and give some away when they receive cash as a gift — "our research shows that all those things do matter," she said.
The Ariel school's success can't be fully judged until its first graduates, now juniors in high school, make their own mark. But high math test scores give it a blue chip reputation and some cachet for its students in a mostly black, high-poverty area.
When eighth grader Victoria Bills talks about investments with her friends, for example, "They're like, 'Oh Victoria, that's like so cool!'" she said. "They're like, 'I want to go to that school.'"
That's music to the ears of the 49-year-old Rogers, who has long put a special emphasis on trying to encourage other African-Americans to save and invest more.
A South Side native, Rogers first got enthused about investing at age 12 when his father began buying him different stocks every birthday and Christmas.
After graduating from Princeton, where he was captain of the basketball team, he started Ariel when he was 24 with his own savings and investments begged from friends and family. Today, it has more than $13 billion under management in three mutual funds and separate accounts for 89 institutional clients. Rogers is also a close adviser to Sen. Barack Obama, who lives just five blocks down the street from the school in the Kenwood neighborhood.
Inspired by a symposium he attended on financial literacy in the mid-1990s, Rogers had Ariel team with fellow Chicago investment firm John Nuveen & Co. to fund the innovative school program.
The concept is simple: Ariel's experts manage a $20,000 portfolio for each class until sixth grade, briefing them regularly along the way, and then begin turning over the decisions to the children. Upon graduation from eighth grade, each class returns the initial investment amount to the school for another first-grade class and donates, invests or pockets the profits.
After giving half the gains to community charity programs or school initiatives, each student can then take the rest in cash or invest it in a Section 529 college savings plan, in which case they are given an additional $1,000. Last year, 80 percent of graduates invested their $150 shares in a 529.
The financial focus extends well beyond the portfolio at a school where hallways are named after Wall Street and other marketplaces, and students announce the latest business news twice daily over the PA system.
Financial concepts are woven into the curriculum, with first graders learning about core economic principles, for example, while eighth graders put together their own business plans. All 440 students are offered free tutoring from Ariel's professionals on Saturdays, and the older kids have the chance to hear analyst presentations and attend meetings at McDonald's Corp., where Rogers sits on the board of directors.
There's nothing dry about such schooling to these kids, according to Connie Moran, the school's director of financial education.
"When I say we're going to talk about money today, they don't go 'Eeeeehttp://www' like some kids might," said Moran, a former bond analyst. "It's like saying we're going to recess — that's never a problem."
Moran said her students soak up financial information like sponges. Besides, she noted, "We don't wait until our students are 16 to teach them how to read. Why wait until they're 16 to teach them how to manage a bank account?"
Twice a week or so, junior boards of directors elected by the seventh and eighth grades gather around a table under a giant mural depicting a bull and bear to discuss their class holdings.
With the whack of a gavel one recent day, they were off and running. The lively discussion touched on everything from the merits of the maker of Ugg boots to their tendency to load up on tech stocks to whether they should profit from companies that make weapons used in the war in Iraq.
Student Jordan Lillybridge likes sitting in the boardroom.
"It gives me an opportunity to express my opinion on which stock we should pick — especially me and Sony, because I am a big fan of Sony," said Lillybridge, who is 12. "Also Panera Bread."
Bills, too, revels in the whole experience, keeping tabs on financial news and monitoring her class' stocks at home.
"When I go to this school I actually feel special, because I'm learning things that most kids probably wouldn't even learn," she said, adding that she hopes to make enough in the market to help her mom.
Rogers, whose company spends nearly $1 million a year on the school, would love to see it churn out future portfolio managers, accountants and investment bankers. But for now he finds it "absolutely thrilling" just to sit in on the children's discussions about stocks.
Nurturing their education and watching them grow up and have fun with the stock market, he said, is "one of the greatest feelings in the world."
___
On the Net:
Ariel Community Academy: http://www.arielmutualfunds.com/content/view/107/1067/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080309/ap_on_bi_ge/investing_school;_ylt=Aj8OJmHXpOH05IRySrFbJjtI2ocA
Investing joins 3 R's at unusual school
By DAVE CARPENTER, AP Business Writer
2 hours, 4 minutes ago
CHICAGO - Like their peers elsewhere, the students at a one-of-a-kind public elementary school on the South Side of Chicago are dazzled by pop-culture stars — Beyonce and Common, Kanye West and Lil' Wayne, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
ADVERTISEMENT
Listen closely to the hallway chatter at Ariel Community Academy, though, and you may hear unexpected references to uncool dudes like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. After all, these kids have their portfolios to worry about.
The Ariel school is an experiment in financial literacy with real-life oomph: Each incoming first-grade class gets $20,000 that the children ultimately get to pick stocks for and manage. The goal is to add an I — investing — to the three R's, according John Rogers Jr., chairman and chief executive of Ariel Capital Management, the Chicago-based money management firm that established the school in 1996.
At a time when pensions are being phased out and people must rely more on their own investment smarts, Rogers thinks saving and investment should be an integral part of the curriculum at schools across the country.
"It's important to have all the reading and writing and arithmetic skill sets, but we can't think of anything else more important than to be able to be financially viable and competent as you start to build your working career," he said.
Experts say easy credit, aggressive marketing and the dizzying array of financial products and cashless spending options have led many American consumers astray, making it more essential than ever for kids to learn about money.
Iowa State University professor Tahira Hira, a member of the newly formed President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, is among those advocating that personal finance be required teaching at every elementary school.
"People who were brought up with some lesson in saving or borrowing act differently than those who weren't," Hira said. Opening bank accounts for children, buying them stock in a fast-food company or the company that makes their favorite toy, teaching them to spend some, save some and give some away when they receive cash as a gift — "our research shows that all those things do matter," she said.
The Ariel school's success can't be fully judged until its first graduates, now juniors in high school, make their own mark. But high math test scores give it a blue chip reputation and some cachet for its students in a mostly black, high-poverty area.
When eighth grader Victoria Bills talks about investments with her friends, for example, "They're like, 'Oh Victoria, that's like so cool!'" she said. "They're like, 'I want to go to that school.'"
That's music to the ears of the 49-year-old Rogers, who has long put a special emphasis on trying to encourage other African-Americans to save and invest more.
A South Side native, Rogers first got enthused about investing at age 12 when his father began buying him different stocks every birthday and Christmas.
After graduating from Princeton, where he was captain of the basketball team, he started Ariel when he was 24 with his own savings and investments begged from friends and family. Today, it has more than $13 billion under management in three mutual funds and separate accounts for 89 institutional clients. Rogers is also a close adviser to Sen. Barack Obama, who lives just five blocks down the street from the school in the Kenwood neighborhood.
Inspired by a symposium he attended on financial literacy in the mid-1990s, Rogers had Ariel team with fellow Chicago investment firm John Nuveen & Co. to fund the innovative school program.
The concept is simple: Ariel's experts manage a $20,000 portfolio for each class until sixth grade, briefing them regularly along the way, and then begin turning over the decisions to the children. Upon graduation from eighth grade, each class returns the initial investment amount to the school for another first-grade class and donates, invests or pockets the profits.
After giving half the gains to community charity programs or school initiatives, each student can then take the rest in cash or invest it in a Section 529 college savings plan, in which case they are given an additional $1,000. Last year, 80 percent of graduates invested their $150 shares in a 529.
The financial focus extends well beyond the portfolio at a school where hallways are named after Wall Street and other marketplaces, and students announce the latest business news twice daily over the PA system.
Financial concepts are woven into the curriculum, with first graders learning about core economic principles, for example, while eighth graders put together their own business plans. All 440 students are offered free tutoring from Ariel's professionals on Saturdays, and the older kids have the chance to hear analyst presentations and attend meetings at McDonald's Corp., where Rogers sits on the board of directors.
There's nothing dry about such schooling to these kids, according to Connie Moran, the school's director of financial education.
"When I say we're going to talk about money today, they don't go 'Eeeeehttp://www' like some kids might," said Moran, a former bond analyst. "It's like saying we're going to recess — that's never a problem."
Moran said her students soak up financial information like sponges. Besides, she noted, "We don't wait until our students are 16 to teach them how to read. Why wait until they're 16 to teach them how to manage a bank account?"
Twice a week or so, junior boards of directors elected by the seventh and eighth grades gather around a table under a giant mural depicting a bull and bear to discuss their class holdings.
With the whack of a gavel one recent day, they were off and running. The lively discussion touched on everything from the merits of the maker of Ugg boots to their tendency to load up on tech stocks to whether they should profit from companies that make weapons used in the war in Iraq.
Student Jordan Lillybridge likes sitting in the boardroom.
"It gives me an opportunity to express my opinion on which stock we should pick — especially me and Sony, because I am a big fan of Sony," said Lillybridge, who is 12. "Also Panera Bread."
Bills, too, revels in the whole experience, keeping tabs on financial news and monitoring her class' stocks at home.
"When I go to this school I actually feel special, because I'm learning things that most kids probably wouldn't even learn," she said, adding that she hopes to make enough in the market to help her mom.
Rogers, whose company spends nearly $1 million a year on the school, would love to see it churn out future portfolio managers, accountants and investment bankers. But for now he finds it "absolutely thrilling" just to sit in on the children's discussions about stocks.
Nurturing their education and watching them grow up and have fun with the stock market, he said, is "one of the greatest feelings in the world."
___
On the Net:
Ariel Community Academy: http://www.arielmutualfunds.com/content/view/107/1067/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080309/ap_on_bi_ge/investing_school;_ylt=Aj8OJmHXpOH05IRySrFbJjtI2ocA
Jendayi E. Frazer
BIOGRAPHY
Jendayi E. Frazer
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs
Term of Appointment: 08/29/2005 to present
Jendayi E. Frazer was sworn in as Assistant Secretary for African Affairs on August 29, 2005. Prior to her current assignment, Dr. Frazer served as U.S. Ambassador to South Africa. Immediately before her ambassadorship, Dr. Frazer served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of African Affairs at the National Security Council.
Prior to joining the George W. Bush Administration, Dr. Frazer taught public policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Dr. Frazer brought practical experience to that position, having worked as a political-military planner with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council, during her time as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow.
Dr. Frazer earned her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at Stanford University. Her doctoral dissertation examined Kenya's civilian-military relationship. Security issues remain of interest to Dr. Frazer, who regularly speaks to military audiences and about military-related issues in Africa.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/56774.htm
BIOGRAPHY
Jendayi E. Frazer
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs
Term of Appointment: 08/29/2005 to present
Jendayi E. Frazer was sworn in as Assistant Secretary for African Affairs on August 29, 2005. Prior to her current assignment, Dr. Frazer served as U.S. Ambassador to South Africa. Immediately before her ambassadorship, Dr. Frazer served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of African Affairs at the National Security Council.
Prior to joining the George W. Bush Administration, Dr. Frazer taught public policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Dr. Frazer brought practical experience to that position, having worked as a political-military planner with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council, during her time as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow.
Dr. Frazer earned her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at Stanford University. Her doctoral dissertation examined Kenya's civilian-military relationship. Security issues remain of interest to Dr. Frazer, who regularly speaks to military audiences and about military-related issues in Africa.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/56774.htm
Ferguson played a key role in coordinating the Fed's response to the attacks of September 11, 2001, which happened while Alan Greenspan, who was Fed chairman at that time, was out of the country. He is the highest-ranking African American to serve on the Fed.
Before joining the Fed, Ferguson was a partner at McKinsey & Co., an international management consulting firm.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060222...EfAlakA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
And they made him White in the movie
They claimed that they "didn't know".
bump 
http://www.swagga.com/inventors.htm
http://inventors.about.com/library/blblackinventors.htm
http://www.blackinventors.org/
http://inventors.about.com/od/blackinventors/Famous_Black_Inventors.htm
IMPORTANT NOTE: When searching about black inventions etc. DON'T click the link that says "martinlutherking.org" that has pages like "black inventors myth" its a subpage of Stormfront, made to brainwash and fuck young kids up who don't know when doing research for their school projects
http://www.swagga.com/inventors.htm
http://inventors.about.com/library/blblackinventors.htm
http://www.blackinventors.org/
http://inventors.about.com/od/blackinventors/Famous_Black_Inventors.htm
IMPORTANT NOTE: When searching about black inventions etc. DON'T click the link that says "martinlutherking.org" that has pages like "black inventors myth" its a subpage of Stormfront, made to brainwash and fuck young kids up who don't know when doing research for their school projects
This is one of my role models along with my father. They don't make cats like this anymore.
Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson
Robeson won an academic scholarship to Rutgers University. He was the third African-American student accepted at Rutgers, and was the only black student during his time on campus. Robeson was one of three classmates at Rutgers accepted into Phi Beta Kappa and one of four students selected in 1919 to Cap and Skull, Rutgers' honor society. He was honored with the Phi Beta Kappa Key in his third, Junior, year. He was also the class valedictorian, exhorting his classmates to "catch a new vision." Rutgers-Newark honored him by naming their student-life campus center, and art gallery after him.
A noted athlete, Robeson earned altogether fifteen varsity letters in football, baseball, basketball, and track and field. For his accomplishments as an end in football, he was twice named a first-team All-American in (1917 and 1918). When he went out for the Rutgers football team, the other players beat him viciously, even pulling out his fingernails. He bore the abuse to prove his worth. The football coach, Walter Camp, later described him as "the greatest to ever trot the gridiron." Later in his life, however, when the United States government stopped him from traveling outside the country, his name was retroactively struck from the roster of the 1917 and 1918 college All-America football teams.
After graduation from Rutgers, Robeson moved to Harlem and entered Columbia, Between 1920 and 1923, Robeson helped pay his way through law school by working as an athlete and a performer. He played professional football in the American Professional Football Association (later called the National Football League) with the Akron Pros and Milwaukee Badgers. He served as assistant football coach at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he was initiated into the Nu Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, the oldest intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity for African Americans.32 In 1922, he starred in the play Taboo in New York and in London. He graduated from Columbia in 1923, in the same law school class as William O. Douglas — later a United States Supreme Court Justice — and was hired at the law firm of Stotesbury and Miner in New York City; Robeson quit after a white secretary refused to take dictation from him because of the color of his skin. Robeson later studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
.....there's much more, but you get the gist. A brave man he was.
Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson
Robeson won an academic scholarship to Rutgers University. He was the third African-American student accepted at Rutgers, and was the only black student during his time on campus. Robeson was one of three classmates at Rutgers accepted into Phi Beta Kappa and one of four students selected in 1919 to Cap and Skull, Rutgers' honor society. He was honored with the Phi Beta Kappa Key in his third, Junior, year. He was also the class valedictorian, exhorting his classmates to "catch a new vision." Rutgers-Newark honored him by naming their student-life campus center, and art gallery after him.
A noted athlete, Robeson earned altogether fifteen varsity letters in football, baseball, basketball, and track and field. For his accomplishments as an end in football, he was twice named a first-team All-American in (1917 and 1918). When he went out for the Rutgers football team, the other players beat him viciously, even pulling out his fingernails. He bore the abuse to prove his worth. The football coach, Walter Camp, later described him as "the greatest to ever trot the gridiron." Later in his life, however, when the United States government stopped him from traveling outside the country, his name was retroactively struck from the roster of the 1917 and 1918 college All-America football teams.
After graduation from Rutgers, Robeson moved to Harlem and entered Columbia, Between 1920 and 1923, Robeson helped pay his way through law school by working as an athlete and a performer. He played professional football in the American Professional Football Association (later called the National Football League) with the Akron Pros and Milwaukee Badgers. He served as assistant football coach at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he was initiated into the Nu Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, the oldest intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity for African Americans.32 In 1922, he starred in the play Taboo in New York and in London. He graduated from Columbia in 1923, in the same law school class as William O. Douglas — later a United States Supreme Court Justice — and was hired at the law firm of Stotesbury and Miner in New York City; Robeson quit after a white secretary refused to take dictation from him because of the color of his skin. Robeson later studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
.....there's much more, but you get the gist. A brave man he was.
Bump
^^^^i hope no one takes offense, but "MY N!66@!!!"...^^^
<iframe src="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-471359/The-real-life-Doctor-Who-believes-build-time-machine.html" height= "500px" width= "75%">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-471359/The-real-life-Doctor-Who-believes-build-time-machine.html</iframe>
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<font size="3">
Great post! Thanks.
The frame was rather narrow in my browser,
here's the article with the code I typically use:
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<IFRAME SRC="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-471359/The-real-life-Doctor-Who-believes-build-time-machine.html" WIDTH=780 HEIGHT=1500>
<A HREF="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-471359/The-real-life-Doctor-Who-believes-build-time-machine.html">link</A>
</IFRAME>
Great post! Thanks.
The frame was rather narrow in my browser,
here's the article with the code I typically use:
</font size>
<IFRAME SRC="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-471359/The-real-life-Doctor-Who-believes-build-time-machine.html" WIDTH=780 HEIGHT=1500>
<A HREF="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-471359/The-real-life-Doctor-Who-believes-build-time-machine.html">link</A>
</IFRAME>
Dr. Lloyd A. Quarterman
Dr. Lloyd Quarterman was one of six Blacks on the Manhattan Project which produced the first Atomic bomb working along side Albert Einstein.
In 1946 he was cited by the U.S. Secretary of War for "work essential to the production of the Atomic Bomb, thereby contributing to the successful conclusion of World War II."
Dr. Quarterman was born May 31, 1918, in Philadelphia. He attended St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he continued the interest in chemistry he had demonstrated from an early age. Just after he completed his bachelor's degree in 1943 he was hired by the U.S. War Department to work on the production of the atomic bomb , an assignment code-named the Manhattan Project. Originally hired as a junior chemist, he worked at both the secret underground facility at the University of Chicago and at the Columbia University laboratory in New York City; the project was spread across the country in various locations. It was his team of scientists at Columbia working with Albert Einstein which first split the atom. To do this, scientists participated in trying to isolate an isotope of uranium necessary for nuclear fission; this was Quarterman's main task during his time in New York.
After the war Quarterman worked as a member of a team of scientists, contributing to the first full-scale use of controlled nuclear energy. His team made the first reactor for Nautilus, the worlds first nuclear-powered submarine.
<hr noshade color="#ff0000" size="10"></hr>
kogalee
Banned
http://www.noi.org/about_the_honorable_elijah_muhammad.shtml
An Historic Look At
The Most Honorable
Elijah Muhammad
Thirty-four years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was born on or about Oct. 7, 1897 in Sandersville, Georgia. The exact date of his birth remains unknown because record keeping in rural Georgia for the descendants of slaves was not kept current, according to historians and family members. Nevertheless, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said his birth took place some time in the first or second week of October in 1897 and set forth Oct. 7th as the anniversary date of his birth.
Indeed, life in the rural South at the turn of the century was quite hard. Poverty and survival were at war with each other. Elijah Poole, the son of a minister, and whose parents, William (later named Wali) and Marie Poole, had 12 other children, had to quit school after barely finishing the third grade to work in the fields as a sharecropper so his family could eat.
Just before the roaring twenties came in, Elijah Poole married the former Clara Evans, also of Georgia. They had eight children, Emmanuel, Ethel, Lottie, Nathaniel, Herbert, Elijah, Jr., Wallace and Akbar.
In April 1923, Elijah Poole moved his young family from Macon, Georgia, where he worked for the Southern Railroad Company and the Cherokee Brick Company to Detroit, Mich. Black families, like the Pooles, were leaving the south, at that time, in search of better economic and social circumstances. Detroit was a bustling upwardly mobile city with its burgeoning auto industry.
The stock market crash in 1929 was the gateway to economic misery that sparked the fuel of the "Great Depression" of the 1930s. Moreover, America's racial situation continued its downward spiral. Lynchings, race riots and other forms of terrorism against Blacks continued unabated. But Detroit, with its huge population of 1.5 million people including 250,000 thousand Blacks, was beginning to see changes in its social scene.
On July 4, 1930, the long awaited "Saviour" of the Black man and woman, Master W. Fard Muhammad, appeared in this city. He announced and preached that God is One, and it is now time for Blacks to return to the religion of their ancestors, Islam. News spread all over the city of Detroit of the preachings of this great man from the East. Elijah Poole's wife first learned of the Temple of Islam and wanted to attend to see what the commotion was all about, but instead, her husband advised her that he would go and see for himself.
Hence, in 1931, after hearing his first lecture at the Temple of Islam, Elijah Poole was overwhelmed by the message and immediately accepted it. Soon thereafter, Elijah Poole invited and convinced his entire family to accept the religion of Islam.
The Founder of the Nation of Islam gave him the name "Karriem" and made him a minister. Later he was promoted to the position of "Supreme Minister" and his name was changed to Muhammad. "The name 'Poole' was never my name," he would later write, "nor was it my father's name. It was the name the white slave-master of my grandfather after the so-called freedom of my fathers."
Mr. Muhammad quickly became an integral part of the Temple of Islam. For the next three and one-half years, Mr. Muhammad was personally taught by his Teacher non-stop. The Muslim community, in addition to establishing religious centers of worship, began to start businesses under the aegis of economic development that focuses on buying and selling between and among Black companies. Mr. Muhammad establishes a newspaper, "The Final Call to Islam," in 1934. This would be the first of many publications he would produce.
Meanwhile, Mr. Muhammad helped establish schools for the proper education of his children and the community. Indeed, the Muslim parents felt that the educational system of the State of Michigan was wholely inadequate for their children, and they established their own schools. By 1934, the Michigan State Board of Education disagreed with the Muslim's right to pursue their own educational agenda, and the Muslim Teachers and Temple Secretary were jailed on the false charge of contributing to the delinquency of minors. Mr Muhammad said he committed himself to jail after learning what had happened.
Ultimately, the charges were later dropped, and the officials were freed and Mr. Muhammad received six months' probation to take the Muslim children out of the Islamic school and put them under white Christian teachers. "This I did not do," he said. He moved to the city of Chicago in September of that same year. His Teacher, Master W. Fard Muhammad, was also harassed by the police and was forced out of Detroit and moved to Chicago where he continued to face imprisonment and harassment by the police. In 1934 Master W. Fard Muhammad departed the scene and left the Honorable Elijah Muhammad with the mission of resurrecting the Black man and woman.
By 1935, Mr. Muhammad faced many new challenges. His teacher had instructed him to go to Washington, D.C. to visit the Library of Congress in order to research 104 books on the religion of Islam, among other subjects. Also, after assuming the leadership of the Temple of Islam by the order of the Founder of the Nation of Islam, Mr. Muhammad faced a death plot at the hands of a few disgruntled members. Mr. Muhammad avoided their evil plan and went to Washington, D.C. to study and build a mosque there. He was known under many names, "Mr. Evans," his wife's maiden name, "Ghulam Bogans," "Muhammad Rassoull," "Elijah Karriem" and "Muhammad of 'U' Street."
Consequently, Mr. Muhammad, while in Washington, D.C. Was arrested on May 8, 1942, for allegedly evading the draft. "When the call was made for all males between 18 and 44, I refused (NOT EVADED) on the grounds that, first, I was a Muslim and would not take part in war and especially not on the side with the infidels," he wrote in "Message To The Blackman." "Second, I was 45 years of age and was NOT, according to the law, required to register."
Many other male members of the Nation of Islam at that time were imprisoned for being conscientious objectors to World War II. After World War II ended, Mr. Muhammad won his release from prison and returned to Chicago. From Chicago, the central point of the Nation of Islam, Mr. Muhammad expanded his membership drive to new heights. Among the many new members enrolled in the ranks of Islam included Brother Malcolm X and his family.
During the 1950s, Mr. Muhammad promoted Min. Malcolm X to the post of National Spokesman, and began to syndicate his weekly newspaper column, "Mr. Muhammad Speaks," in Black newspapers across the country. Membership was increasing when, in 1955, Minister Louis Farrakhan, then Louis Walcott, an entertainer, enrolled in the Nation of Islam after hearing Mr. Muhammad deliver a speech in Chicago.
Persecution of the Muslims continued. Members and mosques continued to be attacked by whites in Monroe, La., Los Angeles, Calif., and Flint, Mich., among others. Publicity in the white owned and operated media began to circulate anti-Nation of Islam propaganda on a large scale. By the early 1960s, the Readers Digest magazine described Mr. Muhammad as the most powerful Black man in America. In Washington, D.C., Mr. Muhammad delivered his historic Uline Arena address and was afforded presidential treatment, receiving a personal police escort.
Subsequently, television commentator Mike Wallace, in conjunction with Louis Lomax, a Black journalist, aired the documentary, "The Hate That Hate Produced," on a local New York City station. The documentary misrepresents the message of the Nation of Islam, calling it a hate teaching. James Baldwin, a famous Black author, released the book, "The Fire Next Time," based largely upon his interview with Mr. Muhammad. At the same time, white political leaders such as Senator Al Gore Sr., began to denounce the Nation of Islam and hold hearings on alleged "un-American" activities. Minister Louis Farrakhan and the ministers of Islam defended the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam against these attacks in mass media in their public speeches, written editorials and other public relations thrusts.
By 1964, Minister Malcolm X decided to separate from the Nation of Islam and formed his own religious and political organization. His very public defection from the Nation of Islam was based on his misinterpretation of the domestic life of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad Nevertheless, the atmosphere of rancor on both sides made ripe the environment for the secret police to meddle in the affairs of the Nation of Islam, according the late attorney, William Kuntsler. Mr. Kuntsler cited a declassified memo obtained through the Freedom of Information Act that revealed that the U.S. Government played a role in the 1965 assassination of Brother Malcolm X.
After the assassination of Brother Malcolm X, the New York mosque was fire bombed and the Muslim community was reeling. Mr. Muhammad then dispatched Minister Louis Farrakhan to New York City to take over the mosque there and begin the rebuilding effort. In 1965, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad promoted Minister Louis Farrakhan to the post of National Representative.
By the mid-sixties, Mr. Muhammad's ever-growing Islamic movement extended itself to more than 60 cities and settlements abroad in Ghana, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America among others places, according to the Muhammad Speaks newspaper, the religion's chief information apparatus.
A host of Islamic and African governments received the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and donated generously to his mission. He visited the Holy City of Mecca where he performed "Umrah" (which is Pilgrimage to Mecca at a time other than the "Hajj season") during his trip to the Middle East in 1959 and advocated worldwide brotherhood and sisterhood.
Every February 26, he brought together the faithful for Saviour's Day conventions in Chicago to remember his Teacher's birthday, to re-emphasize his message of moral and spiritual renewal and to announce his plans and agenda for the upcoming year. Economic development combined with moral and spiritual renewal began to show signs of progress with the establishment of farms, livestock and vegetable cultivation, rental housing, private home construction and acquisitions, other real estate purchases, food processing centers, restaurants, clothing factories, banking, business league formations, import and export businesses, aviation, health care, administrative offices, shipping on both land, sea and air, and men's and women's development and leadership training units. In 1972, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad opened a $2 million mosque and school in Chicago. During this important grand opening of Mosque No. 2, he praised and let it be known who his top helper was in his work.
He asked Min. Farrakhan to come before the religious community and then the following announcement while digressing from his previously stated remarks: "I want you to remember, today, I have one of my greatest preachers here-what are you hiding behind the sycamore tree for brother? (He chuckled)-c'mon around here where they can see you. (A rousing round of applause ensued).
"We have with us today," the Messenger continued, "our great national preacher. The preacher who don't mind going into Harlem, New York, one of the most worst towns in our nation or cities. It is our brother in Detroit and Chicago or New York. But, I want you to remember every week he's on the air helping me to reach those people that I can't get out of my house and go reach them like he.
"I want you to pay good attention to his preaching. His preaching is a bearing of witness to me and what God has given to me," he declared. "This is one of the strongest national preachers that I have in the bounds of North America. Everywhere you hear him, listen to him. Everywhere you see him, look at him. Everywhere he advises you to go, go. Everywhere he advises you to stay from, stay from. For we are thankful to Allah for this great helper of mine, Min. Farrakhan." (Another rousing round of applause ensued). "He's not a proud man," he said. "He's a very humble man. If he can carry you across the lake without dropping you in; he don't say when you get on the other side, 'You see what I have done?' He tells you, 'You see what Allah has done.' He doesn't take it upon himself. He's a mighty fine preacher. We hear him every week, and I say continue to hear our Min. Farrakhan. I thank you."
In watching Minister Louis Farrakhan and the followers of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad, the legacy of the Nation of Islam continues to make unlimited progress as witnessed in the miracle of the Two Million Man March among other truly amazing accomplishments.
West Side Teen Gets Full Ride To University Of*Chicago
West Side Teen Gets Full Ride To University Of*Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) – A high school senior who lives in one of Chicago’s poorest and most violent neighborhoods has received a full scholarship to one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
CBS 2’s Dorothy Tucker reports Westinghouse College Prep student Matthew Collum has accomplished something any student should be proud of: a full ride to the University of Chicago.
But this incredible teenager deserves special praise for the difficulties he’s had to overcome to get there.
“I was dealing with my mother’s drug addiction,” he said. “I witnessed a lot of murders, a lot of shootings.”
Gangs and drugs are a way of life in the Lawndale and Austin communities where Matthew grew up, but he said he simply let the guys on the corner know very early on he wasn’t interested in that life.
“When people walk up to you and say ‘We’re about to do this, we’re about to do that,’ you just have to walk away,” he said. “I knew that being part of a gang wasn’t going to get me into college.”
Matthew won a full scholarship to the University of Chicago thanks to a near-perfect grade point average – placing him 6th out of a class of more than 200 – and scoring a 30 out of a possible 36 on the ACT exam.
Asked what made him so motivated, Matthew said, “I wanted a better lifestyle for me and my family, and I was tired of being poor.”
Toni Minter, who taught Matthew in 7th and 8th grades, said, “He took school very, very seriously.”
Minter said Matthew had an ability not to make excuses for the challenges in his life.
“It’s like he accepted the challenge. Even though things were going on at home, he knew in order to … get out of the environment that he needed to succeed,” she said. “It just swells my heart … because he made it.”
Matthew said, “I’m happy that I have this opportunity, and I’m glad that I can be a role model to other kids.”
Matthew is in the first graduating class of Westinghouse College Prep. The original Westinghouse High School closed several years ago, and reopened in 2009 as a selective-enrollment high school.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/12/11/west-side-teen-gets-full-ride-to-university-of-chicago/
West Side Teen Gets Full Ride To University Of*Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) – A high school senior who lives in one of Chicago’s poorest and most violent neighborhoods has received a full scholarship to one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
CBS 2’s Dorothy Tucker reports Westinghouse College Prep student Matthew Collum has accomplished something any student should be proud of: a full ride to the University of Chicago.
But this incredible teenager deserves special praise for the difficulties he’s had to overcome to get there.
“I was dealing with my mother’s drug addiction,” he said. “I witnessed a lot of murders, a lot of shootings.”
Gangs and drugs are a way of life in the Lawndale and Austin communities where Matthew grew up, but he said he simply let the guys on the corner know very early on he wasn’t interested in that life.
“When people walk up to you and say ‘We’re about to do this, we’re about to do that,’ you just have to walk away,” he said. “I knew that being part of a gang wasn’t going to get me into college.”
Matthew won a full scholarship to the University of Chicago thanks to a near-perfect grade point average – placing him 6th out of a class of more than 200 – and scoring a 30 out of a possible 36 on the ACT exam.
Asked what made him so motivated, Matthew said, “I wanted a better lifestyle for me and my family, and I was tired of being poor.”
Toni Minter, who taught Matthew in 7th and 8th grades, said, “He took school very, very seriously.”
Minter said Matthew had an ability not to make excuses for the challenges in his life.
“It’s like he accepted the challenge. Even though things were going on at home, he knew in order to … get out of the environment that he needed to succeed,” she said. “It just swells my heart … because he made it.”
Matthew said, “I’m happy that I have this opportunity, and I’m glad that I can be a role model to other kids.”
Matthew is in the first graduating class of Westinghouse College Prep. The original Westinghouse High School closed several years ago, and reopened in 2009 as a selective-enrollment high school.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/12/11/west-side-teen-gets-full-ride-to-university-of-chicago/
Dr. Benjamin Carson: Professor of Neurosurgery
Dr. Benjamin Carson
Professor of Neurosurgery, Oncology, Plastic Surgery and Pediatrics
Director, Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery
Co-Director, The Johns Hopkins Craniofacial Center
Specialty Areas: Pediatric Neurosurgery Trigeminal Neuralgia
Dr. Benjamin Carson is the Director of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins.* Dr. Carson focuses on traumatic brain injuries, brain and spinal cord tumors, achondroplasia, neurological and congenital disorders, craniosynostosis, epilepsy and trigeminal neuralgia. He is also interested in maximizing the intellectual potential of every child.
An internationally renowned physician, Dr. Carson has authored over 100 neurosurgical publications, along with three best-selling books, and has been awarded 38 honorary doctorate degrees and dozens of national merit citations.
Dr. Carson majored in psychology at Yale and graduated from the University of Michigan School of Medicine. He went on to complete both his internship in general surgery and residency in neurological surgery at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. In addition, he served as senior registrar in neurosurgery at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Queen Elizabeth II Medical Center in Western Australia.
Dr. Carson sees patients on Monday afternoons and Fridays at The Johns Hopkins Outpatient Center located in Baltimore.
Certifications:
American Board of Neurological Surgery
American Board of Pediatric Neurological Surgery
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/neur...A85D46351E25BE722939B61854C65/Benjamin_Carson
Dr. Benjamin Carson
Professor of Neurosurgery, Oncology, Plastic Surgery and Pediatrics
Director, Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery
Co-Director, The Johns Hopkins Craniofacial Center
Specialty Areas: Pediatric Neurosurgery Trigeminal Neuralgia
Dr. Benjamin Carson is the Director of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins.* Dr. Carson focuses on traumatic brain injuries, brain and spinal cord tumors, achondroplasia, neurological and congenital disorders, craniosynostosis, epilepsy and trigeminal neuralgia. He is also interested in maximizing the intellectual potential of every child.
An internationally renowned physician, Dr. Carson has authored over 100 neurosurgical publications, along with three best-selling books, and has been awarded 38 honorary doctorate degrees and dozens of national merit citations.
Dr. Carson majored in psychology at Yale and graduated from the University of Michigan School of Medicine. He went on to complete both his internship in general surgery and residency in neurological surgery at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. In addition, he served as senior registrar in neurosurgery at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Queen Elizabeth II Medical Center in Western Australia.
Dr. Carson sees patients on Monday afternoons and Fridays at The Johns Hopkins Outpatient Center located in Baltimore.
Certifications:
American Board of Neurological Surgery
American Board of Pediatric Neurological Surgery
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/neur...A85D46351E25BE722939B61854C65/Benjamin_Carson
nice
Twins named college co-valedictorians
Twins named college co-valedictorians (02:54)
May 15, 2013
http://video.foxnews.com/v/2383140119001/twins-named-college-co-valedictorians/
___________________
Identical twins Kirstie and Kristie Bronner named Spelman co-valedictorians
by Kunbi Tinuoye
May 14, 2013 at 12:48 PM
ATLANTA – A pair of identical twins at Spelman College have achieved a first in the school’s 132-year history.
Kirstie and Kristie Bronner, both music majors, have been named co-valedictorians for the class of 2013.
The sisters each graduate with a perfect 4.0 GPA, the highest grade point average out of more than 500 graduates.
“I am excited, humbled and honored,” says Kirstie Bronner. “Although we prayed for this at high school, I didn’t quite expect it at college.”
The Bronners, who are 22 years old, attribute their academic excellence to a rigorous study routine, time management and their shared faith. “We had a commitment to excellence,” says Kristie Bronner. “It wasn’t about getting a certain grade. We always turned in our best work.”
She adds that they prayed before homework assignments and before every exam. “We can sum up our progress with the saying, ‘Work like it’s all up to you and pray like it’s all up to God.’”
“It’s their discipline,” says Dr. Tarshia Stanley, an associate professor in the English department at Spelman, who taught the Bronners in African Diaspora and the World, a two-semester compulsory course in the freshman year.
“They are the hardest-working students I have met. They are incredibly intelligent but they couple that with a great work ethic. Every assignment they turned in I knew was their best work.”
However, Dr. Stanley says even though the girls are extremely close, it is a mistake to lump them both together. “They are individuals with different personalities, strengths and talents,” who study together, encourage and complement each other.
The Bronners say aside from their academic success studying at the historically black women’s college — one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges — has given them a renewed sense of confidence and pride in their cultural heritage.
“It’s helped me establish a strong interest in my African-American culture,” says Kirstie. “I have learnt a lot about myself and my capabilities as a leader. Spelman teaches women to believe in themselves in a male-dominated world.”
“It’s an atmosphere of love and acceptance,” says Kristie. “Spelman is a place that believes strongly in leadership and serving. It’s a huge reinforcement of things that have been instilled in us all our lives.
The sisters are third-generation Spelman graduates. Their mother, Nina Cobb Bronner, graduated in 1985, and their grandmother, Dorothy Gibson Cobb, was the class of 1956.
Following graduation, the sisters, who will graduate in a few days, plan to join the youth ministry and music department at Word of Faith Family Worship Cathedral in Atlanta, which is led by their father, Bishop Dale Bronner. In between their busy schedules they also plan to record a contemporary Christian CD.
http://thegrio.com/2013/05/14/ident...istie-bonner-named-spelman-co-valedictorians/
Twins named college co-valedictorians (02:54)
May 15, 2013
http://video.foxnews.com/v/2383140119001/twins-named-college-co-valedictorians/
___________________
Identical twins Kirstie and Kristie Bronner named Spelman co-valedictorians
by Kunbi Tinuoye
May 14, 2013 at 12:48 PM
ATLANTA – A pair of identical twins at Spelman College have achieved a first in the school’s 132-year history.
Kirstie and Kristie Bronner, both music majors, have been named co-valedictorians for the class of 2013.
The sisters each graduate with a perfect 4.0 GPA, the highest grade point average out of more than 500 graduates.
“I am excited, humbled and honored,” says Kirstie Bronner. “Although we prayed for this at high school, I didn’t quite expect it at college.”
The Bronners, who are 22 years old, attribute their academic excellence to a rigorous study routine, time management and their shared faith. “We had a commitment to excellence,” says Kristie Bronner. “It wasn’t about getting a certain grade. We always turned in our best work.”
She adds that they prayed before homework assignments and before every exam. “We can sum up our progress with the saying, ‘Work like it’s all up to you and pray like it’s all up to God.’”
“It’s their discipline,” says Dr. Tarshia Stanley, an associate professor in the English department at Spelman, who taught the Bronners in African Diaspora and the World, a two-semester compulsory course in the freshman year.
“They are the hardest-working students I have met. They are incredibly intelligent but they couple that with a great work ethic. Every assignment they turned in I knew was their best work.”
However, Dr. Stanley says even though the girls are extremely close, it is a mistake to lump them both together. “They are individuals with different personalities, strengths and talents,” who study together, encourage and complement each other.
The Bronners say aside from their academic success studying at the historically black women’s college — one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges — has given them a renewed sense of confidence and pride in their cultural heritage.
“It’s helped me establish a strong interest in my African-American culture,” says Kirstie. “I have learnt a lot about myself and my capabilities as a leader. Spelman teaches women to believe in themselves in a male-dominated world.”
“It’s an atmosphere of love and acceptance,” says Kristie. “Spelman is a place that believes strongly in leadership and serving. It’s a huge reinforcement of things that have been instilled in us all our lives.
The sisters are third-generation Spelman graduates. Their mother, Nina Cobb Bronner, graduated in 1985, and their grandmother, Dorothy Gibson Cobb, was the class of 1956.
Following graduation, the sisters, who will graduate in a few days, plan to join the youth ministry and music department at Word of Faith Family Worship Cathedral in Atlanta, which is led by their father, Bishop Dale Bronner. In between their busy schedules they also plan to record a contemporary Christian CD.
http://thegrio.com/2013/05/14/ident...istie-bonner-named-spelman-co-valedictorians/
Meet the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration: J. Russell George
Meet the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration: J. Russell George
Following his nomination by President George W. Bush, the United States Senate confirmed J. Russell George in November 2004, as the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Prior to assuming this role, Mr. George served as the Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service, having been nominated to that position by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate in 2002.
A native of New York City, where he attended public schools, including Brooklyn Technical High School, Mr. George received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University in Washington, DC, and his Doctorate of Jurisprudence from Harvard University's School of Law in Cambridge, MA. After receiving his law degree, he returned to New York and served as a prosecutor in the Queens County District Attorney's Office.
Following his work as a prosecutor, Mr. George joined the Counsel's Office in the White House Office of Management and Budget where he was Assistant General Counsel. In that capacity, he provided legal guidance on issues concerning presidential and executive branch authority. He was next invited to join the White House Staff as the Associate Director for Policy in the Office of National Service. It was there that he implemented the legislation establishing the Commission for National and Community Service, the precursor to the Corporation for National and Community Service. He then returned to New York and practiced law at Kramer, Levin, Naftalis, Nessen, Kamin & Frankel.
In 1995, Mr. George returned to Washington and joined the staff of the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight and served as the Staff Director and Chief Counsel of the Government Management, Information and Technology subcommittee (later renamed the Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations), chaired by Representative Stephen Horn. There he directed a staff that conducted over 200 hearings on legislative and oversight issues pertaining to Federal Government management practices, including procurement policies, the disposition of government-controlled information, the performance of chief financial officers and inspectors general, and the Government's use of technology. He continued in that position until his appointment by President Bush in 2002.
http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/about_ig.shtml
Meet the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration: J. Russell George
Following his nomination by President George W. Bush, the United States Senate confirmed J. Russell George in November 2004, as the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Prior to assuming this role, Mr. George served as the Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service, having been nominated to that position by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate in 2002.
A native of New York City, where he attended public schools, including Brooklyn Technical High School, Mr. George received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University in Washington, DC, and his Doctorate of Jurisprudence from Harvard University's School of Law in Cambridge, MA. After receiving his law degree, he returned to New York and served as a prosecutor in the Queens County District Attorney's Office.
Following his work as a prosecutor, Mr. George joined the Counsel's Office in the White House Office of Management and Budget where he was Assistant General Counsel. In that capacity, he provided legal guidance on issues concerning presidential and executive branch authority. He was next invited to join the White House Staff as the Associate Director for Policy in the Office of National Service. It was there that he implemented the legislation establishing the Commission for National and Community Service, the precursor to the Corporation for National and Community Service. He then returned to New York and practiced law at Kramer, Levin, Naftalis, Nessen, Kamin & Frankel.
In 1995, Mr. George returned to Washington and joined the staff of the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight and served as the Staff Director and Chief Counsel of the Government Management, Information and Technology subcommittee (later renamed the Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations), chaired by Representative Stephen Horn. There he directed a staff that conducted over 200 hearings on legislative and oversight issues pertaining to Federal Government management practices, including procurement policies, the disposition of government-controlled information, the performance of chief financial officers and inspectors general, and the Government's use of technology. He continued in that position until his appointment by President Bush in 2002.
http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/about_ig.shtml
Geoffrey Canada - President and Chief Executive Officer of Harlem Children's Zone
Geoffrey Canada - President and Chief Executive Officer of Harlem Children's Zone
SEP 26, 2008 (31:00) Be aware - The link connects to a web page with embedded audio that may or may not autoplay.
Paul Tough reports on the Harlem Children's Zone, and its CEO and president, Geoffrey Canada. Among the project's many facets is Baby College, an 8-week program where young parents and parents-to-be learn how to help their children get the education they need to be successful. Tough's book about Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem's Children Zone is called Whatever It Takes.
2010 (02:36)
<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZKTfaro96dg" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>
2013 (17:07)
<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vY2l2xfDBcE" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>
In his 20-plus years with Harlem Children's Zone, Inc., Geoffrey Canada has become nationally recognized for his pioneering work helping children and families in Harlem and as a passionate advocate for education reform.
Joining the organization in 1983, Mr. Canada became the President and Chief Executive Officer of Harlem Children's Zone in 1990. The New York Times Magazine called the agency's work, "one of the most ambitious social experiments of our time." In October 2005, Mr. Canada was named one of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News and World Report.
A new approach
In 1997, the agency launched the Harlem Children's Zone Project, which targets a specific geographic area in Central Harlem with a comprehensive range of services. The Zone Project today covers 100 blocks and aims to serve over 10,000 children.
The New York Times Magazine said the Zone Project "combines educational, social and medical services. It starts at birth and follows children to college. It meshes those services into an interlocking web, and then it drops that web over an entire neighborhood....The objective is to create a safety net woven so tightly that children in the neighborhood just can't slip through."
A national model
The work of Mr. Canada and HCZ has become a national model and has been the subject of many profiles in the media. Their work has been featured on "60 Minutes," "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "The Today Show," "Black in America 2," "This American Life," "Good Morning America," "Nightline," "The Charlie Rose Show," as well in articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Daily News, USA Today and Newsday.
Mr. Canada grew up in the South Bronx in a poor, sometimes-violent neighborhood. Despite his troubled surroundings, Mr. Canada was able to succeed academically, receiving a bachelor of arts degree from Bowdoin College and a master's degree in education from the Harvard School of Education. After graduating from Harvard, Mr. Canada decided to work to help children who, like himself, were disadvantaged by their lives in poor, embattled neighborhoods.
Writings
Drawing upon his own childhood experiences and at the Harlem Children's Zone, Mr. Canada has written two books: "Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America," published in 1995 by Beacon Press, and "Reaching Up for Manhood: Transforming the Lives of Boys in America," published in 1998 by Beacon Press. In its review of "Fist Stick Knife Gun," Publishers Weekly, "a more powerful depiction of the tragic life of urban children and a more compelling plea to end ‘America's war against itself' cannot be imagined." In September 2010, a new graphic novel version of "Fist Stick Knife Gun" was released.
For his years of work advocating for children and families in some of America's most devastated communities, Mr. Canada was a recipient of the first Heinz Award in 1994 and the Harvard Graduate School of Education Medal for Educational Impact in 2012. In 2004, he was given the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education and Child Magazine's Children's Champion Award. In 2009, he received the Independent Sector's John W. Gardner Leadership Award. He was named to Time Magazine's "Time 100" list of the world's most-influential people in 2011.
He has also received the Heroes of the Year Award from the Robin Hood Foundation, The Jefferson Award for Public Service, the Spirit of the City Award from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Brennan Legacy Award from New York University and the Common Good Award from Bowdoin College. He has received honorary degrees from Harvard University, Bowdoin College, the University of Pennsylvania, Williams College, John Jay College and Bank Street College.
Teaching martial arts
A third-degree black belt, Mr. Canada is also the founder (in 1983) of the Chang Moo Kwan Martial Arts School. Despite his busy schedule as head of HCZ, he continues to teach the principles of Tae Kwon Do to community youth along with anti-violence and conflict-resolution techniques.
In 2006, Mr. Canada was selected by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as co-chair of The Commission on Economic Opportunity, which was asked to formulate a plan to significantly reduce poverty. In 2012, he was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo to the New York Education Reform Commission.
Mr. Canada is also the East Coast Regional Coordinator for the Black Community Crusade for Children. The Crusade is a nationwide effort to make saving black children the top priority in the black community. This initiative is coordinated by Marian Wright Edelman and the Children's Defense Fund.
Mr. Canada joined Harlem Children's Zone, Inc. (then called the Rheedlen Foundation) in 1983, as Education Director. Prior to that, he worked as Director of the Robert White School, a private day school for troubled inner-city youth in Boston.
The National Book Award-winning author Jonathan Kozol called Mr. Canada, "One of the few authentic heroes of New York and one of the best friends children have, or ever will have, in our nation."
http://www.hcz.org/index.php/about-us/about-geoffrey-canada?id=400
Geoffrey Canada - President and Chief Executive Officer of Harlem Children's Zone
SEP 26, 2008 (31:00) Be aware - The link connects to a web page with embedded audio that may or may not autoplay.
Paul Tough reports on the Harlem Children's Zone, and its CEO and president, Geoffrey Canada. Among the project's many facets is Baby College, an 8-week program where young parents and parents-to-be learn how to help their children get the education they need to be successful. Tough's book about Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem's Children Zone is called Whatever It Takes.
2010 (02:36)
<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZKTfaro96dg" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>
2013 (17:07)
<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vY2l2xfDBcE" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>
In his 20-plus years with Harlem Children's Zone, Inc., Geoffrey Canada has become nationally recognized for his pioneering work helping children and families in Harlem and as a passionate advocate for education reform.
Joining the organization in 1983, Mr. Canada became the President and Chief Executive Officer of Harlem Children's Zone in 1990. The New York Times Magazine called the agency's work, "one of the most ambitious social experiments of our time." In October 2005, Mr. Canada was named one of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News and World Report.
A new approach
In 1997, the agency launched the Harlem Children's Zone Project, which targets a specific geographic area in Central Harlem with a comprehensive range of services. The Zone Project today covers 100 blocks and aims to serve over 10,000 children.
The New York Times Magazine said the Zone Project "combines educational, social and medical services. It starts at birth and follows children to college. It meshes those services into an interlocking web, and then it drops that web over an entire neighborhood....The objective is to create a safety net woven so tightly that children in the neighborhood just can't slip through."
A national model
The work of Mr. Canada and HCZ has become a national model and has been the subject of many profiles in the media. Their work has been featured on "60 Minutes," "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "The Today Show," "Black in America 2," "This American Life," "Good Morning America," "Nightline," "The Charlie Rose Show," as well in articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Daily News, USA Today and Newsday.
Mr. Canada grew up in the South Bronx in a poor, sometimes-violent neighborhood. Despite his troubled surroundings, Mr. Canada was able to succeed academically, receiving a bachelor of arts degree from Bowdoin College and a master's degree in education from the Harvard School of Education. After graduating from Harvard, Mr. Canada decided to work to help children who, like himself, were disadvantaged by their lives in poor, embattled neighborhoods.
Writings
Drawing upon his own childhood experiences and at the Harlem Children's Zone, Mr. Canada has written two books: "Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America," published in 1995 by Beacon Press, and "Reaching Up for Manhood: Transforming the Lives of Boys in America," published in 1998 by Beacon Press. In its review of "Fist Stick Knife Gun," Publishers Weekly, "a more powerful depiction of the tragic life of urban children and a more compelling plea to end ‘America's war against itself' cannot be imagined." In September 2010, a new graphic novel version of "Fist Stick Knife Gun" was released.
For his years of work advocating for children and families in some of America's most devastated communities, Mr. Canada was a recipient of the first Heinz Award in 1994 and the Harvard Graduate School of Education Medal for Educational Impact in 2012. In 2004, he was given the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education and Child Magazine's Children's Champion Award. In 2009, he received the Independent Sector's John W. Gardner Leadership Award. He was named to Time Magazine's "Time 100" list of the world's most-influential people in 2011.
He has also received the Heroes of the Year Award from the Robin Hood Foundation, The Jefferson Award for Public Service, the Spirit of the City Award from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Brennan Legacy Award from New York University and the Common Good Award from Bowdoin College. He has received honorary degrees from Harvard University, Bowdoin College, the University of Pennsylvania, Williams College, John Jay College and Bank Street College.
Teaching martial arts
A third-degree black belt, Mr. Canada is also the founder (in 1983) of the Chang Moo Kwan Martial Arts School. Despite his busy schedule as head of HCZ, he continues to teach the principles of Tae Kwon Do to community youth along with anti-violence and conflict-resolution techniques.
In 2006, Mr. Canada was selected by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as co-chair of The Commission on Economic Opportunity, which was asked to formulate a plan to significantly reduce poverty. In 2012, he was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo to the New York Education Reform Commission.
Mr. Canada is also the East Coast Regional Coordinator for the Black Community Crusade for Children. The Crusade is a nationwide effort to make saving black children the top priority in the black community. This initiative is coordinated by Marian Wright Edelman and the Children's Defense Fund.
Mr. Canada joined Harlem Children's Zone, Inc. (then called the Rheedlen Foundation) in 1983, as Education Director. Prior to that, he worked as Director of the Robert White School, a private day school for troubled inner-city youth in Boston.
The National Book Award-winning author Jonathan Kozol called Mr. Canada, "One of the few authentic heroes of New York and one of the best friends children have, or ever will have, in our nation."
http://www.hcz.org/index.php/about-us/about-geoffrey-canada?id=400
Georgia Teenager Overcomes Homelessness to Become Valedictorian
Georgia Teenager Overcomes Homelessness to Become Valedictorian
By CHRISTINA NG | Good Morning America
Thu, May 23, 2013 3:44 PM EDT
When 17-year-old valedictorian Chelesa Fearce stands before her Georgia high school graduating class today to give her speech, she will talk about overcoming homelessness and fighting to "get the future that you want."
Fearce, a senior at Charles Drew High School in Riverdale, Ga., spent most of her high school career living in shelters, the occasional hotel, short-term rented apartments and sometimes the family car -- when the family had one -- with her mother and three siblings.
"I would just pray," Fearce told ABCNews.com. "My mom, whenever we're in that situation, she always finds a way out of it. So I would just tell myself, tomorrow it will not be like this, so take your time, do what you have to do now so that you get the future that you want tomorrow."
Regardless of where she was living, Fearce found a way to study. She recalled using a cellphone light in shelters to get her homework done.
"I'm so happy that I got through all of this and that I finally have gotten to this point," she said. "All the studying I've done ... you don't know! It was crazy. I was studying science, math, everything. I'm very proud to come this far."
Her favorite subjects were literature and science, especially chemistry and physics. Fearce wants to be an oncologist when she's older.
Fearce's "very proud" mother said that despite the family's hardships, she always emphasized education for her children.
"I read to them a lot, took them to the library," Reenita Shephard told ABC News' Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV. "Everything around me was a learning experience."
Fearce completed high school with a 4.466 GPA and scored a 1900 on the SATs. She tested high enough in school to enroll in local college courses for her last two years of high school. When she starts Spelman College in the fall, she will already be a college junior.
"Chelesa is an outstanding young lady. She's very conscientious, always going over and beyond and is a very humble young lady," Fearce's school counselor, Razelda Killen, told ABCNews.com.
Killen praised Fearce's positive attitude and described how Fearce always has a smile on her face.
"She has overcome some obstacles," Killen said. "She has been homeless, but in spite of those obstacles she has still done an outstanding job academically, socially and still has goals to go even beyond."
On Saturday, Fearce's 18-year-old sister will graduate as salutatorian from a different high school.
Fearce hopes that her speech at today's graduation ceremony will motivate her classmates.
"Our mascots are the Titans, and I feel like the Titans are very influential," she said, giving a preview of what her speech would be about. "They're strong, and they need to be strong despite their hardships."
http://gma.yahoo.com/georgia-teenag...dictorian-165004858--abc-news-topstories.html
Georgia Teenager Overcomes Homelessness to Become Valedictorian
By CHRISTINA NG | Good Morning America
Thu, May 23, 2013 3:44 PM EDT
When 17-year-old valedictorian Chelesa Fearce stands before her Georgia high school graduating class today to give her speech, she will talk about overcoming homelessness and fighting to "get the future that you want."
Fearce, a senior at Charles Drew High School in Riverdale, Ga., spent most of her high school career living in shelters, the occasional hotel, short-term rented apartments and sometimes the family car -- when the family had one -- with her mother and three siblings.
"I would just pray," Fearce told ABCNews.com. "My mom, whenever we're in that situation, she always finds a way out of it. So I would just tell myself, tomorrow it will not be like this, so take your time, do what you have to do now so that you get the future that you want tomorrow."
Regardless of where she was living, Fearce found a way to study. She recalled using a cellphone light in shelters to get her homework done.
"I'm so happy that I got through all of this and that I finally have gotten to this point," she said. "All the studying I've done ... you don't know! It was crazy. I was studying science, math, everything. I'm very proud to come this far."
Her favorite subjects were literature and science, especially chemistry and physics. Fearce wants to be an oncologist when she's older.
Fearce's "very proud" mother said that despite the family's hardships, she always emphasized education for her children.
"I read to them a lot, took them to the library," Reenita Shephard told ABC News' Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV. "Everything around me was a learning experience."
Fearce completed high school with a 4.466 GPA and scored a 1900 on the SATs. She tested high enough in school to enroll in local college courses for her last two years of high school. When she starts Spelman College in the fall, she will already be a college junior.
"Chelesa is an outstanding young lady. She's very conscientious, always going over and beyond and is a very humble young lady," Fearce's school counselor, Razelda Killen, told ABCNews.com.
Killen praised Fearce's positive attitude and described how Fearce always has a smile on her face.
"She has overcome some obstacles," Killen said. "She has been homeless, but in spite of those obstacles she has still done an outstanding job academically, socially and still has goals to go even beyond."
On Saturday, Fearce's 18-year-old sister will graduate as salutatorian from a different high school.
Fearce hopes that her speech at today's graduation ceremony will motivate her classmates.
"Our mascots are the Titans, and I feel like the Titans are very influential," she said, giving a preview of what her speech would be about. "They're strong, and they need to be strong despite their hardships."
http://gma.yahoo.com/georgia-teenag...dictorian-165004858--abc-news-topstories.html
W in the world would anyone start a redundant post?
Hey he soared through a lot of glass cielings, but he banged his head hard on that last one...
Nevertheless..
He is a trailblazer and made it possible for the next man coming up..
Bull's-Eye! Super Soaker Inventor Scores Huge Payday
Bull's-Eye! Super Soaker Inventor Scores Huge Payday
By Tim Sprinkle | The Exchange
Fri, Nov 8, 2013 9:57 AM EST
It’s been nearly 25 years since former NASA engineer Lonnie Johnson first licensed the water gun toy that became the iconic Super Soaker. On Wednesday, the inventor soaked Hasbro (HAS) in arbitration, reportedly receiving $72.9 million worth of sales royalties from the toymaker as part of a dispute over underpaid royalties.
“In the arbitration we got everything we asked for,” Johnson’s attorney Leigh Baier told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The arbitrator ruled totally in Lonnie’s favor.”
According to the newspaper, the agreement stemmed from a 2001 inventors dispute in which Hasbro had agreed to pay Johnson royalties for the sales of his products. Johnson originally licensed the Super Soaker to Larami Corporation, which was later acquired by Hasbro, and the toy reportedly generated more than $200 million in retail sales in its first two years on the market. As of 2013, total sales of the line are estimated at nearly $1 billion.
Keeping busy
As for the Atlanta-based Johnson, the Super Soaker phenomenon was just a footnote in what has proven to be a very diverse career.
Although it was his plastic toy gun that made him wealthy, Johnson first trained as a nuclear engineer at Tuskegee University and worked for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab on both the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Mars Observer prior to his exploits in the toy business. He currently holds more than 80 patents and, in addition to the Super Soaker, is also credited with inventing technologies related to both rechargeable batteries and thermodynamic energy.
Interestingly, Johnson has long reinvested the profits from his Super Soaker sales back into his other companies, explaining to CNBC in 2010 that as an engineer: “It’s who I am, it’s what I do.”
And he hasn’t slowed down as a result of his success. One of his inventions, the Johnson Thermo-Electrochemical Converter System, was named one of the top 10 inventions of 2009 by Popular Mechanics magazine for its ability to convert thermal energy to electricity without the use of steam generators, potentially opening up new doors in solar power plants and ocean-based thermal power generation.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-...er-inventor-scores-huge-payday-232255648.html
Bull's-Eye! Super Soaker Inventor Scores Huge Payday
By Tim Sprinkle | The Exchange
Fri, Nov 8, 2013 9:57 AM EST
It’s been nearly 25 years since former NASA engineer Lonnie Johnson first licensed the water gun toy that became the iconic Super Soaker. On Wednesday, the inventor soaked Hasbro (HAS) in arbitration, reportedly receiving $72.9 million worth of sales royalties from the toymaker as part of a dispute over underpaid royalties.
“In the arbitration we got everything we asked for,” Johnson’s attorney Leigh Baier told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The arbitrator ruled totally in Lonnie’s favor.”
According to the newspaper, the agreement stemmed from a 2001 inventors dispute in which Hasbro had agreed to pay Johnson royalties for the sales of his products. Johnson originally licensed the Super Soaker to Larami Corporation, which was later acquired by Hasbro, and the toy reportedly generated more than $200 million in retail sales in its first two years on the market. As of 2013, total sales of the line are estimated at nearly $1 billion.
Keeping busy
As for the Atlanta-based Johnson, the Super Soaker phenomenon was just a footnote in what has proven to be a very diverse career.
Although it was his plastic toy gun that made him wealthy, Johnson first trained as a nuclear engineer at Tuskegee University and worked for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab on both the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Mars Observer prior to his exploits in the toy business. He currently holds more than 80 patents and, in addition to the Super Soaker, is also credited with inventing technologies related to both rechargeable batteries and thermodynamic energy.
Interestingly, Johnson has long reinvested the profits from his Super Soaker sales back into his other companies, explaining to CNBC in 2010 that as an engineer: “It’s who I am, it’s what I do.”
And he hasn’t slowed down as a result of his success. One of his inventions, the Johnson Thermo-Electrochemical Converter System, was named one of the top 10 inventions of 2009 by Popular Mechanics magazine for its ability to convert thermal energy to electricity without the use of steam generators, potentially opening up new doors in solar power plants and ocean-based thermal power generation.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-...er-inventor-scores-huge-payday-232255648.html
President and Chief Executive Officer of McDonald’s Corporation
Don Thompson
President and Chief Executive Officer
New McDonald's CEO stays true to his roots
Don Thompson, who grew up near Cabrini-Green before moving to Indianapolis at 11, hasn't let success go to his head
March 23, 2012|Melissa Harris' Chicago Confidential
McDonald's next chief executive, Don Thompson, is not afraid to tell people where he came from: the 1300 block of North Cleveland Avenue, three blocks north of Cabrini-Green.
The proof is in how many people know his story.
"I know all about it," said Andrew McKenna, McDonald's chairman. "How he grew up (near) Cabrini-Green, how his grandmother raised him and moved him to Indianapolis in the sixth grade. I know all of it. He's the real thing."
His roots, it appears, have kept him grounded and humble as he skyrocketed through the ranks of the Oak Brook-based fast-food chain and arrived at the table of the city's corporate elite. It also has made him relatable to the rank and file.
"Although he could probably afford to buy into everything, he's common people," said John Kendall, a trademark and patent attorney who met Thompson at an Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity event in college and later worked with him at Northrop Grumman Corp.'s facility in Rolling Meadows. "I've had some other friends and associates who also have had a great amount of success in corporate America, and they do things in such a way that you know they've had success. If you didn't know what Don did, you wouldn't know."
Thompson, named Wednesday to succeed Jim Skinner, who will retire this summer, declined to be interviewed for this story. Since his appointment as McDonald's chief operating officer in 2010, his ascension to the top post has been almost certain, and several magazines have chronicled his humble start while noting his achievement as one of corporate America's most successful African-Americans.
Thompson skipped a grade while growing up in Chicago. So at age 10, when McKenna believes Thompson was in the sixth grade, his grandmother, fearing growing gang activity on the Near North side, moved him to Indianapolis.
"When I was 11 years old, I printed up little business cards and distributed them in a nearby convalescent home," Thompson told the Franchise Times this month. "The residents hired me to do errands or clean their apartments."
Thompson excelled at math and science, which led to representatives of the Minority Engineering Advancement Program at Purdue University's School of Engineering and Technology recruiting him. The program's purpose was to expose minorities to careers in the sciences, and college in general.
"My grandmother gave everything she had to get me into and through Purdue," Thompson told Black Enterprise magazine in 2007.
At a Purdue scholarship banquet, Thompson met a fellow engineering student, Liz, who grew up in the Cabrini-Green housing project, four blocks from where Thompson did.
At a 2009 fundraiser for Access Community Health Network, Thompson shared that when he and his wife were growing up, their hospital was a clinic in the Olivet Community Center. Then he announced that he and Liz were making a $10,000 contribution to the network of community health clinics, in addition to the $5,000 McDonald's gave at Thompson's behest. He and Liz have served on or remain active in too many charitable organizations to list.
"He and Liz are working on an initiative to help young African-American males achieve higher education attainment and have more opportunities," said Terry Mazany, CEO of the Chicago Community Trust, where the Thompsons have a donor-advised charitable fund. "He has never forgotten his roots. He knows how education is a game changer. He understands it because he lived it."
A job after college at Northrop Grumman brought Thompson to Chicago; Liz took a job with Ameritech Corp. They married in 1988 and live in Burr Ridge, though he attends church in Woodlawn.
"He met his college sweetheart and stayed with her the whole time," said Les Coney, an executive at Mesirow Financial, who met Thompson about eight years ago through John Rogers, an investment manager and member of McDonald's board. "You see so many guys like him get too big for their britches and move on. They truly, truly love each other, and they have two wonderful kids."
A cold call from a recruiter about two years after their wedding changed Thompson's life. McDonald's was looking for someone to engineer "robotics, control circuitry and feedback loops," Black Enterprise reported. Thompson, as the story goes, assumed the company was McDonnell Douglas Corp., a defense contractor that competed with Northrop Grumman.
Thompson told Black Enterprise that he even asked the recruiter when he should fly to McDonnell's headquarters in St. Louis for the interview. The recruiter replied, "This is McDonald's hamburger." Thompson said his response was, "You got the wrong guy, because I'm not flipping hamburgers for anybody." He was especially concerned, the magazine reported, of what his grandmother would think.
Soon thereafter, an engineer working at McDonald's invited him to visit. Thompson later accepted a job designing robotics for food transport and control circuits in cooking equipment. He was promoted less than two years later.
His career at McDonald's has been a vertical line. Two achievements are worth mentioning.
When Thompson switched from engineering to operations, he had to learn the basics. For six months, as part of the company's accelerated development program, Thompson worked in a South Chicago McDonald's owned by franchisee Rod Lubeznik, where he was promoted from making french fries to shift manager, then assistant manager and, for a time, co-manager of the facility, Franchise Times reported.
In 1998, Thompson was named manager of the San Diego region, which was ranked 39th out of McDonald's 40 regions. Thompson catapulted it to No. 2, Black Enterprise reported.
"I remember I met him when he was relatively new at the company; he was on the West Coast at the time," McKenna told me. "I remember him being so dynamic and interested in what he was doing. I thought to myself, 'God, I gotta keep an eye on that guy.'"
Thompson is tall and wears once-nerdy, now-stylish black-rimmed glasses. His friends say his sport is basketball, and his favorite restaurant is the Capital Grille. He also smiles — a lot.
"He hugs a lot and laughs a lot," said James Reynolds Jr., a friend and the CEO of Loop Capital Markets. "Ninety percent of the time he's smiling. With those kinds of people, you can't tell how intense they are. It's really more internal. He could be battling with some very serious corporate issues, and you wouldn't know it."
Reynolds said that Thompson's ease with people and his ability to hold back, or not experience, anger have been critical to his success.
"For a CEO, you can't have the large volatility that a middle manager can have," Reynolds said. "You can't. You can't be so excited on the way up and so depressed on the way down, because business is volatile. In order to be a good leader, people want to know what to expect every day."
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...ni-green-olivet-community-center-don-thompson
Don Thompson
President and Chief Executive Officer
New McDonald's CEO stays true to his roots
Don Thompson, who grew up near Cabrini-Green before moving to Indianapolis at 11, hasn't let success go to his head
March 23, 2012|Melissa Harris' Chicago Confidential
McDonald's next chief executive, Don Thompson, is not afraid to tell people where he came from: the 1300 block of North Cleveland Avenue, three blocks north of Cabrini-Green.
The proof is in how many people know his story.
"I know all about it," said Andrew McKenna, McDonald's chairman. "How he grew up (near) Cabrini-Green, how his grandmother raised him and moved him to Indianapolis in the sixth grade. I know all of it. He's the real thing."
His roots, it appears, have kept him grounded and humble as he skyrocketed through the ranks of the Oak Brook-based fast-food chain and arrived at the table of the city's corporate elite. It also has made him relatable to the rank and file.
"Although he could probably afford to buy into everything, he's common people," said John Kendall, a trademark and patent attorney who met Thompson at an Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity event in college and later worked with him at Northrop Grumman Corp.'s facility in Rolling Meadows. "I've had some other friends and associates who also have had a great amount of success in corporate America, and they do things in such a way that you know they've had success. If you didn't know what Don did, you wouldn't know."
Thompson, named Wednesday to succeed Jim Skinner, who will retire this summer, declined to be interviewed for this story. Since his appointment as McDonald's chief operating officer in 2010, his ascension to the top post has been almost certain, and several magazines have chronicled his humble start while noting his achievement as one of corporate America's most successful African-Americans.
Thompson skipped a grade while growing up in Chicago. So at age 10, when McKenna believes Thompson was in the sixth grade, his grandmother, fearing growing gang activity on the Near North side, moved him to Indianapolis.
"When I was 11 years old, I printed up little business cards and distributed them in a nearby convalescent home," Thompson told the Franchise Times this month. "The residents hired me to do errands or clean their apartments."
Thompson excelled at math and science, which led to representatives of the Minority Engineering Advancement Program at Purdue University's School of Engineering and Technology recruiting him. The program's purpose was to expose minorities to careers in the sciences, and college in general.
"My grandmother gave everything she had to get me into and through Purdue," Thompson told Black Enterprise magazine in 2007.
At a Purdue scholarship banquet, Thompson met a fellow engineering student, Liz, who grew up in the Cabrini-Green housing project, four blocks from where Thompson did.
At a 2009 fundraiser for Access Community Health Network, Thompson shared that when he and his wife were growing up, their hospital was a clinic in the Olivet Community Center. Then he announced that he and Liz were making a $10,000 contribution to the network of community health clinics, in addition to the $5,000 McDonald's gave at Thompson's behest. He and Liz have served on or remain active in too many charitable organizations to list.
"He and Liz are working on an initiative to help young African-American males achieve higher education attainment and have more opportunities," said Terry Mazany, CEO of the Chicago Community Trust, where the Thompsons have a donor-advised charitable fund. "He has never forgotten his roots. He knows how education is a game changer. He understands it because he lived it."
A job after college at Northrop Grumman brought Thompson to Chicago; Liz took a job with Ameritech Corp. They married in 1988 and live in Burr Ridge, though he attends church in Woodlawn.
"He met his college sweetheart and stayed with her the whole time," said Les Coney, an executive at Mesirow Financial, who met Thompson about eight years ago through John Rogers, an investment manager and member of McDonald's board. "You see so many guys like him get too big for their britches and move on. They truly, truly love each other, and they have two wonderful kids."
A cold call from a recruiter about two years after their wedding changed Thompson's life. McDonald's was looking for someone to engineer "robotics, control circuitry and feedback loops," Black Enterprise reported. Thompson, as the story goes, assumed the company was McDonnell Douglas Corp., a defense contractor that competed with Northrop Grumman.
Thompson told Black Enterprise that he even asked the recruiter when he should fly to McDonnell's headquarters in St. Louis for the interview. The recruiter replied, "This is McDonald's hamburger." Thompson said his response was, "You got the wrong guy, because I'm not flipping hamburgers for anybody." He was especially concerned, the magazine reported, of what his grandmother would think.
Soon thereafter, an engineer working at McDonald's invited him to visit. Thompson later accepted a job designing robotics for food transport and control circuits in cooking equipment. He was promoted less than two years later.
His career at McDonald's has been a vertical line. Two achievements are worth mentioning.
When Thompson switched from engineering to operations, he had to learn the basics. For six months, as part of the company's accelerated development program, Thompson worked in a South Chicago McDonald's owned by franchisee Rod Lubeznik, where he was promoted from making french fries to shift manager, then assistant manager and, for a time, co-manager of the facility, Franchise Times reported.
In 1998, Thompson was named manager of the San Diego region, which was ranked 39th out of McDonald's 40 regions. Thompson catapulted it to No. 2, Black Enterprise reported.
"I remember I met him when he was relatively new at the company; he was on the West Coast at the time," McKenna told me. "I remember him being so dynamic and interested in what he was doing. I thought to myself, 'God, I gotta keep an eye on that guy.'"
Thompson is tall and wears once-nerdy, now-stylish black-rimmed glasses. His friends say his sport is basketball, and his favorite restaurant is the Capital Grille. He also smiles — a lot.
"He hugs a lot and laughs a lot," said James Reynolds Jr., a friend and the CEO of Loop Capital Markets. "Ninety percent of the time he's smiling. With those kinds of people, you can't tell how intense they are. It's really more internal. He could be battling with some very serious corporate issues, and you wouldn't know it."
Reynolds said that Thompson's ease with people and his ability to hold back, or not experience, anger have been critical to his success.
"For a CEO, you can't have the large volatility that a middle manager can have," Reynolds said. "You can't. You can't be so excited on the way up and so depressed on the way down, because business is volatile. In order to be a good leader, people want to know what to expect every day."
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...ni-green-olivet-community-center-don-thompson
Ursula M. Burns is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Xerox
Ursula M. Burns
Ursula M. Burns is chairman and chief executive officer of Xerox. With sales approaching $23 billion, Xerox (NYSE: XRX) is the world’s leading enterprise for business process and document management.
When Burns joined Xerox in 1980 as a mechanical engineering summer intern, the company was the leader in the global photocopying market. As she later assumed roles in product development and planning, the company was securing its leadership position in digital document technologies. From 1992 through 2000, Burns, at a pivotal point in the company’s history, led several business teams including the company’s color business and office network printing business.
In 2000, Burns was named senior vice president, Corporate Strategic Services, heading up manufacturing and supply chain operations. Alongside then-CEO Anne Mulcahy, Burns worked to restructure Xerox through its turnaround to emerge as a leader in color technology and document services. A key factor in the company’s turnaround was its research and development of new products and technologies, and at the time Burns was responsible for leading Xerox's global research as well as product development, marketing and delivery. In April 2007, Burns was named president of Xerox, expanding her leadership to also include the company's IT organization, corporate strategy, human resources, corporate marketing and global accounts. At that time, she was also elected a member of the company’s Board of Directors.
Burns was named chief executive officer in July 2009 and shortly after, made the largest acquisition in Xerox history, the $6.4 billion purchase of Affiliated Computer Services, catapulting the company’s presence in the $500 billion business services market and extending the company’s reach into diverse areas of business process and IT outsourcing.
On May 20, 2010, Burns became chairman of the company, leading the 140,000 people of Xerox who serve clients in more than 160 countries. Building on Xerox’s legacy of innovation, they’re enabling workplaces – from small businesses to large global enterprises -- to simplify the way work gets done so they can focus more on what matters most: their real business.
Burns earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Polytechnic Institute of NYU and a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University.
In addition to the Xerox board, she is a board director of the American Express Corporation and Exxon Mobil Corporation. Burns also provides leadership counsel to community, educational and non-profit organizations including FIRST - (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), National Academy Foundation, MIT, and the U.S. Olympic Committee, among others. She is a founding board director of Change the Equation, which focuses on improving the U.S.’s education system in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). In March 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Burns vice chair of the President’s Export Council.
http://www.xerox.com/about-xerox/executive-leadership/ceo/enus.html
Ursula M. Burns
Ursula M. Burns is chairman and chief executive officer of Xerox. With sales approaching $23 billion, Xerox (NYSE: XRX) is the world’s leading enterprise for business process and document management.
When Burns joined Xerox in 1980 as a mechanical engineering summer intern, the company was the leader in the global photocopying market. As she later assumed roles in product development and planning, the company was securing its leadership position in digital document technologies. From 1992 through 2000, Burns, at a pivotal point in the company’s history, led several business teams including the company’s color business and office network printing business.
In 2000, Burns was named senior vice president, Corporate Strategic Services, heading up manufacturing and supply chain operations. Alongside then-CEO Anne Mulcahy, Burns worked to restructure Xerox through its turnaround to emerge as a leader in color technology and document services. A key factor in the company’s turnaround was its research and development of new products and technologies, and at the time Burns was responsible for leading Xerox's global research as well as product development, marketing and delivery. In April 2007, Burns was named president of Xerox, expanding her leadership to also include the company's IT organization, corporate strategy, human resources, corporate marketing and global accounts. At that time, she was also elected a member of the company’s Board of Directors.
Burns was named chief executive officer in July 2009 and shortly after, made the largest acquisition in Xerox history, the $6.4 billion purchase of Affiliated Computer Services, catapulting the company’s presence in the $500 billion business services market and extending the company’s reach into diverse areas of business process and IT outsourcing.
On May 20, 2010, Burns became chairman of the company, leading the 140,000 people of Xerox who serve clients in more than 160 countries. Building on Xerox’s legacy of innovation, they’re enabling workplaces – from small businesses to large global enterprises -- to simplify the way work gets done so they can focus more on what matters most: their real business.
Burns earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Polytechnic Institute of NYU and a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University.
In addition to the Xerox board, she is a board director of the American Express Corporation and Exxon Mobil Corporation. Burns also provides leadership counsel to community, educational and non-profit organizations including FIRST - (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), National Academy Foundation, MIT, and the U.S. Olympic Committee, among others. She is a founding board director of Change the Equation, which focuses on improving the U.S.’s education system in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). In March 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Burns vice chair of the President’s Export Council.
http://www.xerox.com/about-xerox/executive-leadership/ceo/enus.html
Black Woman Named to a Top U.S. Navy Job Says Wimps Fail
Black Woman Named to a Top U.S. Navy Job Says Wimps Fail
By David Lerman
Dec 20, 2013 12:00 PM CT
As a young midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, Michelle Howard didn’t strike some of her peers as an obvious candidate to become a four-star admiral.
“She was so quiet, and she’s also very short,” said Brian Jones, a classmate who graduated with Howard in 1982. “In the Navy, being forceful and physically commanding is a real asset. She had that working against her.”
Howard, who’s about five feet tall, also is a black woman who had to overcome discrimination based on her gender and race. Today, the Senate confirmed Vice Admiral Howard, 53, to serve as vice chief of naval operations, the service’s No. 2 uniformed officer. She is the first black and first woman to hold the job and the first female four-star admiral, the Navy’s highest rank.
“Given the underrepresentation of blacks in the Navy, the fact that you’ve got a black woman is an important step toward recognizing the diversity of the force,” said David Segal, director of the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland. “Up until very recently, to be a senior officer you had to be white, you had to be a man and you had to be an aviator or submariner.”
In 1978, when Howard entered the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, as a member of the third class to which women were admitted, she was one of seven black women in a class of 1,363. Even today, women, who are more than half the U.S. population, make up 18 percent of the Navy and 17 percent of its officers. Black women are 4.4 percent of the Navy and 2.1 percent of the officers.
‘Can Be Scary’
Howard, who became a surface-warfare officer, wasn’t available for comment while her nomination by President Barack Obama was pending before the Senate, according to the Navy. She was confirmed today without objection. In the past, Howard hasn’t shied away from discussing the obstacles she faced or her serving as a role model for blacks and women.
“This is not for wimps,” Howard said in a 2010 talk about women and minorities in the Navy at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “You have to keep a sense of humor. You have to develop stamina because there’s going to be tough days. Like the pioneering women of old, you have to let some things go.”
“It can be scary going into an environment where no one looks like you,” Howard said. “I have been in rooms where I am the only woman and the only minority.”
In the course of her career, Howard said she encountered “individuals who didn’t want me at the command, or didn’t want me in a particular position,” according to an interview she gave Ebony magazine in September 1999. “And the issue either revolved around my gender or my race.”
Disparaged by Admiral
This year, a Navy investigation found Howard had been disparaged by Rear Admiral Charles Gaouette, who speculated that Howard’s race may have aided “in her speed of selection” to three-star rank. Gaouette, a one-star who promised to apologize to Howard when questioned by investigators, retired after he was relieved of command of Carrier Strike Group Three, led by the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, and reprimanded, effectively ending his career.
In her new position, Howard will be the top deputy to Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations. She’ll effectively be the service’s chief operating officer, helping to manage operations while focusing on issues including personnel, budget and military readiness.
Military Family
A 1978 graduate of Gateway High School in Aurora, Colorado, Howard grew up in a military family, the daughter of Air Force Master Sergeant Clarence Howard. She’s married to Wayne Cowles, a former Marine, and they don’t have children.
Her Navy career included a peacekeeping tour in the former Yugoslavia, a tsunami relief effort in Indonesia, and, at the Pentagon, as senior military assistant to the Navy secretary. She currently serves as deputy chief of naval operations for operations, plans and strategy.
In 1999, when she took command of the USS Rushmore, a dock landing ship that carries and launches amphibious craft, she was the first black woman to command a Navy warship. She later became the first to command an expeditionary strike group at sea and the first to attain three-star rank.
“She wanted to be the type of officer where it was just like being one of the men,” said Linda Postenrieder, another former Naval Academy classmate, who predicts that Howard someday may become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top job in the military. “It didn’t surprise me when she was the first admiral out of her class.”
Captain Phillips
Howard won attention in 2009 when, as commander of a Navy strike force against piracy, she helped coordinate the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips, whose cargo ship, the Maersk Alabama, was seized by Somali pirates.
Howard was deployed to the USS Bainbridge, a destroyer, after being alerted to the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama and learning that Phillips had been put on a lifeboat controlled by pirates.
“The lifeboat is heading toward the shore of Somalia,” Howard recalled in a videotaped interview about the incident posted on a Navy website. “Once he went into Somalia, it would be very, very hard to locate him again and find him, and make it much harder and less likely that we’d get him back home safely to America.”
After being held captive for five days, Phillips was rescued when Navy SEAL snipers on the Bainbridge fired on the pirates in the life raft and killed all three.
Younger Generation
Over the years, Howard has inspired a younger generation of minority women, said Anu Bhagwati, a former Marine captain of Indian descent who now serves as executive director of the Service Women’s Action Network, a support group for female troops and veterans.
“Anytime a woman, especially a woman of color, is promoted, it helps all of us,” Bhagwati said. “Looking up and seeing women like you, you cannot underestimate the incredible value of that moment.”
The Pentagon is implementing a decision to end a ban on women serving in direct combat roles, which will open as many as 237,000 positions to women by January 2016.
In February, Howard went to Hollywood and appeared at the NAACP Image Awards to accept the Chairman’s Award for public service.
“Her service and achievements as a top-ranking officer in the U.S. Navy have paved the way for girls and young women to know their dreams can become their reality,” NAACP Chairman Roslyn Brock said in a statement announcing the award.
Howard appeared taken aback by the adulation when she walked on stage to accept the award.
“Wow,” she said, according to a transcript. “It’s easier fighting pirates.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...ed-to-a-top-u-s-navy-job-says-wimps-fail.html
Black Woman Named to a Top U.S. Navy Job Says Wimps Fail
By David Lerman
Dec 20, 2013 12:00 PM CT
As a young midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, Michelle Howard didn’t strike some of her peers as an obvious candidate to become a four-star admiral.
“She was so quiet, and she’s also very short,” said Brian Jones, a classmate who graduated with Howard in 1982. “In the Navy, being forceful and physically commanding is a real asset. She had that working against her.”
Howard, who’s about five feet tall, also is a black woman who had to overcome discrimination based on her gender and race. Today, the Senate confirmed Vice Admiral Howard, 53, to serve as vice chief of naval operations, the service’s No. 2 uniformed officer. She is the first black and first woman to hold the job and the first female four-star admiral, the Navy’s highest rank.
“Given the underrepresentation of blacks in the Navy, the fact that you’ve got a black woman is an important step toward recognizing the diversity of the force,” said David Segal, director of the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland. “Up until very recently, to be a senior officer you had to be white, you had to be a man and you had to be an aviator or submariner.”
In 1978, when Howard entered the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, as a member of the third class to which women were admitted, she was one of seven black women in a class of 1,363. Even today, women, who are more than half the U.S. population, make up 18 percent of the Navy and 17 percent of its officers. Black women are 4.4 percent of the Navy and 2.1 percent of the officers.
‘Can Be Scary’
Howard, who became a surface-warfare officer, wasn’t available for comment while her nomination by President Barack Obama was pending before the Senate, according to the Navy. She was confirmed today without objection. In the past, Howard hasn’t shied away from discussing the obstacles she faced or her serving as a role model for blacks and women.
“This is not for wimps,” Howard said in a 2010 talk about women and minorities in the Navy at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “You have to keep a sense of humor. You have to develop stamina because there’s going to be tough days. Like the pioneering women of old, you have to let some things go.”
“It can be scary going into an environment where no one looks like you,” Howard said. “I have been in rooms where I am the only woman and the only minority.”
In the course of her career, Howard said she encountered “individuals who didn’t want me at the command, or didn’t want me in a particular position,” according to an interview she gave Ebony magazine in September 1999. “And the issue either revolved around my gender or my race.”
Disparaged by Admiral
This year, a Navy investigation found Howard had been disparaged by Rear Admiral Charles Gaouette, who speculated that Howard’s race may have aided “in her speed of selection” to three-star rank. Gaouette, a one-star who promised to apologize to Howard when questioned by investigators, retired after he was relieved of command of Carrier Strike Group Three, led by the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, and reprimanded, effectively ending his career.
In her new position, Howard will be the top deputy to Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations. She’ll effectively be the service’s chief operating officer, helping to manage operations while focusing on issues including personnel, budget and military readiness.
Military Family
A 1978 graduate of Gateway High School in Aurora, Colorado, Howard grew up in a military family, the daughter of Air Force Master Sergeant Clarence Howard. She’s married to Wayne Cowles, a former Marine, and they don’t have children.
Her Navy career included a peacekeeping tour in the former Yugoslavia, a tsunami relief effort in Indonesia, and, at the Pentagon, as senior military assistant to the Navy secretary. She currently serves as deputy chief of naval operations for operations, plans and strategy.
In 1999, when she took command of the USS Rushmore, a dock landing ship that carries and launches amphibious craft, she was the first black woman to command a Navy warship. She later became the first to command an expeditionary strike group at sea and the first to attain three-star rank.
“She wanted to be the type of officer where it was just like being one of the men,” said Linda Postenrieder, another former Naval Academy classmate, who predicts that Howard someday may become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top job in the military. “It didn’t surprise me when she was the first admiral out of her class.”
Captain Phillips
Howard won attention in 2009 when, as commander of a Navy strike force against piracy, she helped coordinate the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips, whose cargo ship, the Maersk Alabama, was seized by Somali pirates.
Howard was deployed to the USS Bainbridge, a destroyer, after being alerted to the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama and learning that Phillips had been put on a lifeboat controlled by pirates.
“The lifeboat is heading toward the shore of Somalia,” Howard recalled in a videotaped interview about the incident posted on a Navy website. “Once he went into Somalia, it would be very, very hard to locate him again and find him, and make it much harder and less likely that we’d get him back home safely to America.”
After being held captive for five days, Phillips was rescued when Navy SEAL snipers on the Bainbridge fired on the pirates in the life raft and killed all three.
Younger Generation
Over the years, Howard has inspired a younger generation of minority women, said Anu Bhagwati, a former Marine captain of Indian descent who now serves as executive director of the Service Women’s Action Network, a support group for female troops and veterans.
“Anytime a woman, especially a woman of color, is promoted, it helps all of us,” Bhagwati said. “Looking up and seeing women like you, you cannot underestimate the incredible value of that moment.”
The Pentagon is implementing a decision to end a ban on women serving in direct combat roles, which will open as many as 237,000 positions to women by January 2016.
In February, Howard went to Hollywood and appeared at the NAACP Image Awards to accept the Chairman’s Award for public service.
“Her service and achievements as a top-ranking officer in the U.S. Navy have paved the way for girls and young women to know their dreams can become their reality,” NAACP Chairman Roslyn Brock said in a statement announcing the award.
Howard appeared taken aback by the adulation when she walked on stage to accept the award.
“Wow,” she said, according to a transcript. “It’s easier fighting pirates.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...ed-to-a-top-u-s-navy-job-says-wimps-fail.html
Florida girl graduates college and high school a week apart
Florida girl graduates college and high school a week apart
BY ZACHARY FAGENSON
MIAMI Tue May 6, 2014 6:33pm EDT
(Reuters) - Last week, just days before her high school graduation, 16-year-old Grace Bush collected a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from a south Florida university, fulfilling her proud parents' cost-saving plan on tuition.
Bush will graduate from high school this Friday, but is already planning on heading back to Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton for a master's degree in public administration before seeking a law degree.
Home-schooled until 13 with her eight siblings, Grace began reading around the age of 2, her mother Gisla Bush said.
"I sat her in my lap and read to her every day for a few minutes so I could move on to do what I needed to do with my other kids," Bush said. "Then one day I saw her reading by herself and from that point on she did everything her other sisters did."
Grace Bush began taking college classes at 13 and enrolled in summer sessions to finish the college degree in three years. She is the third of her siblings to combine high school and college, but the youngest to complete both.
The family's home schooling and early graduation came as much out of financial need as it did from the daughters' stunning abilities. They discovered they could take college credits at FAU while studying at the high school on campus, saving both time and money.
Gisla Bush, 49, is a full-time mother - her youngest child is only 11 months old - and her husband works as a human resources analyst for the city of Pompano Beach. Bush is the daughter of a roofer with a fifth grade education and is herself one of 10 siblings, all of whom graduated from college.
"Everything was paid for, tuition, books, transportation. That was our benefit," she said.
Grace Bush rises at 5:30 a.m., arriving at school from the family home in Hollywood, Florida, before the first bell rings at 8 a.m. She spends the next 14 hours combining high school and college classes and playing the flute in two orchestras.
She's home by 11 p.m. to study for three hours before drifting to sleep in the middle of the night.
"Ultimately I would like to become a Supreme Court justice ... but between law school and that I'm not sure what I'll do," she said.
Gisla Bush, who studied architecture and law, credited Grace's grandfather, William Chennault, a World War Two veteran and grandson of slaves, for the family work ethic.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/06/us-usa-florida-graduation-idUSBREA4511Q20140506
Florida girl graduates college and high school a week apart
BY ZACHARY FAGENSON
MIAMI Tue May 6, 2014 6:33pm EDT
(Reuters) - Last week, just days before her high school graduation, 16-year-old Grace Bush collected a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from a south Florida university, fulfilling her proud parents' cost-saving plan on tuition.
Bush will graduate from high school this Friday, but is already planning on heading back to Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton for a master's degree in public administration before seeking a law degree.
Home-schooled until 13 with her eight siblings, Grace began reading around the age of 2, her mother Gisla Bush said.
"I sat her in my lap and read to her every day for a few minutes so I could move on to do what I needed to do with my other kids," Bush said. "Then one day I saw her reading by herself and from that point on she did everything her other sisters did."
Grace Bush began taking college classes at 13 and enrolled in summer sessions to finish the college degree in three years. She is the third of her siblings to combine high school and college, but the youngest to complete both.
The family's home schooling and early graduation came as much out of financial need as it did from the daughters' stunning abilities. They discovered they could take college credits at FAU while studying at the high school on campus, saving both time and money.
Gisla Bush, 49, is a full-time mother - her youngest child is only 11 months old - and her husband works as a human resources analyst for the city of Pompano Beach. Bush is the daughter of a roofer with a fifth grade education and is herself one of 10 siblings, all of whom graduated from college.
"Everything was paid for, tuition, books, transportation. That was our benefit," she said.
Grace Bush rises at 5:30 a.m., arriving at school from the family home in Hollywood, Florida, before the first bell rings at 8 a.m. She spends the next 14 hours combining high school and college classes and playing the flute in two orchestras.
She's home by 11 p.m. to study for three hours before drifting to sleep in the middle of the night.
"Ultimately I would like to become a Supreme Court justice ... but between law school and that I'm not sure what I'll do," she said.
Gisla Bush, who studied architecture and law, credited Grace's grandfather, William Chennault, a World War Two veteran and grandson of slaves, for the family work ethic.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/06/us-usa-florida-graduation-idUSBREA4511Q20140506
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