Kwasi Enin Is Accepted at *ALL* 8 Ivy League Universities!

Hat tip-3CHICSPolitico:

Let it be know that Kwasi Enin APPLIED to and was ACCEPTED into *ALL* EIGHT (8) Ivy League UNIVERSITIES. He's a high school senior, IVY LEAGUE COLLEGES or UNIVERSITIES, NOT schools. Got it?

Kwasi Enin has made HISTORY, beacuse he is the FIRST student to achieve this phenomenal feat.

CONGRATULATIONS, KWASI!











Long Island high school student is accepted at all eight Ivy League schools

Excerpt here:

Kwasi Enin, a senior at William Floyd High School in Mastic, applied at each of the eight Ivy League schools and got accepted into all of them. The acceptance rate for upcoming freshmen at these elite schools ranges from 5.9% at Harvard to 14% at Cornell.



"I think my preference is Yale," he said. "They seem to embody all the kind of things I want in college. The family, the wonderful education, the amazing diverse students and financial aid, as well. I think Yale has all that for me right now. It's tough to compare all these wonderful schools," he ended.



Kwasi Enin and family- LOL Ya'll know Kwasi's sister is a NERD.

Spelman twins make history as school's co-valedictorians

hat tip-Miranda at POU

I can't imagine their parents' pride right now.

Spelman twins make history as school's co-valedictorians

For the first time ever, a local college has co-valedictorians that are also identical twins.

Channel 2’s Erin Coleman spent the day at Spelman College with the Bronner twins, as they're called, to talk about working hard, having faith, and sharing the title.

Kristie and Kirstie Bronner are the identical twins with identical grade point averages.



“Before we came to college we prayed that we would keep 4.0s all the way through but I don't think we ever really expected it,” said Kirstie Bronner.

“You can have strength together,” Kristie said.

The Spelman College seniors will graduate in a matter of days. They say they worked hard – so hard at first, they made themselves sick. But eventually, they learned how to balance things.

“We learned how to have a balance to life and then to be able to appreciate the journey of college and be more healthy and be more happy,” Kristie said.

“Every semester we learned something new about life, things we could apply to life, things we could apply to school,” Kirstie said.

They both majored in music.

“You don't have to be the smartest. You don't have to be the one who came in with the prior knowledge to be the one to succeed,” Kristie Bronner said. “It’s a great testimony and it's also fun to be able to share it with one another. I don't think we'd want it any other way."

After graduation, they will join the youth ministry of their father’s church, Word of Faith Family Worship Cathedral. They also plan to record a youth contemporary gospel album.

100 percent of Urban Prep seniors college-bound for 4th year in row

hat tip-POU

From The Grio.com:

100 percent of Urban Prep seniors college-bound for 4th year in row

by Sharon Wright and BJ Lutz, NBC Chicago | April 1, 2013 at 8:48 AM

Urban Prep Academy is continuing its record of success.

For the last three years, all graduation seniors from the charter school’s Englewood campus have been college bound. This year, the inaugural graduating class of the West Campus has accomplished the same goal.

In all, 167 seniors, all African American males, have been accepted to a four-year college or university.

View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.

“What this 100 percent proves beyond a doubt is that it need not be the exception but it should be the expectation for every child in the city of Chicago,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said at a ceremony where the final students exchanged their red uniform neckties with the red-and-gold striped ones that signify their college-bound status.

Urban Prep founder Tim King said he was exceedingly proud of the young men.

“It’s really heartwarming. It’s really an inspiration,” said Tim King. “These guys are an inspiration to all of us because they show you what can happen when you really work hard and do the right thing. I feel great. There are no words to describe how powerful and wonderful it is to be a part of Urban Prep.”

Urban Prep also announced a $150,000 donation from Citi Foundation to support the academy’s Alumni Affairs Program, which supports roughly 300 graduates enrolled in college.

“To me, it’s a place that wants to see more young black men grow and mature into men and be successful in life,” senior Malik Battle said of Urban Prep.

Gabby Douglas Wins the All Around Gold Medal in Ladies Gymnastics at the London Olympics

Congratulations to Gabby Douglas - the first Black woman to win the All -Around Individual Gold Medal in Gymnastics at the Olympic Games.



US gymnast Gabrielle Douglas listens to her country's national anthem as she poses on the podium with her gold medal after winning the artistic gymnastics women's individual all-around final at the 02 North Greenwich Arena in London on August 2, 2012 during the London 2012 Olympic Games. Douglas won ahead of Russia's gymnasts Victoria Komova and Aliya Mustafina.

--- THOMAS COEX/AFP/GettyImages



Gabrielle Douglas of the U.S. gestures after performing on the asymmetric bars during the women's individual all-around gymnastics final in the North Greenwich Arena at the London 2012 Olympic Games August 2, 2012.

---REUTERS/Mike Blake

From USA Today:

USA's Gabby Douglas takes gold in women's all-around

By Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY

U.S. gymnast Gabby Douglas made history Thursday, winning the most coveted color of all, Olympic gold. Douglas, 16, became the first African-American, the first woman of color, to win the women's all-around title.

Douglas led from the start, finishing with with 62.232 points and topping Russia's Victoria Komova who had 61.973. . Russia's Aliya Mustafina took the bronze. American Aly Raisman finished fourth after a tie-break ruling. She and Mustafina finished with 59.566, but the Russian won the bronze because the tie-breaker combines their top three scores of the day. Her 16.1 on the uneven bars to Raisman's 14.333 made the the difference.

Douglas began the day with a 15.966 on the vault, the highest score of the 24-gymnast field. She also had the highest score on the beam, the third of four rotations.

In her final event, the floor, Douglas began her routine to cheers of "Go Gabby!" As her techno music played, she had the crowd dancing as she turned North Greenwich Arena into Club Gabby. Cheers filled the place as she finished, her smile spread even wider as she fell into a bear hug from her coach, Liang Chow.

Two years ago, for the first time, the USA took the top two spots in women's all-around when Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson won gold and silver, respectively.

.....................

Douglas also was hoping to become the first woman of color to win the Olympic all-around gold. She also was hoping to be the African-American female gymnast to win an individual Olympic medal since Dominique Dawes did in '96. "She was one of my inspirations and role models growing up," Douglas said.

A combination of pictures shows Gabrielle Douglas of the U.S. competing in the four different apparatus of the women's individual all-around gymnastics final in the North Greenwich Arena during the London 2012 Olympic Games August 2, 2012. Douglas took the Olympic Games by storm on Thursday when she won the all-around gold medal ahead of Russian Victoria Komova. The pictures show from top left, clockwise: balance beam, vault, floor and asymmetric bars.

---REUTERS/Dylan Martinez, Phil Noble and Mike Blake



Gold medallist Gabrielle Douglas of the U.S. poses with Russia's silver medallist Victoria Komova (R) and bronze medallist Aliya Mustafina after the women's individual all-around gymnastics final in the North Greenwich Arena at the London 2012 Olympic Games August 2, 2012.

----REUTERS/Mike Blake

Read more »

As a community, this should NOT be happening

They need to protect these young men and stop this foolishness.

From The Chicago Tribune:

West Side charter school students say they're harassed by gangs

By Dan Ponce WGN-TV

10:38 a.m. CDT, September 23, 2011
Students at the west campus of Urban Prep Academy say they’re being targeted, chased and harassed by gangbangers as they walk to and from school.

Leaders of the college preparatory school and parents of students met Thursday night to discuss what can be done about the ongoing problem.

The all-boys public school’s new location--one of three Urban Prep campuses--opened at 1326 W. 14th St. just weeks ago. But right after classes began, groups of young men in the surrounding neighborhood began harassing, fighting and robbing students at gunpoint.

Parents say an incident happens every day. They believe the men who are harassing the students live in a CHA housing complex a few blocks north of the school.

Parent Talmadge Adams said student have been robbed. "On Tuesday night they attacked a group of boys that were leaving football practice," she added.

Added Melissa Barnett, another parent: "Gangbangers chase them to the bus and don't let them get on."

Police patrols have been stepped up in the area, but students say they're still being chased.

 

Positive Young Black Male News: Urban Prep Does It Again

Tony Moseley, 18, a Posse Scholar, center, is congratulated by friends James Cole, 18, left and Cedric Hakeem, 17, as he steps to the front of the auditorium to be recognized for his accomplishments during an assembly at Urban Prep on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011. Every senior at Urban Prep Academy in Chicago has been accepted to a four year college and the school held an assembly.
----Nancy Stone/ Chicago Tribune
from The Chicago Tribune:

Urban Prep charter school again beats the odds
All seniors accepted to college for second year in row
By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Tribune reporter
9:32 p.m. CST, February 16, 2011

Fire broke out in Cedric Abdul-Hakeem's Englewood home Dec. 31. After making sure everyone was out safely, the 17-year-old re-entered the smoke-filled home to retrieve his laptop.

"My laptop had all my applications, and most college applications are due Jan. 1," explained Abdul-Hakeem. "I figured if my laptop burns, I'm through."

He got his laptop. He got the applications in on time. And so far, he's been accepted to half a dozen colleges, including Grinnell College in Iowa, where most of his tuition will be paid through scholarships and grants.

Abdul-Hakeem is yet another Urban Prep success story. For the second consecutive year, every single senior in Chicago's only public all-male, all-African-American high school has been accepted to a four-year college or university.


In all, the 104 members of the 2011 graduating class have been accepted to 103 colleges, including some of the country's most selective schools. With many acceptance letters still anticipated, the charter school, which has campuses in the Englewood, South Shore and East Garfield Park neighborhoods, is hoping at least one of its students this year will land an Ivy League invitation.

"We would never advocate that anybody run into a burning building to get a computer or essay or application, but what (Abdul-Hakeem's story) speaks to is how much our students are dedicated and focused on getting into college," said Urban Prep's founder and CEO, Tim King. "They recognize that with college they will have very different lives that will be transformative for them and their communities."

On Wednesday, Urban Prep Academy for Young Men celebrated its repeat with a tie-exchanging ritual in which the final three seniors to receive acceptance letters exchanged their red uniform ties for red-and-gold ones as the other seniors did before them. Mayor Richard Daley and Chicago Public Schools' interim chief education officer Charles Payne were on hand. So was alum Israel Wilson, a freshman at Morehouse College in Atlanta, who said he has earned a 3.3 GPA and made the dean's list his first semester.

Skeptics last year had questioned whether grads would actually attend college and be able to succeed in higher ed programs. One of the school's missions is to ensure students earn that bachelor's degree, so King and his staff have helped secure money for plane tickets, driven students to college campuses, held workshops for alumni in the summer and winter, and checked up on them. Of the 107 seniors in 2010—the school's first graduating class—101 enrolled in college, King said. Three went into the military and another three joined the work force.

Just some good news this morning. Many blessings in the future for these young men.

Youth's passion for learning beats the odds

hat tip-W.E.E. See You

Youth's passion for learning beats the odds
Atlantan succeeds while he overcomes family tragedy, other obstacles.
By Mark Davis

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The trophies are impossible to ignore. At least 37 fill the living room of the south Atlanta apartment Deonte Bridges shares with his mother. Thirty-six extol the teenager’s academic achievements at Booker T. Washington High School.

The 37th trophy? Bridges, 18, smiled. “Basketball,” he said. Turns out he played the sport in ninth grade but gave it up. The game got in the way of more important things.

Such is the focus of Deonte 
Kivon Bridges, a kid who still marvels at what he’s accomplished at such long odds.

Bridges is Washington High’s first black male valedictorian in more than a decade, a rising freshman at UGA, the winner of scholarships totaling more than $1 million.

And this: A YouTube posting of his graduation speech, nearly five minutes long, has been viewed more than 80,000 times. He has nearly 1,600 Facebook friends who live all over the world.

Bridges reset the academic bar at Washington, despite his mother’s cancer, his brother’s death, an armed hold-up and peer pressure to put down his books and embrace the street life.

With a 3.9 grade point average, he’s the recipient of 26 scholarship offers. Emory University tossed a $201,000 scholarship at his feet, which he declined in favor of an all-expenses-paid education at the University of Georgia, courtesy of the $360,000 Gates Millennium Scholars Program. The award, given by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, will pay for his undergraduate and graduate education.

Read the rest of his story at the link above.

Congratulations Tyki Nelworth: From Homeless Student to West Point

hat tip-W.E.E. See You


From KABC.Com

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A homeless high school senior from South L.A. is on his way to West Point thanks to some incredible help from complete strangers. Tyki Nelworth explained to Eyewitness News how he is inspiring such an overwhelming support.

George Washington Preparatory High School senior Tyki Nelworth is savoring the generosity of strangers. The 18-year-old has been accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, but up until Thursday, he didn't know how he would get there or how he would pay the deposit.

"Initially, I had to make a $2,000 deposit to West Point to enter and I was kind of uncertain on how I was going to get that together," said Tyki. "That's a lot of money."

When the school's alumni association heard the stand-out student needed help, former students paid the deposit, his plane ticket, his prom tickets and tuxedo rental.

..............................................

Despite one obstacle after another, Tyki has a 4.2 GPA. He's taken advanced-placement courses, is the captain of the football team, is on the baseball team and is student body president.
.............................................

Tyki plans to play football at West Point and sharpen his leadership skills. Over the years, he says many people have steered him in the right direction and he hopes to be a role model to other teens in the future.

"If you put your mind to it, I know it sounds cliché, but you can do it. If there's a will, there's a way," said Tyki.

Congratulations young man. And, God bless.

Charter school in tough neighborhood gets all its seniors into college

Hat tip- JJP



From The Chicago Tribune

Charter school in tough neighborhood gets all its seniors into college

By Duaa Eldeib Tribune staff reporter

The entire senior class at Chicago's only public all-male, all-African-American high school has been accepted to four-year colleges. At last count, the 107 seniors had earned spots at 72 schools across the nation.

Mayor Richard Daley and Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman surprised students at an all-school assembly at Urban Prep Academy for Young Men in Englewood this morning to congratulate them. It's the first graduating class at Urban Prep since it opened its doors in 2006.

Huberman applauded the seniors for making CPS shine.

"All of you in the senior class have shown that what matters is perseverance, what matters is focus, what matters is having a dream and following that dream," Huberman said.

The school enforces a strict uniform of black blazers, khaki pants and red ties -- with one exception. After a student receives the news he was accepted into college, he swaps his red tie for a red and gold one at an assembly.

The last 13 students received their college ties today, to thunderous applause.

Ask Rayvaughn Hines what college he was accepted to and he'll answer with a question.

"Do you want me to name them all?"

For the 18-year-old from Back of the Yards, college was merely a concept--never a goal--growing up. Even within the last three years, he questioned if school, let alone college, was for him. Now, the senior is headed to the prestigious Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga. next fall.

Hines remembers the moment he put on his red and gold tie.

"I wanted to take my time because I was just so proud of myself," he said. "I wanted everyone to see me put it on."

The achievement might not merit a mayoral visit at one of the city's elite, selective enrollment high schools. But Urban Prep, a charter school that enrolls using a lottery in one of the city's more troubled neighborhoods, faced difficult odds. Only 4 percent of this year's senior class read at grade level as freshmen, according to Tim King, the school's CEO.

"I never had a doubt that we would achieve this goal," King said. "Every single person we hired knew from the day one that this is what we do: We get our kids into college."

College is omnipresent at the school. Before the students begin their freshman year, they take a field trip to Northwestern University. Every student is assigned a college counselor the day he steps foot in the school.

The school offers an extended day--170,000 more minutes over four years compared to its counterparts across the city--and more than double the number of English credits usually needed to graduate.

Even the school's voicemail has a student declaring "I am college bound" before it asks callers to dial an extension.

Rest of article at link above.

Morehouse Whiz Kid is Causing a Stir: 13-Year-Old Dominates College

hat tip: Dr. Boyce Watkins

Morehouse Whiz Kid is Causing a Stir: 13-Year-Old Dominates College
By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 13th 2010 7:45PM

At thirteen years of age, Stephen Stafford is causing quite a stir at Morehouse College. Stafford has a triple major in pre-med, math and computer science. Though he loves playing video games and playing his drum set, he is no typical teenager.

"I've never taught a student as young as Stephen, and it's been amazing," said computer science professor Sonya Dennis. "He's motivating other students to do better and makes them want to step up their game."

Stafford began his college career at the age of 11, after being home-schooled by his mother. Stafford's mother said that when Stafford began to teach her instead of being taught by her, she knew he needed to be in a college environment.

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about. Stephen Stafford, in my opinion, represents exactly what black men are about: Intelligence, ambition and high academic achievement. This is not to disrespect men in other walks of life, but the truth is that you will never see Stephen Stafford's accomplishments promoted like a rap music video.

Read more »

Former foster child in Chicago now a million-dollar scholar

hat tip-djchefron





From The Chicago Tribune

Former foster child in Chicago now a million-dollar scholar
Scholarships flooded in for an A student with a lost childhood
Swimming in scholarship offers
By Stephanie Banchero
Tribune Reporter
October 4, 2009

ATLANTA - -- Derrius Quarles leans back in his seat and methodically debates Aristotle's theory of truth during freshman honors English class at Morehouse College.

He strides across campus in a navy blue tailored suit and a bold red sweater handing out business cards that boast "Student/Entrepreneur/Leader."

But behind the 19-year-old's dauntless appearance is a past that few on campus know.

When Quarles was 5, the state took him away from his mother. He spent his childhood bouncing from home to home before ending up on his own at 17 in an apartment on Chicago's South Side.

His arrival at a prestigious, historically African-American college -- with more than $1 million in scholarship offers -- is a story of inspiration and anguish. And it's a testament to his determination to prove that he is better than his beginnings.

"You can't go around thinking you are inferior just because you didn't have parents," he says. "For me, it's about knowing where you are from and accepting it, but more important, knowing where you are going."

Despite his polished veneer, sometimes there are glimpses into a more complicated young man.

In sociology class, when students discuss their childhood dependence on parents, the usually verbose Quarles withdraws from the lively discussion and doodles in a notebook. When a tutoring coordinator asks students about the "caring adults" in their lives, Quarles mumbles something about an aunt.

He rarely talks about his childhood, but when pushed, the words tumble out.

"I've had people tell me that I ain't never gonna be s---. That's not a scratch, that cuts deep," he says. "After so many people put me down, I said, 'I'm gonna show you.' "

Quarles made good on that promise when he won more than $1 million in scholarship offers, including a full ride at Morehouse. A graduate of Kenwood Academy High School in Chicago, he is one of about a dozen students nationwide to garner such a bounty, according to Mark Kantrowitz, who runs the Web site Finaid, which tracks college aid.

He won full scholarships to five universities, the Gates Millennium Scholarship worth $160,000 and the Horatio Alger and Coca-Cola scholarships, each worth $20,000, to name a few. He'll use most of it to pay for advanced schooling.

Now, Quarles hopes to weave a new family narrative at an all-male college known as much for molding brotherhood as for molding scholars.

He is searching for a band of brothers who will not abandon him, as so many others have in the past.

Left aloneWhen Quarles was 4, his father was stabbed to death with a pocketknife in a fight on a vacant lot. His mother struggled with drugs.

Quarles doesn't remember much about those years, outside of being left alone with his brother for long stretches of time, pilfering bread and snacks from a convenience store.

"We had to fend for ourselves the best we knew how," he says. "My brother really stepped up as an older brother. He never left my side."

This connection to his brother was a sustaining one. But it would not last.

When Quarles was 5, officials placed him and his brother in a temporary foster home, then with an aunt.

Quarles remembers this as a period of calm. He learned to read sitting in his aunt's lap, paging through her favorite Bible passages. He recalls eating around the dinner table with more food than he ever imagined.

But when Quarles was 13, his older brother was removed from the home and placed in a foster home in Maywood. Quarles wanted to go with his brother and his aunt let him. State records simply show she was not interested in becoming his legal guardian. Quarles says he is not certain why his aunt let him leave and he would not provide her name.

"I'm content not to know," he says. "I'm sure it was a good reason."

Quarles' brother left the foster home a few months later, one of the toughest losses of Quarles' life. "That's when I learned you can't trust people to stay around," he says. "That when I learned to lean on me."

Three years later, Quarles was placed with his grandmother and an aunt in Chicago. But within a year, he convinced officials with the Department of Children and Family Services that he would be better off on his own.

The high school junior packed his clothes, books and a set of golf clubs and moved to an apartment as part of a state transitional living program for foster children. There, he learned to budget his money, wash and dry his clothes, shop for groceries and cook. He received a small stipend and got a part-time job at a barbershop.

At 17, he was living like an adult.

Desmond Kemp, who became a mentor to Quarles -- a brother, really -- when they met at a tutoring program, initially opposed the move.

But Kemp was impressed with how Quarles kept up the apartment and budgeted his money with such precision that he always had enough for fashionable clothes and textbooks.

He was awed when he took Quarles to the grocery store and the teenager shunned the snack aisles and headed to the fresh fruits and vegetables.

"He kept saying, 'This is brain food. This is what I need to eat to build a strong brain,' " Kemp recalls. "I had to laugh but also stared in amazement at how mature he was for a teenager."

Even though his home life was sometimes chaotic, Quarles brought home A's and B's in elementary school. That changed when he entered Kenwood Academy. First quarter of freshman year, he got an F and eked out only a 2.5 grade point average.

Providence intervened in the form of a pushy biology teacher.

Quarles had enrolled in a summer biology course but skipped the first day and was late for the second. Teacher Nivedita Nutakki pulled him into the hallway and told him he was wasting his talent.

"He needed a push and some encouragement," she says. "I spotted right away that this was a special kid who had a special mind."

Quarles got an A in the class. Sophomore year, he earned a 3.6 grade point average. By junior year, he was carrying three advanced placement classes and earning straight A's.

"Initially, I was doing it to show my biology teacher that I could do it," he says. "But then it kind of moved into, 'I didn't have to show her anymore.' I was doing it to show myself."

Quarles latched on to Nutakki and spent hours after school with her, engrossed in a subject that inspired him to want to be a doctor.

He found other mentors who, together, played the role of parent.

Lynda Parker, a Kenwood counselor, recounts how aggressively Quarles pursued college scholarships. He would stay late to use the school computer for research and pester Parker to complete his recommendation letters.

"With teenagers, the biggest motivator is the parent," Parker says. "Every step of the way, you have to contact the parents so they can push the kids. Not only did Derrius not have a parent to push him, he was pushing himself as hard, or harder, than parents of the other kids."

Even his oversize ambition couldn't get Quarles past one roadblock. He dreamed of attending Harvard, until one college adviser told him his 28 ACT score was simply not high enough. He abandoned his plans.

At a crossroadsNow, as he walks the red clay hills of the Morehouse campus, the training ground of Martin Luther King Jr., Quarles seems poised between who he was and who he wants to be.

His dorm room looks like every other teenager's. The bed is mussed, the refrigerator and shelves are stacked with Doritos and Coke, and the focus of the room is the 32-inch flat-screen TV and Xbox he bought with his roommate.

But inside Quarles' closet hang four suits and a half-dozen wrinkle-free dress shirts. In the corner sits an iron and ironing board.

As a high school senior, Quarles Googled tips on business attire. Now, his belt color always matches his shoes, and his shirt sleeves are tailored to fall exactly halfway across his watch.

"How you dress says something to the world about who you think you are," he explains.

Quarles' counselors, friends and teachers worry he is too eager to grow up.

"I keep telling him that everyone has a right to live as a child during their childhood years," Parker says.

Still, Quarles keeps an ambitious list of goals: graduate from medical school, earn a doctorate, start a tutoring program for low-income Chicago students, help shape the city's public health policy, become the U.S. surgeon general.

"I have no time to play around," he says. "There are people back home in Chicago starving, homeless, unemployed, killing each other. There is a difference between enjoying life and wasting time, and I can't waste any time.

"I want to make a difference. I want to show people that I can be all those things people said I could never be."

Quarles now has the means to pay for his education. And oversize optimism could get him the rest of the way.

During a training session for a Morehouse tutoring program one day, students introduce themselves and list three songs on their iPod -- typically Kanye West, Beyonce, Jay-Z and Lou Rawls.

When his turn comes, Quarles stands.

"Have you ever seen the movie 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'?" he asks, prompting raised eyebrows. "There's a song in there called 'Pure Imagination.' That's what I'm listening to these days."

Quarles later explains that the lyrics inspire him: "Anything you want to, do it. Want to change the world? There's nothing to it."

"It's so powerful," he says. "It shows the power of imagination. If you imagine it, you can do it."

Keep on, positive young man.

Damon Weaver gets his interview with President Barack Obama

A Young Athlete's Journey

lexis Page practices at Aviator Sports and Recreation in Brooklyn.

From The NYTimes:

Sports of The Times
A Young Gymnast’s Distant Olympic Dream
By GEORGE VECSEY
Published: July 29, 2009

On weekends, the subway and bus trip can take two and a half hours — each way, that is. Alexis Page, 13, is pursuing her sport, her art, from uptown Manhattan to the outer fringes of Brooklyn.

Millions of hopeful American youths ride to practice in team vans or their parents’ cars or perhaps they bicycle to a nearby field or gym. Alexis takes the No. 2 subway and the Q35 bus.

Her discipline is rhythmic gymnastics, twirling a ribbon, dancing with a ball, an Olympic sport that is obscure just about everywhere except the old Soviet bloc.

Alexis cannot afford to think about the Olympics themselves, she says softly. She must live within the moment of the music and the rhythm, and not think how she will pay for all this, or when she will sleep.

Her coaches, with the enduring poise of Soviet athletes, tell her she has it good. They tell stories of all-day training rather than the four-hour sessions she takes. They tell of children removed from their families to join the collective athletic system.

Alexis studies them, the way they walk, the way they talk. She is preparing for life, for college, not only the Olympics. She does not have time for a social life in her neighborhood; her friends are in the gym or on her Facebook page — girls from Russia, girls from Chicago, gymnasts, like herself. One of her friends is an octogenarian European gymnast, now living in New York.

Read more »

She Finally Has a Home ----Harvard

I dare you not to have tears after reading this:

From the Los Angeles Times:

She finally has a home: Harvard

Khadijah Williams, 18, overcomes a lifetime in shelters and on skid row.
By Esmeralda Bermudez
11:03 PM PDT, June 19, 2009

Khadijah Williams stepped into chemistry class and instantly tuned out the commotion.

She walked past students laughing, gossiping, napping and combing one another's hair. Past a cellphone blaring rap songs. And past a substitute teacher sitting in a near-daze.

Quietly, the 18-year-old settled into an empty table, flipped open her physics book and focused. Nothing mattered now except homework.

"No wonder you're going to Harvard," a girl teased her.

Around here, Khadijah is known as "Harvard girl," the "smart girl" and the girl with the contagious smile who landed at Jefferson High School only 18 months ago.

What students don't know is that she is also a homeless girl.

As long as she can remember, Khadijah has floated from shelters to motels to armories along the West Coast with her mother. She has attended 12 schools in 12 years; lived out of garbage bags among pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers. Every morning, she upheld her dignity, making sure she didn't smell or look disheveled.

On the streets, she learned how to hunt for their next meal, plot the next bus route and help choose a secure place to sleep -- survival skills she applied with passion to her education.

Only a few mentors and Harvard officials know her background. She never wanted other students to know her secret -- not until her plane left for the East Coast hours after her Friday evening graduation.

"I was so proud of being smart I never wanted people to say, 'You got the easy way out because you're homeless,' " she said. "I never saw it as an excuse."

A drive to succeed


"I have felt the anger at having to catch up in school . . . being bullied because they knew I was poor, different, and read too much," she wrote in her college essays. "I knew that if I wanted to become a smart, successful scholar, I should talk to other smart people."

Khadijah was in third grade when she first realized the power of test scores, placing in the 99th percentile on a state exam. Her teachers marked the 9-year-old as gifted, a special category that Khadijah, even at that early age, vowed to keep.

"I still remember that exact number," Khadijah said. "It meant only 0.01 students tested better than I did."

In the years that followed, her mother, Chantwuan Williams, pulled her out of school eight more times. When shelters closed, money ran out or her mother didn't feel safe, they packed what little they carried and boarded buses to find housing in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Ventura, San Diego, San Bernardino and Orange County, staying for months, at most, in one place.

She finished only half of fourth grade, half of fifth and skipped sixth. Seventh grade was split between Los Angeles and San Diego. Eighth grade consisted of two weeks in San Bernardino.

At every stop, Khadijah pushed to keep herself in each school's gifted program. She read nutrition charts, newspapers and four to five books a month, anything to transport her mind away from the chaos and the sour smell.

At school, she was the outsider. At the shelter, she was often bullied. "You ain't college-bound," the pimps barked. "You live in skid row!"

In 10th grade, Khadijah realized that if she wanted to succeed, she couldn't do it alone. She began to reach out to organizations and mentors: the Upward Bound Program, Higher Edge L.A., Experience Berkeley and South Central Scholars; teachers, counselors and college alumni networks. They helped her enroll in summer community college classes, gave her access to computers and scholarship applications and taught her about networking.

When she enrolled in the fall of her junior year at Jefferson High School, she was determined to stay put, regardless of where her mother moved. Graduation was not far off and she needed strong college letters of recommendation from teachers who were familiar with her work.

This soon meant commuting by bus from an Orange County armory. She awoke at 4 a.m. and returned at 11 p.m., and kept her grade-point average at just below a 4.0 while participating in the Academic Decathlon, the debate team and leading the school's track and field team.

"That's when I was really stressed," she says, at once sighing and laughing.

Khadijah graduated Friday evening with high honors, fourth in her class. She was accepted to more than 20 universities nationwide, including Brown, Columbia, Amherst and Williams. She chose a full scholarship to Harvard and aspires to become an education attorney.

Early adversity

She tried her best; she never smoked or drank, never did drugs, and she never put us in abusive situations. However, that was the best she could do.

There are questions about her mother Khadijah is not ready to ask, answers she is not ready to hear. How did her mother end up on the streets? How come she never found a stable home for her daughters? Why wasn't there family to turn to, no father, no grandparents? And what will become of her little sister?

"I don't know. I don't know," is often her response. Ask personal questions about her mother and the fire in Khadijah's eyes turns dim. She knows when she arrives in Cambridge, Mass., she will need to seek counseling. So much of her life is a blur.

She knows she was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to a 14-year-old mother. She thinks Chantwuan might have been ostracized from her family. She may have tried to attend school, but the stress of a baby proved too much. When Khadijah was a toddler, they moved to California. A few years later, Jeanine was born.

She has chosen not to criticize her mother. Instead Khadijah said she inspired her to learn. "She would tell me I had a gift, she would call me Oprah."

When her college applications were due in December, James and Patricia London of South Central Scholars invited Khadijah to their home in Rancho Palos Verdes to help her write her essays.

When they went to return her to skid row, her mother and sister were gone.

Khadijah accepted the Londons' invitation to spend the rest of her school year with them.

In their comfortable hilltop home, Khadijah learned a new set of lessons. The orthopedic doctor and nurse taught her table manners, money management and grooming.

She won't be the first homeless student to arrive at Harvard.

Julie Hilden, the Harvard interviewer who met with Khadijah to gauge whether she should be accepted, said it was clear from the start that Khadijah was a top candidate. But school officials had to make sure they could provide what she needed to make the transition successful.

They plan to connect her with faculty mentors and potentially, a host family to check in with every so often. She will also attend a Harvard summer program at Cornell to take college-prep courses.

"I strongly recommended her," Hilden said. "I told them, 'If you don't take her, you might be missing out on the next Michelle Obama. Don't make this mistake.' "


Seeking connections

"I think about how I can convince my peers about the value of education. . . . I have found that after all the teasing, these peers start to respect me . . . . I decided that I could be the one to uplift my peers . . . . My work is far reaching and never finished."

Khadijah expected to feel more connected after nearly two years at Jefferson, to make at least one good friend.

Students flock to the smart girl for help with homework and tests and class questions. She walks through campus tenderly waving and smiling and complimenting everyone she knows.

But when prom pictures arrive, they show her posing alone in a silky black and white dress. In her yearbook, hundreds of familiar faces look back, but the memories are missing.

"It's a nice, glossy, shiny, colorful yearbook," she said. "But it feels like they're all strangers. I'm nowhere in these pages."

In the last six months, she saw her mother only a few times and on Thursday tried to find her. Khadijah headed to a South-Central storage facility where they last stored their belongings.

She found Chantwuan sitting on a garbage bag full of clothes.

"Khadijah's here!" her sister Jeanine yells. Chantwuan's face lit up.

She explained the details of her graduation, the bus route to get there and gave her mother a prom picture. She said she would leave for summer school Friday.

There is no talk of coming home of for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Proudly, Khadijah modeled her hunter green graduation cap and gown and practiced switching the tassel from right to left as she would during the ceremony.

"Look at you," her mother says. "You're really going to Harvard, huh?"

"Yeah," she says, pausing. "I'm going to Harvard."

This Just Broke My Heart

Javon R. Jackson, 23, was shot and killed,
less than a day after graduating from the University at Buffalo



I try and make sense of things. Some things, though, just make me so angry. I'm tired as hell of Black folks who are trying to make something positive happen in the world being snuffed out by the criminal element that would be better 6 feet under. The wrong folks are winding up at the cemetary. There's a Black talk show host that calls these folks 'Urban Terrorists'. I believe I see his point.

Hat tip: Bossip

From the NYDailyNews:

For Bronx mom of Buffalo graduate, son's death turns joy to horror
BY Stephanie Gaskell
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, May 11th 2009, 4:00 AM
A day after proudly watching her son graduate from the University of Buffalo, a Bronx mom is now making plans to bury the brainy future engineer.

Javon Jackson, 23, was shot and killed just after 3 a.m. Sunday outside a bar in Buffalo as he celebrated his graduation.

Cops believe the gunman and three other men walked up behind Jackson and fired at least twice at the newly minted grad.

"This was supposed to be my Mother's Day gift," grieving mom Theresa Williams, told reporters in Buffalo. "I was so proud of him."

Williams and Jackson's father, who flew in from Chicago, both attended their son's graduation and were still upstate when they learned of the terrible news.

Even hardboiled cops were jarred by the parents' tragedy.

"His father and mother were so proud to have their son graduate from college," Chief of Detectives Dennis Richards said. "Now, they are distraught beyond words."

Jackson grew up in the Pelham Parkway Houses and graduated from Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics. Friends flooded an online memorial site with stories about his quick wit and big smile.

Childhood friend Alexis Dorsett said Jackson was always more interested in his studies than fighting.

"He's a good kid. Humorous, focused on school," Dorsett said. "He's a great kid. It's hard."

Williams said she last saw her son alive when he went out to see some friends.

"I never thought it would be the last time," she said, fighting back tears.

Jackson was crossing Main St., a stretch of road lined with bars full of students celebrating graduation, when he was gunned down.

Police believe they may have caught the shooting on a surveillance camera.

14 Year Old Surgeon Wows Medical Professionals

Hat tip:Booker Rising

14-Year-Old Surgeon Wows Medical Professionals
Posted 1 day, 11 hours ago, 0 replies

A medical researcher in Jacksonville, Florida has developed a new stitching technique that could possibly transform surgical procedures around the world. Perhaps the most fascinating detail is the researcher is a 14-year-old high school freshman.

Tony Hansberry II has created a new way to sew up hysterectomy patients in efforts to reduce the risks of post surgical complications and simplify the delicate procedure for less experienced surgeons, reports Jacksonville News. So far, the young man has only performed the surgery on dummies but has managed to fascinate the medical community enough to peak the interests of seasoned surgeons. On April 24 Hansberry presented his findings in the University of Florida's medical auditorium packed with board-certified physicians, with established practices older than Hansberry, eager to see what medical phenomenon awaits.

"I just want to help people and be respected, knowing that I can save lives," Hansberry said. He insists his extraordinary achievements are simply stepping stones to his aspirations of becoming a University of Florida-trained neurosurgeon.


Hansberry, whose mother is a registered nurse, is student at Darnell-Cookman Middle/High School - a magnet school with a primary focus of medical studies. For example, students will have mastered suturing techniques by the eighth grade. Last summer the 14-year-old interned at the University of Florida's Center for Simulation Education and Safety Research, where he began his research.

At the simulation center, where medical residents and nurses practice on dummies, the bashful student took a liking to Bruce Nappi, the center's administrative director. Nappi recognized the student's enthusiasm to learn and encouraged him to explore his medical know-how.

One day, an obstetrics and gynecology professor asked Hansberry and Nappi to help him figure out why no one was using a handy device that looks like a dipstick with clamps at the end, called an endo stitch, for sewing up hysterectomy patients. The endo stitch tool was difficult for many practitioners because it didn't properly close the tube where the patient's uterus was once situated. Hansberry believed using the instrument vertically instead of horizontally could make a difference and his estimations were correct.

"It was truly independent that he figured it out," Nappi said.

Hansberry, who has no formal surgical training, was able to increase stitching speed by three times with the endo stitch versus the conventional needle driver. Further study may prove the technique useful for new and seasoned surgeons worldwide.

"Tony often speaks in the highly technical, dispassionate language of doctors. In that respect, he's not the exception but the rule at Darnell-Cookman," said Angela TenBroeck, the school's medical lead teacher. "But he has surged ahead of others when it comes to surgical skills." She added, "I would put him up against a first-year med student. He's an outstanding young man, and I'm proud to have him representing us."

Hansberry's Friday presentation is a part of the university's medical education week, which highlights teaching developments and advancements.

Stunning.

Damon Weaver Gets Scholarship

Remember Damon Weaver.



From The HuffingtonPost.com:

Congratulations are in order to Damon Weaver today. According to NBC News in Miami, the kid reporter - whose resume includes a famously viral Joe Biden interview, official credentials to cover the Presidential inauguration, and a segment from 20/20, in addition to tons of yeoman's work done for his school's news bureau - has landed himself a college scholarship. Not bad for a kid looking forward to the sixth grade!

According to the report:

Little Damon Weaver from Pahokee has gained national attention for his reporting exploits and now this junior journalist is getting a free ride to Albany State University.

The school will officially present Weaver with the scholarship at a June alumni convention in Miami. The fifth-grader said he plans on accepting the school's offer.


Weaver says the scholarship "is a big relief to me and my family." I can just imagine!

And yet, Weaver remains steadfast in his pursuit of an interview with President Barack Obama. To which I say, Mr. President - seriously - you need to get yourself on the ground floor with this kid, for real.

We must uplift our youth that are on the positive tip, especially if they're doing it in something other than athletics.