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Sunday, December 22, 2024
Education

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Robert Smith has BEEN a Giver

Many people heard of Robert Smith for the first time this week, after announcing his plan to pay off the entire student loan debt of the 2019 Morehouse College graduating class of 396 students; approximately $40 million. However, Robert Smith has been a generous giver for many years now; not only has he been a huge giver, but he’s been a giant in the preservation and advancement of black culture. Here are __ things you probably didn’t know about Robert Smith.

  1. He is the Founder, Chairman,and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. He manages approximately $46 billion of equity capital commitments in his company’s portfolio, for over 50 software companies. His firm employs 60,000 people worldwide.
  2. Robert F. Smith was named as one of the “100 Greatest Living Business Minds” by Forbes in 2017.
  3. Smith was born in Colorado, raised by both parents, both of whom had PhDs, in a predominantly middle class area. Smith’s mother had to have been awesome because as infant, she took him to the March on Washington where Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech.
  4. Robert Smith attended Cornell University and majored in Chemical Engineering. He also earned an MBA from Columbia School of Business, where he received honors.
  5. Smith has two U.S. and European patents, which were earned when he worked for Kraft General Foods.
  6. In 2018, Robert Smith was named the 163 richest person in America and number 480 of the world’s richest billionaires.
  7. In 1994, Robert Smith worked for Golden Sachs in tech investment banking as the Co-Head of Enterprise Systems and Storage. Here, he handled $50 billion in mergers and acquisitions for companies like Apple, Microsoft, Texas Instrument, eBay, and Yahoo. Smith was the first person in San Francisco at Goldman to have a sole focus on tech mergers and acquisitions.
  8. Robert Smith started his own firm in 2000. Vista Equity Partners is a private equity capital firm. Smith’s company is the 4th largest enterprise software company after Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP.
  9. Robert Smith was the only African American to sign on to The Giving Pledge in 2017. His gift of $20 million was the largest by a single donor to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
  10. Robert Smith is the first African American to hold the position of Board Chairman for Carnegie Hall.
  11. In 2018, Smith was the largest donor at the City of Hope Gala. These funds were used towards research for prostate cancer treatments for black men, and breast cancer research for black women. He also gave a $1 million to the Cultural Performance Center of Harlem.
  12. Robert Smith believes in the respect and preservation of black culture. He is the Founder, Director and President of the Fund II Foundation, dedicated to preserving the African American experience, safeguarding human rights, and providing music education , preserving the environment, and promoting the benefits of outdoors.
  13. Robert Smith has been a philanthropist for a long time; his generous giving has been recognized by the following awards: *Morehouse Candle Award in Business and Philanthropy, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Chair’s Award, the Reginald F. Lewis Achievement Award, the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Robert Toigo Foundation, the Ripple of Hope Award from the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, the Award of Excellence from the National Association of Investment Companies, the Pierre Toussaint Award from the Archdiocese of New York, the Columbia University BBSA Distinguished Alumni Award, and the Ron Brown Scholar Program American Journey Award.
  14. Robert Smith is like the Harriet Tubman of Debt right now. He has single-handedly freed almost 400 students from the burden of years of student loan trauma. Smith’s gesture is now known as a gift of liberation.“When you have to service debt, the choices about what you can go do in the world are constrained. Smith’s gift gives them the liberty to follow their dreams, their passions.” Morehouse President David A. Thomas said Sunday
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Lebron may not have had the best year in basketball, but the students who attend the ‘I Promise School’ he started last year in Akron had an amazing year! Here are 10 things you need to know about the ‘I Promise School’ students.

  1. When the school opened many skeptics did not believe that they school would be successful simply because it was filled with kids labeled unredeemable. “We are reigniting dreams that were extinguished — already in third and fourth grade.”Brandi Davis – Principal
  2. Everyone assumes Lebron’s school is a Charter School because this is a very popular and profitable thing for investors and celebrities to endeavor to start. However, the ‘I Promise School’ is not a Charter School. Lebron was smart, he created a school as a partnership with traditional public schools and the school district, as a NON-CHARTER school.
  3. Everyday the kids are celebrated simply for walking through the doors of the school. Dancing, laughing, music blaring, high fives, and the sounds of Sister Sledge’s “We are Family” can be heard on any given Monday at the school, simply as a celebration that the kids are coming in on that day.
  4. “Mr. James’s biggest foray into educational philanthropy — were identified as the worst performers in the Akron public schools and branded with behavioral problems. Some as young as 8 were considered at risk of not graduating.” -Erica Green, writer for NY Times
  5. There are 240 kids in the ‘I Promise School’ comprised of 3rd and 4th graders, and these kids test scores in math and reading were phenomenal for the school’s first year in session.
  6. Before they started at the ‘I Promise School’ these 3rd & 4th graders scored in the lowest percentile – 1%; after 1 year at the ‘I Promise School’, 3rd graders scored in the 9th percentile and 4th graders scored in the 16th percentile!
  7. “These kids are doing an unbelievable job, better than we all expected. When we first started, people knew I was opening a school for kids. now people are going to really understand the lack of education they had before they came to our school. People are going to finally understand what goes on behind our doors.” -Lebron James
  8. 90% of the ‘I Promise School’ Students who met their goals exceeded the 70% of students in the Akron Ohio school district and scored in the 99th growth percentile of what is considered normal. This shows that the ‘I Promise School’ Students scores increased at a higher rate than 99 out of 100 schools in the country.
  9. When the school opened many skeptics did not believe that they school would be successful simply because it was filled with kids labeled unredeemable. “We are reigniting dreams that were extinguished — already in third and fourth grade.”Brandi Davis – Principal
  10. Though the scores are outstanding, these children have a ways to go in order to get them where they need to be academically. The news is great, but these kids are not out of the woods, according to the School Improvement Council Coordinator, “The goal is for these students to be at grade level, and we’re not there yet. This just tells us we’re going in the right direction.”

Kudos to Lebron, these teachers, and the public school district for believing in these children; but most importantly KUDOS to those kids!

Syllabus Magazine

Syllabus Magazine, the Carolina’s source for Music, Culture and Fashion

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Georgetown University Students Vote To Increase Tuition to Pay Reparations

In a groundbreaking decision, the current student body at Georgetown University has told the school it needs to ‘cut the check’ to the families of slave descendants. On Thursday in a vote of 2-1, students voted in favor of a measure to pay the descendants of enslaved families who were sold in the 1800s. If approved, Georgetown University will become the first college in the nation to add a fee that will be calculated into college tuition to pay reparations that will benefit the families of slave descendants.

Almost 200 years ago, 272 slaves were sold in an effort to pay off the debt of the Georgetown Jesuits. This human payment saved the university from financial ruin, and it continues to operate as a fine institution until this day.

How will the reparations be paid? The idea is that a $27 fee will be added as a tuition increase, per student, per semester to create a fund. Of course, the vote must be approved by the university in order to go into effect. 2,541 students (66.08%) voted yes, and 1,304 students (33.92%) voted no, in a push to get the university to pay reparations. Vice President of Student Affair, Todd Olson had this to say:

“University values the engagement of our students and appreciates that 3,845 students made their voices heard in yesterday’s election. Our students are contributing and we share their commitment to addressing Georgetown’s history with slavery.”

Source: (Erica King/ABC News) Melisande Short-Colomb, a sophomore and descendant of the 272 slaves sold at Georgetown University speaks at a town hall debate in support of the reparations referendum in Washington, April 3, 2019.

Georgetown University officials are vowing to,“carefully review the results of the referendum, and regardless of the outcome, will remain committed to engaging with students, Descendants, and the community.”

Georgetown University also has students like Melisande Short-Colomb, a student under the admissions policy who is considered a “legacy” student. She is one of four students currently attending Georgetown who is also a direct descendant of the slaves who were sold. In a town hall meeting she explained, “The Jesuits sold my family and 40 other families so you could be here. No one in this room was here in 1838 when this happened, but we have a chance today to make a difference. So I’m going to pay my $54,” referring to the 2 semesters before she would graduate.

Some Students Don’t Want To Pay For the Sins of Their Forefathers

It comes as no surprise that there are plenty of students who are not digging this idea of paying any additional fees – even if it is just $27 per semester. The school has already apologized for its past transgressions, and rededicated two buildings on campus that were formerly named after two Jesuits. Some students feel like this is enough.

Other reasons students believe the tuition increase isn’t fair are: (1) they don’t know and have concerns about how the money would be spent. (2) Students also want to know how long this $27 fee would be in affect. (3) Some students said they were already working to support themselves and couldn’t afford any additional costs. (4) Other students felt like the proposed referendum was not comprehensive. (5) Students also shared that it’s not their responsibility, as the current generation, to pay for the sins of the past. Haley Grand, a sophomore at the University stated:

“It’s unjust to compel 7,000-plus people to pay for the University’s historical sins. There is an obligation for Georgetown to reconcile its sins, and that obligation falls squarely on the institution.”

Even if you hate the concept of reparations, it is clear that without the sacrifice of slaves in the United States, the United States would not be the country it is today. The slaves and the free labor they were forced to contribute is the backbone of this country, and any descendant of this slave labor has every right to demand compensation.

Source: ABC News

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Syllabus Magazine, the Carolina’s source for Music, Culture and Fashion

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Smart Girl Magic

Before we talk about Sienna Williams being accepted to all of these impressive Ivy League schools, let’s talk about what this future Astronaut has done to get here. She’s the captain of her soccer, baseball, and basketball teams. She interned at NASA. She’s in the National Honor Society, the Math Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society, and Science Honor Society. She scored a 1500 on the SAT, and scored a perfect 800 on the math section of the SAT. She maintains a 4.8 weighted GPA. She also works at Papa Johns! Sienna Williams is raised by a single mother, alongside her three other sisters. Sienna has been described as soft-spoken, modest, and quiet. So before we speak about the remaining part of her excellence, it is necessary to point out that the Ivy League aspect is being merely a small part of how truly stellar 18 year old Williams has been as a student, an athlete, and a teenager.

Her name is Sienna Williams, and some of America’s best colleges in the United States, including 12 top schools are vying for her to attend their institutions. Williams attends Clarksburg High School in Clarksburg, Maryland, she’s 18 years old and has a 4.8 GPA. This future Astronaut’s latest dilemma is deciding which school to choose, seeing as though she’s been accepted to every Ivy League college except one.

Harvard, Brown, Columbia, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania are all interested in Williams joining their freshman class. MIT, Duke, Maryland and Virginia Tech are also courting Williams. Dartmouth college placed Williams on a waiting list. Because they have the best astrophysics department in the country, Sienna Williams is leaning towards taking her talents to MIT, who has also offered her $250,000 in scholarships.

Her mom, Daphne Smith Williams, is a former math teacher, which explains that perfect 800 SAT score. She is also the head of special education at a middle school in Clarksburg, Maryland. Daphne Smith Williams is also a single mother of Sienna and her three sisters, and says Sienna has always loved learning, and had once told her she would be accepted to every Ivy League school. Her mom believed her.

Williams’ principal, Edward Owusu, is a huge cheerleader for his senior student. On Instagram, he calls what she has #BlackGirlPride, #GirlPride and #ClarksburgCoyotePride, and says he thinks it’s time for the world to see and focus on what young African American women are doing.

What makes Sienna Williams’ story so special is that it’s happening right when rich parents are being exposed for the dishonesty that has taken place within elite universities across the country, and student acceptance. Williams got accepted because of her accomplishments, not because of what’s in anyone’s purse. Sienna hopes to be an inspiration to more young girls, especially her younger sisters; and there is no doubt that she will be. Sienna is the epitome of hard work paying off and we can’t wait to see what she has in store for the world.

Source: WUSA 9

Syllabus Magazine

Syllabus Magazine, the Carolina’s source for Music, Culture and Fashion

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Yatta Kiazolu is a young, Ph.D. student at the University of Southern California who has a big red question mark over her future. Here are 8 things we need to know about Yatta Kiazolu:

  1. Yatta Kiazolu is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southern California (who got accepted without cheating), she is 28 years old and is set to receive her doctorate in History this fall.
  2. She has been threatened with deportation to Liberia due to President Trump end the DED program.
  3. Kiazolu was born in Botswana and her parents are Liberian. She’s been in the United States since she was 7 years old under the DED program. Her parents sent her to live with her grandmother in 1997 in Decatur, Georgia.
  4. She has applied for citizenship twice. Even her grandmother, who was a U.S. Citizen, applied on her behalf, but her grandmother passed away for they could process the application.
  5. DED (Deferred Enforced Departure) means she can study and work in the United States. It allows immigrants to stay within a nation for a designated period of time and Liberia has been under designation since 1991.
  6. President Trump has decided to end the DED designation on March 31st; he began dismantling DED last spring because he believes Liberians don’t need protection from the U.S. any longer.
  7. Kiazolu spoke in front of the House Judiciary Committee on March 6, 2019, as a plaintiff fighting for her right to live in the U.S.
  8. In a statement to the House she said these words:

“My grandmother use to say, ‘When you do good, you don’t do it for yourself – you do it for God.’ And with that philosophy as my personal mantra, though the majority of my family are not permanent residents and U.S. citizents, I’m here for all working-class immigrants on DED, TPS and who are also Dream-eligible. I’m here for all young people like myself who have anxiety about their futures.”

Syllabus Magazine

Syllabus Magazine, the Carolina’s source for Music, Culture and Fashion

http://www.syllabusmagazine.com
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