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Harlan Community
Academy High School
Southside Chicago High School Delivers Rare Yield: Top
African-American Male Scholars
The upper classmen at Harlan
Community Academy High School have raised new standards in educational
achievement in a community besieged by urban blight. 80% of the top 10 graduates
are African-American males.
These scholars have taken honors
classes, excelled in Advanced Placement courses, earned scholarships, and one of
the young men garnered a Golden Apple Scholarship. Against the odds of failing
schools, these scholars dominated in the disciplines of Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics.
Principal Reginald
Evans implemented "Project Lead the Way," an
independently sponsored pre-engineering program to expose them to the
possibilities for those who are prepared. With the well-rounded programming
designed by Principal Reginald Evans, several of these young men have earned
academic scholarships from a variety of universities.
According to Principal Reginald
Evans, "We all worked together to focus our efforts to pursue our purpose: to
educate, empower and encourage all students to reach their full potential."
Evans believes that "Children
cannot be what they cannot see." He adds that Steve Harvey's Camp for
Males served as a positive influence. This outstanding mentorship
program led to a position as camp counselor for one of the scholars, who become
a peer leader pushing others toward their dreams.
Harlan HS is an AVID National
Demonstration School with awarding winning programs in Pre-Engineering
Robotics, Academic Decathlon, and Business Professionals of America.
Susan Taylor's National
Cares Mentoring Movement also sponsored The Rising at Harlan
Community High School, which was an important part of the success of
all Harlan High School students this year.
Please call Principal Reginald
Evans (773) 535-5405 or email him reevans@cps.edu to congratulate him on this
great accomplishment. |
Why Poor
People Stay Poor
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Photo provided by The Black Star Project
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By Steve Chapman
Editorials & Opinions
June 12, 2015
In the 1970s, crime was soaring,
and American policymakers had all sorts of ideas for how to reduce it: longer
sentences, more police, prison reform and more. But one of the most potent
remedies was not conceived as a way to combat crime.
To clean up the environment and
improve public health, the federal government banned lead in paint and gasoline.
By diminishing lead, though, it reduced the harm it was doing to young brains -
harm that could push kids into delinquency. Curbing lead exposure was a big
reason for the decline in violent crime that began in the 1990s.
After all, the road out of
permanent destitution is not hard to identify. Why do so many people refuse to
take it? Rick Santorum made this point when he ran for president in 2012.
Experts, he asserted, have documented that as a rule, you have to do just three
things to avoid poverty: "work, graduate from high school and get married before
you have children."
There's much value in that
formula. But putting it to use requires certain capacities. What research has
starkly revealed is that poverty and other problems afflicting many black
neighborhoods have a way of stunting the attributes needed to overcome them.
There is a biology of poverty that is not easy to overcome.
One of the things you need to
pull yourself up is a healthy brain. But poor people can't take that as a given.
One enemy of sound mental function is lead, which seriously impairs cognitive
development.
The kids whose brains were
attacked by lead back then are now young adults. Many of them show the effects
in lower intelligence and less self-control. Even today, poor African-American
areas are unusually prone to lead poisoning.
Children who feel unsafe at
school, who are disproportionately black, do measurably worse academically.
Those who witness shootings or suffer violent attacks may develop post-traumatic
stress disorder.
Chronic violence carries hazards
for the mind, as well as the body.
"Simply put," writes Princeton
sociologist Douglas Massey, "people who are exposed to high levels of stress
over a prolonged period of time are at risk of having their brains rewired in a
way that leaves them with fewer cognitive resources to work."
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5 Money Habit
Strategies Every Kid Should Learn
By
Thomas Corley
November 19,
2014
Parents who mentor their kids by teaching
them good daily success habits, set their kids up to achieve far more than 95%
of their peers and go on to achieve great success in life. In my study of the
daily habits of the rich and the poor (Rich Habits Study - Background on
Methodology http://richhabits.net/rich-habits-study-background-on-methodology/) I uncovered certain money habit strategies that the
wealthy learned from their parents as children:
- Chore Income - Don't give an allowance. That implies entitlement. Give them
money in exchange for doing their chores and explain to them that this is income
they earned.
- Work For Their Stuff - Parents of kids who grew up to become wealthy and
successful, made their kids work for what they wanted. In today's world, that
includes computers, ipads, iphones, designer clothes, computer games etc.
- The Savings Rule - The majority of the wealthy in my study had a habit of
saving. Help your kids form good savings habits by taking 50% of money gifts
from your child after they receive the gift. Then put this 50% in a savings
account for your kids.
- 50:50 Budgeting Rule - This rule teaches kids to save for their stuff when
they are too young to have a job. When kids reach age 10 parents should start
teaching their kids to budget and save for things like iphones, video games,
trendy clothes etc.
- Evils of Credit Cards - Kids need to learn that credit cards are bad and
should only be used for emergencies. The wealthy were taught by their parents
that if you have to use credit cards for your ordinary living expenses you're
living beyond your means and you will wind up poor.
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City Colleges of
Chicago Chancellor Cheryl Hyman recently sat down with the entrepreneur and
philanthropist Bill Gates to talk about the importance of college completion,
the skills gap, and the key learnings from City Colleges' Reinvention effort,
which has led to a doubling of City Colleges' graduation rate and the highest
number of degrees awarded in City Colleges' history - for three years in a
row.
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Join Father Michael Pfleger in the Streets of
Chicago to March for Peace, Friday, June 19th, 7:00 pm on 78th Place and Throop,
Chicago, Illinois
Please
call 773.483.4300 for more
information.
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Scholarship for Athletes with
Asthma
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Black Male Achievement Conference 2015:
Black Men and Black Money
In Omaha, Nebraska
By Dell Gines, Volunteer Chief
Operating Officer: Black Men United Omaha
June 12, 2015
This June, in Omaha, we will be
holding the second annual Black Male Achievement Conference. The topic of this
conference will be Black Men and Black Money. In this conference we will talk
about Black money from a variety of points of view. These include economic
development, education, our brothers returning from incarceration, money
management and relationships.
The question though is why Black
men and Black money? To answer that I first have to eliminate some confusion
about what money really is. Most people think the end goal is to "get money".
Lord knows we have enough of our artist selling us on getting money. We live in
an American system that seemingly worships money. But the objective to get
money is really not about money at all. Money is simply a road to something
else.
Money can get your family
economic security and let you provide in the way you want to for your kids.
Money also can be a vehicle to help you empower your community, get politicians
elected, build a new way of life for your people. Some people say money makes
the world go round. Not true. It is what we do with our money that makes the
world go round.
So when we talk about Black men
and Black money, we have to ask ourselves do we as Black men really know three
important things. Do we know how to get money as a Black community in general
and Black men specifically? Do we know how to management money when we get it?
Are we using our money to the benefit of our community and our families when we
have it? Unfortunately in many cases, the answer is no, no and no.
Did you know according to a
Neilson marketing survey on Black consumers that Black's in America have over $1
trillion dollars in purchasing power? We make enough in America to be the
16th largest economy on the planet. The problem is that we very rarely invest
it in creating businesses in the community, saving it or investing it or giving
it to good causes in the community. We spend it.
This is why we are having a Black
Male Achievement conference on Black men and Black money. When we achieve by
learning how to control our economic resources, it empowers us to build for our
families and our communities.
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Recommend a Black Male Elementary School
Graduate, High School Graduate or College Graduate for The Mass Black Male Graduation Ceremony on Saturday,
June 20, 2015 with Keynote Speakers Attorney James Montgomery and Hip Hop Artist
Jasiri X. Call 773.285.9600 to register the young Black men at your school and
in your life.
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California high school in crime-riddled area boasts 100
percent college acceptance rate for 7th straight year
(All
boys school excels)
 By Melissa Chan
A California high school has beat
the odds, sending all its graduating seniors off to college for the seventh
straight year, despite being located in a neighborhood riddled with crime and
plagued with gangs.
"It's not Beverly Hills by any
stretch," said Paul Hosch, vice president of mission advancement at Verbum Dei
High School, which boasts a 100 percent college acceptance rate.
"The neighborhoods that surround
the students are underserved. There are very few grocery stores. There are lots
of gangs. It's not a place most people would want to raise their kids," he
added.
Still the all-male Catholic
school in southern Los Angeles has managed to send its 70 seniors off to college
this year, continuing its tradition. "It's
amazing. It's hard work, and you see it every day," Hosch said.
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Nicolas Bates, Valedictorian.
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Verbum Dei enrolls about 120
students each year, the Watts school's website says. More than 70 percent of its
college-bound seniors go on to attend four-year schools.
"I came into high school with an
agenda to do as best as I can," senior Nicolas Bates, this year's Verbum Dei
valedictorian, told CBS. "The trick is we get people into this school who want
to go on to the next level, who want to go onto collegiate endeavors.
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 Donate to support
the 12th annual
 It
seems like just yesterday we were taking our kids to school and now the school
year is almost over.
But
the first day of the new school year is just around the corner and at The Black
Star Project, that means one thing:
The
Million Father March!
This
coming fall, on the first day of school, in 600 cities across the country, one
million fathers will take their children to school!
We
need your support to make this year's first day of school the best
ever!
We
are kicking off the preparation for that crucial first day in a special way this
year, by participating in the Dad's Honor Ride.
Our
Assistant Director of Operations, Jorge Solorio, will be riding in the Dad's
Honor Ride to help raise money for the Black
Star Project's 2015 Million Father
March.
The
21st Century Dad's Honor Ride will raise money to help bring one million fathers
from across the country to their children's school on the first day. Support our
12th annual Million Father March by supporting the
ride of Jorge Solorio!
On
June 21st, Jorge will bike 77 miles--from Dwight to Chicago, Illinois--to raise
money for The Black Star Project's the 2015 Million Father
March. It
will take Jorge over 6 hours to bike!
Sponsor Jorge's bike ride! Your money
will help organize fathers in 600 cities across the nation to bring their
children to school on the first day and be involved in their education for the
rest of the school year.
You
can help make the first day of school a success! Donate today before the June 21st
deadline!
Click Here to learn more about the
Dads Honor Ride
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