The second time I saw Black Panther I took a group of students whom I mentor. I am from the Bay Area and it was not lost on me that it was Dr. Huey P. Newton’s birthday, and here was a film giving me a wide open window to talk to these students about the …
After spending the day doing an old school Saturday cleaning of my house, I needed a treat, so I took myself to see Steven Spielberg’s The Post. The film stars Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks as Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee respectively as they decide to publish what became known as the Pentagon Papers that …
Your students may be suffering more than you know. Thanksgiving is upon us, and Channukah and Christmas are around the corner. This time is usually a time of rest for students. However, some are facing going home with dread. Today one of those students told me how they thought about jumping off of the top …
Saturday, September 23rd, 2017 I had the pleasure of being a panelist on Tunes & Talk, hosted by Risikat Okedeyi, on WPFW DC. The topic was the seeming backlash from black men to Damon Young’s article on Very Smart Brothas articulating what he had heard before from black women in his social media network – …
This morning I attended a wonderful ceremony for students graduating from a summer program intended to develop their interest in health care careers. Students from a variety of universities came together to take courses in math, statistics, physics, and chemistry. However, the end of the ceremony left me most saddened after the student speaker delivered …
I reject the term Xennial. I was born at the end of Generation X, and I walked myself home from school, fixed my own snacks, remember the beginning,and end of, dial up, and am paying my own education debt. The Baby Boomers received the life altering support of the Servicemember’s Readjustment Act, affectionately known as …
Summer television is fairly boring, but this summer ESPN is re-airing its most current iteration of its 30 for 30 series. I grew up in a religious household, so sports was about all I could watch growing up without risking the wrath of Jesus. This past Saturday “One and Not Done,” told the story of …
I’ve shown Ava Duvernay’s speech at the 2013 Film Independent Forum to every student with whom I have a mentoring relationship. I can only do as much work as the student is willing to do for themselves. I find that students can Google so many things, but the very things they want and need to advance their careers or their personal interests.
This summer I am working with 300 young people who are taking classes at my university. In preparation I am combing through the emergency and disaster plan prepared by the institution, so that my staff and faculty can know what to do if something happens. For example, today three Metro lines had to be put …
Primary and secondary education make it a point to try to involve parents in the education process. Just today someone was telling a story about how her child receives checklists from school so that parents know what homework the student should be completing over the week. Schools regularly host parent-teacher conferences. Debates around the merits …