Education Archives - Page 9 of 12

October 8, 2014January 9, 2015

7 Black Innovators and Inventors in STEM Fields Who Blerds Should Know

Black innovators, scientists and inventors have made significant contributions in the science, technology, engineering and math fields. Each has added something special and unique to the STEM world and, for that reason, is worthy of recognition.

Here are seven scientist Blerds you should know about.

Name: Dr. Shaundra B. Daily

Expertise: Educational Technologist

Contribution to Science: The MIT graduate was part of the team of researchers who developed Galvanic Skin Response bracelets, also referred to as GSR. The bracelets allow researchers to measure variations in emotional reactions. Humans tend to sweat when experiencing certain emotions and the GSR bracelets measure how much the wearer perspires.

Daily has always had an interest in understanding how people emote because she says for a long time she didn’t get emotions. On a segment of the Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers, Daily shares that when she was a little girl her mother threw her a surprise party and she didn’t emote. Her reaction was a simple, “Thank you.” “My mother described my temperament as flatline,” Daily says. This interest influenced Daily to understand how emotions can positively or negatively affect how a child learns.

Daily created Girls Involved In Real Life Sharing (G.I.R.L.S.), creative and engaging software that helps measure emotion for young girls. The aim is to help them explore their emotions and then learn how to deal with them accordingly.

Not only is Daily a renowned educational technologist, but she is a dancer who has performed for Florida State University and BET.

Name: Dr. Agnes Day

Expertise: Microbiology

Contribution to Science: The Howard University professor’s love of science began when she was a young girl exploring the wooded landscape of her hometown with her older brother.

After discovering plant life, insects and animals, they would head to the library to learn more about their findings. This love of natural science followed her throughout her life.

According to the Grio, while pursuing a graduate degree, Day secured a grant that amounted to $2.5 million. The grant was intended “to fund research that focused on mechanisms of drug resistance in fungi, the development of animal models of breast cancer, and molecular characterization of the aggressive phenotype of breast cancer in African-American women.”

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October 8, 2014October 8, 2014

Actor, Author Hill Harper Reaches Out to Minority Children: ‘Manifest Your Destiny’

Veteran actor and established author Hill Harper is ready to revolutionize the lives of young minorities, particularly African-Americans and Latinos, by encouraging them to take control of their futures and manifest their destiny.

Back in 2005, Harper founded the Manifest Your Destiny Foundation, which is dedicated to providing “underserved youth a path to empowerment and educational excellence” through mentorships and other hands-on methods to help prepare the youth for a successful future.

The nonprofit set its roots in Los Angeles before expanding to Washington, D.C., earlier this year.

For Harper, it was important that he painted a brighter picture of the future for many troubled youths because he knew the present-day reality was often pretty bleak.

At the D.C. launch of the nonprofit in June, Harper explained that without the right tools and resources for success, many Black and Latino children will end up behind bars if they drop out of school.

“If you are an African-American or Latino male or female in this country, and you drop out of high school, there’s almost an 80 percent chance that you will wind up incarcerated at some point in your life,” Harper said at the launch, according to DCMilitary.com. “I want to do something about that. That’s why I created Manifest Your Destiny.”

It’s a powerful organization with a strong message and a clear purpose – “To enhance, engage, empower and inspire youth toward a future of achievement, fulfillment and happiness.”

Harper has become so passionate about the mission that he has funded most of the organization’s efforts himself.

He explained that the organization has a program called the Summer Empowerment Academy that is specifically geared toward resolving the dropout crisis.

Thanks to Harper, the program is completely free for all who want to be a part.

“It’s completely free to the participants,” he added. “It’s funded chiefly by me, personally.”

Harper has also revealed that many of the young people he works with have never even been on a college campus.

With that in mind, he decided to hold many of the organization’s activities on college campuses.

“We subliminally plant the seed in a young person’s head that they feel comfortable on a college campus,” he explained.

Harper is currently working on raising more money for the nonprofit in order to continue its national expansion.

October 7, 2014October 7, 2014

Fulfilling Her Dream: African-American Student Earns 14 Scholarships

Aubrey Perry has had dreams of attending Michigan State University for quite some time now, but her educational aspirations were at risk after the economy took a major toll on her family’s finances.

Both of Perry’s parents are self-employed, so the rough economy had a particularly troubling impact on their financial well-being. They were forced to file for bankruptcy and had to deliver some troubling news to their daughter.

According to the New Pittsburgh Courier, Perry’s parents explained that they didn’t have the money to send her to college.

She received that news at the end of her junior year in high school, and since then she became determined to do something about it.

Perry was already a member of the National Honor Society, a member of her school’s Link Crew and an active cheerleader.

While that is an impressive enough resume for most high school students, Perry wanted more.

She started to become even more active at her school and participated in the types of activities that she knew scholarship selection committees looked for in potential candidates.

“The summer between my junior and senior year, I really got serious,” she told the New Pittsburgh Courier. “Though I was in the National Honor Society and the Link Crew, I knew that if I wanted to go to a major university like Michigan State, I’d have to start participating in the type of activities that matter to admissions directors – and especially scholarship selection committees.”

The busy summer paid off to the tune of about $17,000.

She explained that she applied for every scholarship she qualified for. By the time she completed all the applications, she had applied to more than 100 scholarships and won 14 of them.

“My first scholarship I won was $75 and the largest scholarship I won was $5,000,” she said.

While the amounts didn’t always seem like much, they added up in the end.

As for larger prize scholarships, the competition was obviously much steeper and attracted a lot more applicants than ones that offered smaller winnings.

While the $17,000 will not cover her full cost of tuition, it definitely puts a major dent in Perry’s first-year financial obligations.

She took out student loans to make up the difference and plans to start all over again for next year.

“Next year, I plan to get a good summer internship and apply again for more scholarships,” the Michigan State University freshman said. “I have faith that it’ll all work out.”

October 3, 2014October 3, 2014

Five Things To Consider Before Pursuing a Degree As a Computer Programmer

Determine what kind of programming you are interested in. Decide whether you want to develop software for the Web, mobile devices or the desktop. You can do a wide range of programming from application or system to game programming.

Learn the fundamentals of programming. You must learn how to program and you must learn how to use programming language through consistent practice and dedication. The way to be an expert is by doing the things you know how to do over and over. Work on free and open source projects. Build your own stuff for fun.

Choose a programming language. There are many computer programming languages such as C++, C#, Delphi, Java and Python. Take your time and explore some of these languages and determine if you like one more than the others. Solve a problem using one of these languages.

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October 1, 2014October 1, 2014

Paid Less and Paying More: Black College Graduates Drowning in Student Loan Debt

University researchers revealed that Black college graduates are typically forced to take on much more student loan debt than their white counterparts.

At the end of what seems like an endless journey for a diploma, many Black college graduates are finding that their diploma was much more expensive than they could have even imagined.

Half of all Black graduates said they had to take on at least $25,000 in student loans before they completed their undergraduate degrees between 2000 and 2014.

Less than 35 percent of white graduates had to take on that same amount.

According to Cecilia Rouse, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, the difference is all about income.

“It’s about the fact that there is a black-white gap in income and wealth, and that’s what underlies this gap in borrowing as well,” Rouse told The Atlantic.

With Black households typically having less income than white households, there is less money to invest in a child’s education.

The Atlantic reports that the average Black household in the U.S. makes less than one-tenth of the accumulated wealth of the average white household and that income gap has only grown over time.

According to researchers at Brandeis University, the wealth gap between Black and white households has tripled over the past 25 years.

With Black graduates drowning in debt after they graduate, it becomes nearly impossible for many of them to fully reap the benefits of the diploma they just borrowed thousands of dollars for.

“If the debt burden is too high, students from low- and moderate-income families will have trouble making the economic gains that we all know a college degree offers,” said Elizabeth Baylor, associate director for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress.

To make matters worse, those same Black graduates are struggling to find well-paying jobs.

A large number of Black college graduates between the ages of 22 and 27 are being forced to settle for jobs that don’t require college degrees or severely underpay them.

Black graduates are paying more for their diplomas and getting paid less for their work despite earning degrees in their perspective fields.

With that troubling fact in mind, Rouse still hopes to encourage minorities to pursue higher education.

“Education remains a very solid investment for students in terms of increasing their earning capacity and future labor-market outcomes,” she said.

Rouse believes students should become more aware of the different repayment options they have available to them instead of refusing to pay for college at all.

State governments should also find ways to invest in education, according to Baylor.

“Students of color are increasingly a larger part of our higher education system,” Baylor said. “So as state investment in public colleges has retreated in the past decade, it’s important to make sure that those schools remain affordable to students of color who are a big share of public colleges.”

September 30, 2014September 30, 2014

A Look Back in History: Inventor Virgie M. Ammons

Virgie M. Ammons was born on Dec. 29, 1908, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. At a young age, her family relocated to West Virginia, where she spent the rest of her life. Ammons was a self-employed caretaker and a Muslim woman by faith, attending services in Temple Hills. She died on July 12, 2000, in Preston County, West Virginia.

Ammons invented the Fireplace Damper Actuating Tool, which allowed the chimney damper to be locked in the closed position. This prevents cold air and dust from blowing down the chimney and back into the house. She was granted a patent for her invention on Sept. 30, 1975.

September 29, 2014September 29, 2014

12 Black Scientists You Should Know Who Are Making an Impact Today

Aprille Ericsson

Aerospace Engineer,  NASA

Aprille Ericsson was the first female to receive a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Howard University. She was the first African-American female to receive a Ph.D. in engineering at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She was born and raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, and earned her bachelor’s in aeronautical/astronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Lisa Stevens

Giant Panda Curator, National Zoo

Lisa Stevens became a familiar face, manning the giant panda program in 2005 when panda cub Tai Shan was born at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Before joining the zoo’s staff, she held positions as a field research assistant, in pet and aquarium retail, veterinary clinic operations and insect zoo husbandry and interpretation. She has a bachelor’s degree in zoology and pre-veterinary medicine from Michigan State University and attended the AZA School for Professional Management Development for Zoo and Aquarium Personnel.

James West

Acoustician and Inventor

James West was born in 1931 in Prince Edward County, Virginia, and studied physics at Temple University. After graduating, West worked in tech, specializing in microphones, and went on to author 200 patents. In 1962, with Gerhard Sessler, West developed the foil electret microphone. West was a research professor at Johns Hopkins University in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. West also founded the Association of Black Laboratory Employees.

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September 25, 2014October 1, 2014

U.S. Could Face Serious Deficit of Computer Scientists by 2020

Too many jobs and not enough people?

It’s not the scenario people are used to hearing in the U.S., but it could become the new reality in the computer science field in a few years.

While the demand for computer scientists continues to rise, the number of efficiently trained computer scientists remains low.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be roughly 1.4 million jobs for computer scientists by 2020.

Unfortunately, the number of current computer professionals combined with the number of university students studying the profession only reaches 400,000.

In other words, there will be a major shortage of computer scientists to fill the roles that are becoming increasingly necessary in the digital age.

To make matters worse, many schools are cutting back on or completely cutting out computer science programs that would allow students to gain experience with computers at an introductory level.

According to the College Board, only 10 percent of high schools offer computer science courses, and the overall number of introductory computer science courses has decreased by almost 20 percent since 2005.

This type of experience is what usually sparks a would-be computer scientist’s interest in the profession.

Without this introduction to the field, the profession continues to seem far too intimidating for the average student.

The number of teachers and professors qualified to train youths in computer skills is also uncomfortably low.

The College Board reported that less than 10 percent of all high schools in the U.S. have enough teachers available to offer the AP computer science course to their students.

Of those who did take the AP test for computer science in 2013, less than 20 percent were female and a mere 3 percent were African-American.

According to Alison Derbenwick Miller, vice president of the Oracle Academy, it’s not too late to turn those troubling statistics around.

The Oracle Academy aims to drive more student interest in computer science and further develop the skills of those who are interested.

Miller says that the key to closing the skills gap is to make sure that computer science is both approachable and accessible.

“Teachers, parents and administrators can help expand interest in computer science by making the subject more appealing to a wide range of students,” Miller wrote on TechCrunch.com. “Help students understand the connection between computer science and their lives – how it helps them register for classes at school, enables cellphones to function and determines the ads they see online.”

In order to do this, Miller says schools will need to team up with businesses as well as focus on success in computer science outside the classroom.

“Schools can bring in parents and professionals from the community who leverage computer science in their jobs to share with students how the skill can translate to a career,” Miller added.

Perhaps the most challenging part is to find a way to get computer science incorporated in core K-12 curriculums.

“It can take 25 years or more to create a computer scientist – from developing a core analysis and problem-solving skills to achieving fluency in programming languages,” Miller explained. “As such, it is essential that computer science education becomes integrated in the K-12 curriculum.”

September 25, 2014September 25, 2014

8 Blerds From the Past Who Deserve Recognition

Ralph J. Bunche

Detroit native Ralph J. Bunche was born Aug. 7, 1903, to Fred Bunche, a barber, and Olivia Agnes, an amateur musician. Bunche was a very intellectual student and brilliant debater, graduating valedictorian from his high school and going on to attend the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating summa cum laude. He also received his doctorate in political science from Harvard University. After graduation, he taught at Howard University and went on to do postdoctoral research at the London School of Economics and the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He worked abroad during World War II with the CIA and United Nations. Bunche and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt were considered instrumental in the creation and adoption of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. After his involvement in an attempt at resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. He was the first African-American to receive the prize.

Jack Johnson

John Arthur “Jack” Johnson was born March 31, 1878, in Galveston, Texas. At the height of the Jim Crow era, Johnson became the first African-American world heavyweight boxing champion in 1908, continuing his reign through 1915. Johnson was arrested in 1912 for violating the Mann Act, a law used to prevent Black men from traveling with white women. According to David Pilgrim, curator of the Jim Crow Museum, while in prison, Johnson conceptualized and diagrammed a tool to help tighten loosening fastening devices. On April 18, 1922, he patented improvements to the wrench.

Elmer Simms Campbell

St. Louis native Elmer Simms Campbell was born on Jan. 2, 1906. Campbell saw success early when he won a nationwide cartoon contest in high school. After graduation, he attended the University of Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago to further his studies. During his stint as a railroad dining-car waiter, he drew caricatures of the train riders. One passenger took notice and gave him a job in a St. Louis art studio. Campbell went on to contribute artwork to Esquire, The Chicagoan, Cosmopolitan, Ebony, The New Yorker, Playboy and Redbook. He was the first African-American cartoonist and paved the way for Blacks in the field.

Rebecca Lee Crumpler

Born Rebecca Davis Lee in Delaware on Feb. 8, 1831, she was raised by her aunt in Pennsylvania and eventually moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts, to accept a position as a nurse. She worked as a nurse until she was accepted into the New England Female Medical College in 1860. Crumpler graduated in 1864 and was the first African-American woman in the United States to earn an M.D. and the only African-American woman to graduate from the New England Female Medical College.

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September 24, 2014September 24, 2014

11 African-American Medical Pioneers Who Will Make You Proud

As African-American advancements are continuously brought to the forefront, Black people in the medical field are hailed and admired for their accomplishments. They often achieved great success in the face of great adversity.

Dr. Ben Carson

Revolutionized Neurosurgery

Dr. Ben Carson is one of the most famous and respected doctors in the world. Since the 1980s, his surgeries to separate conjoined twins have made international headlines, and his pioneering techniques have revolutionized the field of neurosurgery. Carson also has become a role model for people of all ages, especially children. He went from the inner-city streets of Detroit to the halls of Yale University, to director of pediatric neurosurgery at one of the most prestigious hospitals in the United States. In 2004, Carson was awarded the Healthcare Humanitarian Award because he has “enhanced the quality of human lives … and has influenced the course of history through ongoing contributions to health care and medicine.”

Dr. Charles Drew

Plasma Researcher

Dr. Charles Drew, a physician, researcher and surgeon, forged a new understanding of blood plasma that allowed blood to be stored for transfusions. As World War II began, Drew received a telegram request: “Secure 5,000 ampules of dried plasma for transfusion.” That was more than the total world supply. Drew met that challenge and found himself at the head of the Red Cross blood bank — and up against a narrow-minded policy of segregating blood supplies based on a donor’s race.

Dr. Regina Benjamin

First Black Woman to be Elected to the Medical Association of the State of Alabama

After Dr. Regina Benjamin received her medical degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, she returned to her Gulf Coast hometown, Bayou la Batre, and opened a small rural health clinic; for 13 years, she was the town’s only doctor. In 1995, at the age of 39, Benjamin became the first Black woman, and the first person under the age of 40, to be elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees, and in 2002, she became the first Black female president of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. She was chosen “Person of the Week” by ABC World News Tonight, and “Woman of the Year” by both CBS This Morning and People magazine. Benjamin won a $500,000 MacArthur “genius” award in 2008, and was appointed the 18th surgeon general by President Barack Obama in 2009.

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