Latest news with #Historically
Miami Herald
01-07-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
WNBA expansion opens new doors for HBCU Hoopers
The WNBA is growing, and that's major news for the game-and for HBCU athletes aiming to break through to the professional ranks. On Monday, the WNBA announced it's adding three new franchises, bringing the league to a record 18 teams. Cleveland will begin play in 2028, Detroit joins in 2029, and Philadelphia will tip off in 2030. This follows the addition of the Golden State Valkyries this season and two previously announced expansion teams set to launch next year in Toronto, Canada, and Portland, Oregon. The league's decision comes after its most successful season to date-shattering records for viewership, attendance, and merchandise sales. According to the WNBA, the cities were chosen based on factors like market strength, ownership commitment, fan support, corporate backing, and community investment. This expansion isn't just about adding teams-it's about creating space in a league where roster spots have historically been hard to come by. That's especially true for players from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), who have often found their professional dreams blocked by the numbers game. Recent cases prove how tight the window has been. Norfolk State's Diamond Johnson, one of the most electrifying guards in the country, signed a training camp contract with the Minnesota Lynx after going undrafted in the 2025 WNBA Draft. Despite her talent, Johnson was waived before the season began. Zaay Green, a former UAPB standout who finished her college career at Alabama, was drafted 32nd overall by the Washington Mystics. Unfortunately, she didn't make the final roster. These stories aren't isolated-they're part of a long-standing challenge for HBCU athletes looking to enter the W. With more teams on the horizon, there's hope that the path to the pros will finally start to widen. HBCU programs like Jackson State, Norfolk State, and Howard have shown they can produce elite talent. Now, with the WNBA creating more opportunities, that talent may have more room to shine. As the league continues to grow-with MVP favorites like Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever and A'ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces leading the charge-the future looks bright not just for the WNBA, but for the next wave of HBCU hoopers ready to make their mark. The post WNBA expansion opens new doors for HBCU Hoopers appeared first on HBCU Gameday. Copyright HBCU Gameday 2012-2025
Business Wire
17-06-2025
- Sport
- Business Wire
Tickets Now on Sale for the 5th Annual Jackson T. Stephens Cup at Shoreacres
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Jackson T. Stephens Cup ('The Stephens Cup'), the premier collegiate golf tournament, today announced that tickets are officially on sale and the opening of volunteer registration for the fifth annual event, to be held September 15–17, 2025, at Shoreacres in Lake Bluff, Illinois. Named in honor of the late Jackson T. Stephens—former Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club and a lifelong champion of the sport—the tournament carries forward his enduring legacy of sportsmanship, excellence, and the belief in nurturing the next generation of golf's elite. The Stephens Cup serves as a national stage for the NCAA's top golf programs and stars to compete at one of the country's most prestigious and storied venues. An Elite Field at a Historic Venue The 2025 Stephens Cup will feature top-tier NCAA Division I programs, including rising talent from U.S. Service Academies and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) competing as individuals. This year's women's field is headlined by the 2025 NCAA Champion University of Northwestern, runner-up Stanford University, and third-place University of Oregon. Men's Field: University of Arizona, Louisiana State University, University of North Carolina, Northwestern University, Southern Methodist University and the University of Texas Women's Field: Northwestern University, University of Oregon, University of South Carolina, Stanford University, University of Texas and Wake Forest University Fans can now purchase daily grounds passes (Monday – Wednesday), week-long passes, and VIP hospitality packages. All tickets include access to general parking and are available online at Admission is free for fans under 17 when accompanied by a ticketed adult. To inquire about ticketing, including group or corporate packages, please contact: jtsc@ Volunteer registration is now available for the 2025 Jackson T. Stephens Cup. Community members are invited to participate as volunteers and play a vital role in bringing this nationally televised event to life. Volunteers will enjoy exclusive behind-the-scenes access, special event perks, and the opportunity to be part of one of the most celebrated tournaments in college golf. Register today at or email jtsc@ with the subject line '2025 Volunteer Opportunities' to learn more. 2025 Tournament Schedule Sunday, Sep. 14, 2025: Official Practice Round (AM) & Collegiate-Am Event (PM) Monday, Sep. 15, 2025: Stroke Play (36 holes) Tuesday, Sep. 16, 2025: Stroke Play (18 holes) Wednesday, Sep. 17, 2025: Match Play Final Round by seed (1 vs. 2, 3 vs. 4, etc.) The tournament will be broadcast live on GOLF Channel, offering national visibility and showcasing the next generation of golf's elite in a format built to honor the values and vision of Jackson T. Stephens. For more information, visit: About The Jackson T. Stephens Cup: The Jackson T. Stephens Cup is an annual collegiate golf tournament honoring the legacy of the late Jackson T. Stephens, former Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club and a lifelong advocate for the game. This premier three-day event features a combination of stroke play and match play, showcasing NCAA Division I National Championship-contending men's and women's teams, along with standout individuals from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and U.S. Military Service Academies. This year marks a meaningful milestone as Miles and John Stephens, grandsons of the tournament's namesake, step into leadership roles as co-chairs—carrying forward their grandfather's legacy of sportsmanship, excellence, and the belief in nurturing the next generation of golf's elite. The Alotian Club in Roland, Arkansas, serves as the tournament's home course and will host the event every four to five years, in rotation with other top-tier venues across the country. For more information, visit and follow the tournament on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Brenda Elaine Donaldson, Youngstown, Ohio
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (MyValleyTributes) – Ms. Brenda Elaine Donaldson, 71, of Youngstown, transitioned to eternal peace with the Lord on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, at Mercy Health St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital. Ms. Donaldson was born October 26, 1953, in Lyndhurst, Virginia, a daughter of George R. and Bernice F. Hodges Bell. Find obituaries from your high school She was a 1971 graduate of Stuart's Draft High School and later graduated from nursing school in Virginia where she received her LPN license. Brenda had been employed with Northside Hospital as a nurse for more than 25 years and later retired from Care Source as a Case Manager in 2019. She was a member of Mega Church in Cleveland, Ohio, where she served as a co-lead intercessor, worked with the Children's Choir, and Women's Ministry. She also served on the intercessory team at the former New Life Church in Cortland, Ohio, and on the Praise and Worship Ministry and Youth Music Ministry at the former Evangel Assembly of God in Youngstown, Ohio. Brenda had worked as a volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America at Martin Luther Lutheran Church and the Parent Teacher Association at the former Sheridan Elementary School, both in Youngstown, Ohio. She was a member of the Nurses Secret Sisters, a union representative for Northside Hospital, the Southside Neighborhood Block Watch; and an usher at the DeYor Performing Arts Center. She was also supporter and donor to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). In addition to her volunteer work, Brenda enjoyed canning, knitting and harvesting fruits and vegetables from local farms in Ohio and her hometown in Virginia. You knew Brenda loved your company if she ever gave you a jar of her strawberry jam, can of pickles or chow-chow, a hand-written card with a kind note, or if she gave you a blanket she knitted with your favorite colors. She leaves to cherish her memory and to celebrate her life and legacy, two children, Stanley (Nicole) Donaldson Jr. of Norfolk, Virginia, and Stacey Donaldson of Crofton, MD; two grandchildren, Savannah and Sadie Donaldson; and a host of nieces, nephews, other family and dear friends. Besides her parents, she was preceded in death by two brothers, George Russell 'Butch' Bell, Jr. and David Bell. Visitation will be Saturday, June 7, 2025, from 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. at the Rising Star Baptist Church, 2943 Wardle Avenue, Youngstown, Ohio. A celebration of life service will follow at 10:00 a.m. Arrangements are being handled by the L.E. Black, Phillips & Holden Funeral Home. To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Brenda Elaine Donaldson, please visit our floral store. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Time Magazine
04-06-2025
- General
- Time Magazine
Trump Fired Education Experts, Including Me, From White House Board
A federal judge has blocked the Trump Administration's attempts to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. Lawsuits have been filed against the Administration for slashing the staff and budget of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the federal education department's research arm. Massive cancelations of education-related research grants also are being contested in the courts. Given all this, I fully anticipated that the Trump Administration would eventually get around to firing the National Board for Education Sciences (NBES). It finally happened four months into President Donald Trump's second term when he removed 13 Biden appointees from the National Board for Education Sciences on May 23. 'On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as a member of the National Board for Education Sciences is terminated, effective immediately,' the email read. 'Thank you for your service.' As just one of the Americans who received this two-sentence message, I wonder if the sender or anyone else in the Trump Administration even knows who we are or what our service entailed. President Joe Biden appointed 13 of us to this bipartisan White House Board in October 2022. We were selected because of our deep expertise on education research, evaluation, and development. Members included three past presidents of the American Educational Research Association, National Academy of Education inductees (including the Academy's current president who chaired NBES), a dean of two academic schools at a Historically Black University, and a mayor who worked for two decades as a teacher and school administrator and served five terms in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. We committed to spending four years in the unpaid role because we all want the best for our democracy, we value the production and use of research, and we understand how high-quality studies and evidence-informed tools can improve educational opportunities, experiences, and outcomes for all students. Nothing about what we were asked to do qualifies as any version of wokeness or extremism. We approached our work as experts, not as politically-polarizing activists who somehow sought to advance anti-American agendas. The voting NBES members met with and served alongside nine ex-officio members: Director of IES, Director of the National Science Foundation, Director of the Census, Commissioner of Labor Statistics, Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and commissioners of the four National Education Centers. It was a brilliant group of people who were united by our deep appreciation for rigorous, useful research. During the second year of George W. Bush's presidency, Congress established NBES as part of the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002. We were responsible for advising the IES Director on policies and procedures, collaboratively establishing priorities for the Institute's roughly $900 million annual budget, soliciting and providing input from educators and researchers, and strengthening peer review for grant-funded research projects, plus several other responsibilities related to scientific inquiry and innovation. The IES website specifies another role for NBES: 'Advise the Director on opportunities for the participation in, and the advancement of, women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in education research, statistics, and evaluation activities of the Institute.' Without knowing or even asking what this entailed, it is possible that the Trump Administration presumed this to be a hotbed of DEI activities that privileged wokeness over merit and somehow discriminated against white men who applied for IES research grants. I never participated in nor witnessed this. There is no evidence of such wrongdoing. Being invited by a U.S. president to serve on a White House board was a significant honor; I will forever appreciate the faith that the Biden-Harris Administration placed in me as a citizen and scholar. I do not wear termination by the Trump Administration from my position as a badge of honor. It is disgraceful. Again, I anticipated that the Trump Administration would terminate my position prior to the conclusion of my four-year term. And I also anticipate that eliminating the federal education department, defunding IES, and ousting its law-abiding NBES partners will weaken the production and quality of education-focused studies and evaluation activities. Consequently, students with disabilities will be even more underserved. Inequities between rich and poor, as well as white and racially diverse learners will widen. Solutions to antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and sexism in schools will be stifled. Also, new educational disparities will emerge but will not be systematically tracked, communicated, studied, and addressed. Congress and educational leaders will have even less access to trustworthy, high-quality research on what works, what undermines excellence and innovation, and where the U.S. is falling short in fulfilling its educational promises to students and taxpaying families. Terminating NBES members is yet another example of the Trump Administration's attack on research, researchers, and research universities. Yanking hundreds of millions in federal research grants from Harvard and Columbia, two of the world's highest-impact producers of science and innovation, is indeed an assault on research itself. These actions are anti-American, as they will surely place our nation further behind others that pursue solutions to educational inequities, climate change, disease and health disparities, poverty, and other vexing problems. I accepted Biden's invitation to serve on NBES because I wanted better for our country and the people educated in its schools, colleges, and universities. I also said yes because I value research. Inasmuch as I despise our undeserved and unjustified dismissal, I have greater grief for IES leaders and staff who lost their paid full-time jobs— its national statistics unit reportedly has just three remaining employees, down from around 100 before Trump began his second term. These hardworking, law-abiding professionals are far more negatively affected by the Administration's actions than are other NBES members and me. We will be fine.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Atlanta HBCU students have trip of a lifetime to Senegal for hands-on experiences
A group of Atlanta students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities received hands-on experience in sustainability during a recent trip to Senegal. The students from Clark Atlanta University, Spelman, and Morehouse colleges took the trip as part of the mission of the HBCU Green Fund Fellows program to shape the next generation of Black climate leaders. 'We went, we cleaned up the beach. we also planted trees to combat deforestation and climate change. We also went and did tours around the ecological center over there, and seeing how they're using these different plant medicines and using them as fertilizer. Really just learning to work with the nature that is around you in the environment,' Latajah Lassus from Clark Atlanta University told Channel 2 Action News. 'It also made me realize that if this country can be sustainable with what they have, and for them it's not just 'Oh I want to be sustainable,' it's they have to be sustainable. Their infrustructure cannot sustain as much as ours can. If they can do it, then we can do it,' Ashley Felix, a student at Spelman College said. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] The program is a year-long commitment where students improve the sustainability of their college campuses, lead climate justice advocacy, and get real-world experience to lead a green economy after graduation. Monsurate Amoo studies sustainable fashion at Spelman College. 'Sustainability is their way of life. It's an innovative aspect of their lifestyle. and over here, I feel like we attack it in such an impoverished manner, whereas, at least for my section of sustainability, when it comes to fashion, and ya know, second-hand clothes, and stuff like that, it's seen as an impoverished idea. Whereas, over there, they are more into a circular economy, using the resources that they have,' Amoo said. Although their trip was unique and influential, the students say you don't have to travel to Africa to make a difference. 'It's very important that we get involved in small ways. You know, you may not be able to plant trees, but you can start by removing plastic from your home or just limiting your waste,' Lassus said. TRENDING STORIES: Veteran Atlanta Country music radio personality 'Cadillac Jack' has died at age 51 Paramedic accused of assaulting patient in ambulance in Cobb County Mother describes horrifying moments as she watched her SUV burst into flames along GA 400 [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
