Dr. Paulette Walker-Johnson forever changed HBCU cheerleading 

By Sheyla Fairley

When Dr. Paulette Walker-Johnson, former head coach of Virginia State University’s, Petersburg, VA, “Woo-Woos” cheering squad, first took over the cheerleading program at VSU, she went to create something new and innovative.

“We were at a banquet once and a guy says ‘that’s that Woo Woo Lady’. He said, ‘I know why they call you the Woo Woos’. And I said, Why, sir? And he said, ‘Because when y’all get out there, people say, Woo Woo’. And I said, Yeah, that’s it, I’ll accept that,” said Johnson. “But really it’s a nickname. And of course, you know that spread throughout the conference where everybody has a nickname and we’re happy to be known as Woo Woos.”

According to an article, their style eventually caught on “beyond Virginia State, beyond the CIAA and beyond HBCU cheerleading thanks to the internet, specifically social media and Youtube.”

“Well, our style is no longer necessarily unique now. And I go on YouTube also, and I can see cheers that I know the day that it originated, who made up that cheer and I see it all over the country,” continued Johnson. “And that’s a wonderful thing. That is a compliment to, again, what we started. And I’m not going to say it wasn’t going on other places, but I had not seen it before and we just did what we did and worked with what we had.”

Read the full article, here.

FAMU alumna makes history as Vanderbilt’s first Black female neurosurgery resident

By Sheyla Fairley

Tamia Potter, a graduate of Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL, and is expected to graduate from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, this May, has been offered a residency position in neurosurgery at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.

Potter will be the first African American woman to train at Vanderbilt University in the school’s 148-year history.

“The network of Black people in neurosurgery is pretty small, and so whenever [you] start talking to mentors and you [start asking] them about where you should train, or what place is safe for Black people, they start telling you, ‘So and so trained here,'” she said. “I knew that Vanderbilt had a history of training Black men, I knew that much.”

For more information, read the full article here. 

Partnership between Harvard Library and HBCU Library Alliance to digitize Black history collections at HBCUs

By Sheyla Fairley

As stated in a release, Harvard Library and the HBCU Library Alliance have partnered up on a four-year, $6 million project to “advance efforts in digitizing and preserving collections at historically Black institutions” and will add to the work in the HBCU Library Alliance’s digital library, which “currently contains campus records from more than 20 HBCU libraries dating back to the early 1800s.”

“The HBCU libraries have deep connections to African American history and expertise in records that are incredibly important,” said Martha Whitehead, Harvard vice president for the library and university librarian. “This partnership will open and preserve access to many significant research collections held in HBCU libraries, while ensuring they retain ownership of the collections.”

Expansion of SANS Institute’s HBCU+ Academy to include several Black American communities in cybersecurity

By Sheyla Fairley

SANS Institute, the largest provider of cybersecurity training and certification to professionals in government and commercial institutions worldwide, has announced the expansion of the SANS HBCU+ Academy.

According to an article, the SANS HBCU+ Academy is a unique opportunity for “juniors, seniors, and graduate students enrolled at HBCUs, MSIs, and PBIs, as well as alumni who wish to shift careers into cybersecurity and selected Cyber FastTrack participants” to gain “hands-on cybersecurity training and real-world experience” where they will receive “in-depth training from top SANS instructors and access to cutting-edge cybersecurity tools and techniques.”

“Diversifying the cybersecurity industry requires individuals from various backgrounds, not just those with a computer science background,” said Delisha Hodo, Chair of the SANS Institute HBCU committee. “Expanding the SANS HBCU+ Academy to a broader audience will improve the future of the industry and dispel misconceptions about who can excel in this field.”

For more details, read the full article here.

Lincoln University student part of national program to diversify finance

By Sheyla Fairley

As stated in a release, Nyah Singh, a Lincoln University, Jefferson City, MO, junior studying sports management, is “one of 16 college students participating in the Milken Institute’s HBCU Fellowship Program, a new initiative created this year to connect asset management firms with students from historically Black colleges and universities” where students are offered “an eight-week virtual course in finance in addition to professional development and in-person networking opportunities.”

“HBCUs continue to be overlooked as a resource for quality talent in the investment industry, despite a decades long history of producing global leaders in financial services,” said Blair Smith, the Milken Institute’s Center for Financial Markets director. “Creating greater diversity in the asset management space would go a long way toward rectifying many of the issues facing the industry.”