Bowie State student to open barbershop on campus
By Sheyla Fairley
Bowie State University, Bowie, MD, sophomore Santana Pleasant is looking forward to giving students, staff and faculty haircuts when he opens his barbershop in the Student Center on September 18, 2023.
According to an article, Pleasant believes he’s called to “serve the community with his clippers and has history giving haircuts to those who need it most, regardless of their ability to pay,” and wants to “extend his services to students who don’t have stable housing or are stretched thin trying to take care of other basic needs and don’t have extra funds for a haircut.”
“It’s not about the money, it’s about getting people the basic necessities that they need,” said Pleasant. “That’s always been my focus. It’s being a barber for the people.”
For more information, read the full article here.
Morgan State University researchers are studying how a student’s success is impacted by trauma
By Sheyla Fairley
Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD, received a three-year research grant from the U.S. Department of Education to study the impact of trauma on a student’s success in college.
As stated in a release, Dr. Virginia Byrne, an assistant professor at Morgan State, and her team will look at how “students with a history of trauma—like cyberbullying, violence, racial trauma, and even the COVID-19 pandemic—are affected by that trauma when participating in online classes” with the goal to “find ways for professors to provide a safe space for students that encourages them to show up and be successful.”
“They’re less likely to ask for help,” Byrne said. “They’re less likely to say what they really think in an online discussion. And if students can’t be themselves and ask questions, and share their real ideas and be open to feedback, they’re not really learning.”
Alabama State University Partners with Helios Consulting to launch an apprenticeship program focused on HR tech careers
By Sheyla Fairley
According to an article, Alabama State University, Montgomery, AL, will be launching a new apprenticeship program designed to “expand access to career opportunities in the field of HR tech” while in partnership with Helios Consulting, “whose pioneering Rise apprenticeship program equips participants with both the technical and business skills to succeed in HR technology roles.”
“The pace of technological change is only getting faster, and higher education institutions have a responsibility – and an opportunity – to keep up,” said Dr. Sabrina L. Crowder, assistant vice president for Student Affairs & Enrollment Management at Alabama State University. “Through our partnership with Helios, we’re ensuring that ASU students can build upon their college education by mastering the skills needed for success in high-demand fields like HR tech.”
For more details, read the full article here.
New NSU program to increase diversity in the public health workforce
By Sheyla Fairley
Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA, will be offering a Master of Health Informatics (MHI) degree program.
As stated in a release, students will study the “processes and tools used to record, store, and analyze healthcare information” with the goal to “increase the number of professional employees in the public health workplace from underrepresented populations who have expertise in information, computer science, and technology.”
“We want a public health workforce with diversity representation, and Norfolk State University is in a unique position because most of the students we have are minority students,” explained Dr. Marie St. Rose, director of Allied Health Programs at NSU. “They have the opportunity to enter the program so they can be the next generation of people in the workforce to represent diversity. Diversity representation is very good because it improves health equity, it improves health outcomes, and you have a [wider] pool of inputs and insights.”
New Catholic student center at Howard University named in honor of Sister Thea Bowman
By Sheyla Fairley
On August 28, 2023, the new Catholic student center at Howard University, Washington, DC, was named after the late “Servant of God” Sister Thea Bowman. According to an article, she was a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, “a dynamic evangelist and noted educator who died of cancer in 1990” and who is “one of six Black Catholics from the United States being considered for sainthood.”
“It’s going to be a place for students to pray, to worship, to study, to meet, to fellowship, to socialize, even to cook — we have a kitchen — (it will be) a place to build community and grow in authentic friendship, and a place where we can be unabashedly young, Black, gifted and Catholic,” said Father Robert Boxie III, the Catholic chaplain at Howard University in the nation’s capital.
Read the full article, here.
