Page 13 - Florida Sentinel 3-28-17

HBCU News
Xavier’s Cinderella Story Ends After Making Elite 8 With Loss To Gonzaga
Child Genius To Graduate From Clark Atlanta Univ. At 19
Ronald McCullough Jr. is one exceptional soon-to-be- alumnus of Clark Atlanta Uni- versity. At commencement May 22, the former child genius will graduate with honors with a B.A. in biology a full two years ahead of his classmates, at the youthful age of 19.
Along the way, he earned membership in Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society. How did the CAU legacy student (his mother graduated from the former Clark College) do it?
Well, it began years before he arrived at CAU at just 16 years old.
Turns out McCullough, then 15, also graduated early from Maynard Jackson High School
Ronald McCullough, Jr., will be entering graduate school at age 19.
in Atlanta, after his genius-level intelligence allowed him to skip the second grade.
His parents and teachers rec- ognized early McCullough far outpaced his classmates in sci-
ence and mathematics.
His university friends,
though, had trouble believing he was so much younger than them until he showed his driver license.
McCullough has always possessed an extraordinary abil- ity to understand and retain in- formation about very complex subjects.
McCullough’s brainpower has not gone unnoticed. Post- graduate engineering programs are heavily recruiting him, in- cluding N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University (A&T) and University of Hawaii. The future astronaut plans to en- roll in the biological/agricultural engineering program at A&T.
Xavier vs. Gonzaga
The Xavier Musketeers earned the right to play in the Elite Eight for the first time in a decade after defeating Ari- zona.
Trevon Bluiett kept Xavier close in the Sweet 16 with a big first half and the Musketeers made the clutch plays down the stretch against the West Region's No. 2 seed, upsetting Arizona 73-71 on Thursday night.
Xavier (30-13) fought through a string of injuries and a late losing streak to reach the NCAA Tournament, then opened with a pair of upsets. The Musketeers passed their
biggest test to date with confi- dent performance against one of college basketball's storied programs.
On Saturday, it came to an end as No. 11 Xavier was knocked out of the NCAA tour- nament by No. 1 Gonzaga.
The Xavier nation watched intently, hopeful that its team could finally make history and punch a ticket to the Final Four this season. Instead, the X-Men met their match with a loss, 83-59.
The reason they shouldn’t be too upset is they were the best Cinderella story of the tourna- ment.
HBCU Journalists Selected For ESPN Fellowship
Virginia Union Women’s Basketball Team Rank #2 In Coaches Poll
The 2016-2017 Virginia Union University women’s basketball team.
Six HBCU college journalists were chosen for a fellowship program at ESPN.
The Undefeated Rhoden Fel- lowship is ESPN’s multi-plat- form initiative for sports, race and culture. The journalism pro- gram focuses on identifying and training aspiring African Ameri- can journalists from Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
It is a two-year program open to outstanding undergraduate students at HBCUs.
The HBCU journalists se- lected include: Miniya Shabazz, Grambling Univer- sity, Grambling, LA; Kyla Wright, Hampton University, Hampton, Virginia; Paul A. Holston, Howard University, Washington, D.C.; C. Isaiah
Miniya Shabazz is one of 6 HBCU journalists who was chosen to do a fellowship at ESPN.
Smalls II, Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia; Simone Ben-
son, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland, and Donovan Dooley, North Car- olina A&T University, Greens- boro, North Carolina.
The new fellows will also be mentored by the “man” himself, William C. Rhoden, an award-winning sports columnist who recently retired from The New York Times then joined The Undefeated as a columnist, edi- tor-at-large and director of the fellowship program.
Rhoden was encouraged to develop the initiative by ESPN president John Skipper and has worked closely with Kevin Merida, senior vice president and editor-in-chief of The Unde- feated, to make the Fellows a re- ality.
Google And Howard University Up The Ante:
Launch Howard West In Silicon Valley
The Virginia Union Univer- sity women’s basketball team has finished the 2016-17 sea- son ranked #2 in the final Women’s Basketball Coaches Association poll of the season, released on Saturday, March 25.
The Lady Panthers moved up from #18 due to a miracu- lous run through the NCAA
Tournament, culminating in an appearance in the 2017 Na- tional Championship game against Ashland University on Friday, March 24.
The #2 ranking is the high- est finish ever for a VUU women’s team in the WBCA poll.
VUU finished the 2016-17 with a 28-5 record.
With the 2013 launch of the Googler-in-Residence (GIR) Program, Google piloted a part- nership with Howard University with a long-term goal of promot- ing diversity and preparing fu- ture leaders in the STEM industry.
Since then, the GIR has ex- panded to six additional colleges including Hampton University, Fisk University, Spelman Col- lege, Morehouse College, Xavier University and Dillard Univer- sity, embedding Google engi- neers as faculty at the HBCUs.
On Thursday, Howard Uni- versity released a statement that they will be partnering with Google to up the ante on this Black tech excellence with the launch of Howard West.
The three-month summer agenda will provide opportuni- ties for rising juniors and seniors in the University’s Computer Science program to complete a residency at Google’s Mountain View campus in Silicon Valley.
The residency includes a ded- icated workspace and a generous stipend to cover housing and other expenses.
“Howard West will produce
hundreds of industry-ready Black computer science gradu- ates, future leaders with the power to transform the global technology space into a stronger, more accurate reflection of the world around us,” said Howard University President Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick.
Google credits the prestige HBCU for the vision and groundwork to make the pro- gram happen.
"During my time at Howard, I worked side-by-side with future lawyers, doctors, writers, enter- tainers, architects and business leaders. The spirit of total possi- bility put me on my path to Har- vard Business School and ultimately Google,” said Bonita Stewart, Google’s Vice Presi-
dent of Global Partnerships. “ Howard West will continue Howard’s tradition of providing unprecedented access to oppor- tunity, only now with a presence
in the heart of Silicon Valley." Howard West will serve the entire tech ecosystem. Comple- tion of the program, set to ma- triculate 740 students within the next five years, will count to- wards 12 graduation credits through an immersion curricu-
lum.
The program is a huge step in
bridging the cultural divide be- tween declaring a major in Com- puter Science and landing a job in tech. Kudos to Google and Howard University for creating a platform for our future dream- ers and creators in tech.
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