Barnes and Noble Founders Donate $1 million to Spellman

A magnanimous gift to Spelman College.

Barnes & Noble founder gives Spelman College $1 million gift

The founder and chairman of Barnes & Noble Inc. and his wife have given $1 million to Spelman College in Atlanta.

The college said it planned to use the gift from Leonard and Louise Riggio to fund a scholars program in his name, and to support its planned arts and innovation center.

Leonard Riggio, founder and chairman of Barnes & Noble Inc. (center).

“From the moment I was surrounded by its warm embrace, I was head over heels in love with Spelman College, and especially with the beautiful people who study and teach there,” Riggio said of his visit to the college. “The whole of the place seems to have been lifted from the depths of our spirits, to the full realization of our hopes and dreams for a better America. If Spelman is not the paradigm of a great college, I do not know what is. The gift to the scholarship program and to the arts and innovation center from Louise and me commemorates one of the best days I’ve ever had.”

Half of the Riggios’ gift will be used to underwrite six outstanding Spelman students who have demonstrated stellar academic achievement and who are actively engaged in community service, the university said in a statement. The remaining $500,000 will be designated for the design and construction of an arts and innovation center that will house Spelman’s arts programs and Innovation Lab, which encourage creative collaborations at the intersection of the arts, technology, science and other liberal arts disciplines. Program planning for the facility is underway, according to the December announcement.

“Leonard and Louise Riggio have been longstanding supporters of education and the arts,” said Spelman President Mary Schmidt Campbell. “We welcome them as new donors to Spelman and welcome, too, their enthusiasm and faith in the values and mission of the College. Their generous gift supports the academic success of a group of talented, socially engaged students and, at the same time, helps the College launch the planning of a new facility that will encourage campus wide collaborations and community engagement.”

 

Another Rapper Kid Gets A Football Scholarship – Snoop Dogg

What is the deal with rappers and football progeny? I mean it isn’t exactly like these kids are getting their athletic prowess and size from their fathers side…

In any event, UCLA has recruited and promised a scholarship to Snoop Dogg’s kid now, after the scandal caused by awarding a full scholarship to Diddy’s son.

It would be nice is a few of these well heeled rappers and actors whose kids are winning these scholarships would donate money to a scholarship to some financially disadvantaged kids.

We’ll see…

And at 6’2″, 185 lbs as a Sophomore in High School – this ain’t Affirmative Action for wealthy stars kids.

Proud Dad Snoop and son.

Snoop Dogg’s Son Lands Football Scholarship, Could Join Diddy’s Kid on UCLA Team

Snoop Dogg has a pretty good reason to raise a glass of gin and juice.

That’s because the rapper’s son, Cordell Broadus, has been offered a football scholarship by the University of California, Los Angeles.

“Sophomore Cordell Broadus Offered UCLA Football Scholarship,” read a tweet on Diamond Bar High School’s Twitter page.

Broadus played both wide receiver and defensive back for Diamond Bar’s freshman team last season.

Of course, if the 6-foot-2 185-pounder accepts the offer by the Bruins, he could one day be hitting the gridiron alongside Sean “Diddy” Combs‘ 18-year-old son Justin, who is expected to play for UCLA next season after accepting a full scholarship last November.

 

 

 

New Scholarship for White Men

A man in Texas has formed a non-profit to distribute scholarships to white men. While well to do, or “connected” white men get a lot of breaks – poor guys have to pretty much claw and scratch for themselves. So no, in my view it isn’t racism – in that unlike conservatives it isn’t trying to tear anyone else down. Seems like a good idea – poor white guys need a hand up, too. Interesting what the groups definition of “white” is!

Texas Group Offers Scholarships to White Men Only

A new nonprofit group in Texas is offering college scholarships to a demographic it says has fewer scholarship options than other groups: white men.

The group, called the Former Majority Association for Equality, was started by Colby Bohannon, a student at Texas State University. He’s an Iraq War veteran who decided to return to school and said he had trouble finding college scholarships for which he qualified. He found many programs willing to grant money to female or minority students, but not white males like himself.

“I felt excluded,” Bohannon told The Austin American-Statesman. “If everyone else can find scholarships, why are we left out?”

So Bohannon and some friends founded the FMAE group, which plans to begin handing out $500 scholarships this summer. Only white men with at least a 3.0 grade point average can qualify.

“We know that we’re going to be receiving some vicious attacks from people claiming that we are racists or promoting some bigotry-filled agenda,” Bohannon also told Reuters. He said he’s just trying to help students who may have been a majority in the past, but are no longer as America’s demographics change.

“If you’re not a male, and if you’re not white, you’re called a minority,” Bohannon said, but “I’m not sure white males are the majority anymore.”

He’s correct about his home state of Texas, at least. Non-Hispanic whites are now a minority there, according to U.S. Census figures released earlier this month that show they make up about 42 percent of the state’s population, down from more than half 10 years ago.

Bohannon has since been forced to qualify his group’s scholarship requirements after receiving requests from some students who are of mixed race or ethnic backgrounds. He now says students are eligible if they’re a quarter non-Hispanic white.

“We’re not looking for blond-haired, blue-eyed, stereotypical white males,” he told Reuters. “My feeling is that if you can say you’re 25 percent Caucasian, you’re Caucasian enough for us.”

The group was formally incorporated in Texas last March, and is currently accepting applications for fall 2011 scholarships. It “has no political aspirations, financial agenda, or radical social philosophies whatsoever,” the group said in a statement on its website.

“I believe in equality for everyone, as well as being a strong believer that everyone should have an opportunity to attend college no matter who they are or where they come from,” Calysta Spence, FMAE’s fundraising coordinator, told The University Star, a student newspaper at Texas State, where Bohannon is a student.

 

Young, Gifted, and Black #2,999,993

You know – as much as conservatives and their black acolyte Uncle Toms try and beat black folks down by constantly haranguing about that portion of the black population which doesn’t do well, or is failing…

Every day, we have standouts like the Stephen Allsop.

NCCU Scholar Wins Coveted Goldwater Math and Science Award
By Sade Thompson, Black College Wire

Stephen Allsop

Stephen Allsop, biology junior and jazz studies minor at North Carolina Central University, has been awarded the 2009-2010 Barry Goldwater Scholarship for mathematical and scientific excellence.