UNCF Monthly Newsletter: Invest in Better Futures, June 2016

JUNE 2016

CONGRATULATIONS TO 2016 GATES MILLENNIUM SCHOLARS

UNCF Gates Millennium Scholars has announced its final 1,000-student cohort of scholarship recipients, selected from a pool of 53,000 applicants. Even though the last new students have been named, the program's main work, making sure that Gates Scholars succeed and graduate, has more than 10 years to go. This program has taught the nation what UNCF already knew: given the financial, academic and social support that students from more prosperous families take for granted, low-income students can succeed and soar. Our biggest takeaway? We learned how to administer a scholarship program so that almost nine out of 10 students graduate. MORE

WALMART FOUNDATION GRANTS $500,000 TO UNCF TO STRENGTHEN HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

UNCF received a $500,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation to provide mini-grants and technical assistance to selected UNCF-member institutions to assist with accreditation efforts and support a summer professional development conference geared toward enrollment management.

Over the past nine years, the Walmart Foundation has granted more than $3.2 million to UNCF. The most recent gift is to support UNCF's Institute for Capacity Building (ICB), a network-wide initiative that provides funds and technical assistance to help institutions manage challenges in areas like accreditation reaffirmation, enrollment management and fundraising. MORE...

UNCF JOINS 29 OTHER CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS TO PRESS FOR SCHOOL FUNDING EQUITY FOR LOW-INCOME STUDENTS

Given that most African American students do not graduate from high school college-ready, UNCF has joined with other civil rights organizations to press for greater equity for low-income students in K-12 education. Congress recently passed the Every Student Succeeds Act, which is the new federal elementary and secondary education law governing billions in federal funding for public schools. However, a fight is brewing with Congress over the allocation of those resources to schools that enroll a high proportion of low-income children. UNCF and the civil rights coalition are supporting U.S. Secretary of Education John King, Jr., in pressing for equitable allocation of federal resources so that federal dollars supplement, not replace, state and local education funds, so that disadvantaged students receive the additional supports and services they need to succeed. At the same time, UNCF is pushing for strong parental involvement, rigorous assessments, and state/local accountability for results for low-income and minority children as the U.S. Department of Education prepares new regulations to implement the law. The civil rights coalition letter to the U.S. Department of Education urging strong school funding equity regulations under the Every Student Succeeds Act can be found here .

THE OBAMAS AND OPRAH HEADLINE 2016 HBCU GRADUATIONS

HBCUs had a graduation season to remember. Commencement speakers included President Obama, Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Harvey and Tyler Perry.
Click here.

Here's an excerpt of what President Barack Obama told graduates at Howard University in Washington, DC: "Around the world, we've still got challenges to solve that threaten everybody in the 21st century - old scourges like disease and conflict, but also new challenges, from terrorism and climate change. So make no mistake, Class of 2016 - you've got plenty of work to do. But as complicated and sometimes intractable as these challenges may seem, the truth is that your generation is better positioned than any before you to meet those challenges, to flip the script."

TWIN CITIES MASKED BALL RAISES $770,000; NOTABLES HONORED

Masked Ball co-chair Jacob Gayle of Medtronic Foundation ; Dr. Lomax; Masked Ball chair, Laysha Ward, Executive Vice President of Target ; UNCF Regional Development Director Sharon Smith-Akinsanya; Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges; Masked Award honorees Dr. Ella and Eric Mahmoud, founders of Seed Academy, Inc. Not pictured: Masked ball honoree. Dr, Marcia L. Halverson, emerita professor of economics at Spelman College.

On Saturday, May 14, the Minneapolis office of UNCF hosted the fourth annual UNCF Twin Cities Masked Ball at the Mall of America's Radisson Blu Hotel ballroom.

It was an elegant evening celebrating higher education and raising money to support the 37 UNCF-member colleges and universities as well as the UNCF Twin Cities Hope Scholarship fund. The event raised $770,000. Dr. Michael L. Lomax, UNCF's president and CEO, told the audience that many are surprised at the level of support the organization receives in the Twin Cities because the nearest historically black college is 700 miles away.

"The Twin Cities are home to some of the country's most far-seeing companies - companies like Target, Medtronic, 3M, Best Buy, Wells Fargo, General Mills, and U.S. Bank - national employers, that know that their success depends on college-educated employees and customers of every ace and ethnicity, from around the country, not just here in Minnesota," he said. MORE... To see additional photos from the evening, please view this gallery .

Learn more about ways to participate in upcoming UNCF events in your area.

Ashley Aguy Booker is a UNCF scholar and graduate who recently shared her impact story at the Twin Cities Masked Ball and at the State of Minnesota Leaders' Luncheon on Education. Click here (30-minute mark) to learn more about Ashley.

"Thanks to UNCF,

I received a full ride to Oakwood University and was able to focus on my studies, not worry about student loans."

UNCF

1805 7th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20001

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