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Russell J. Ledet was told that security guards don’t become doctors. He didn’t accept this stereotype. In conversation with AFROTECH™, the Lake Charles, LA, native admitted that all he could afford to do as a kid was dream. His mother worked as a certified nursing assistant, earning minimum wage and navigating poverty and food insecurity while caring for him. She still nurtured his imagination by ensuring he had access to books, bringing them home from the hospital when he couldn’t access the larger, segregated library. “I always knew that where I was growing up wasn’t everything. It wasn’t the totality of what I could potentially have access to,” he acknowledged. After graduating from high school, he joined the Navy, which made him realize that he could pursue more career paths than those he witnessed growing up. He served on active duty for the first five years, spending the first two as a ceremonial guard before transitioning to cryptologic intelligence. View this post on...
Jalen Brunson is centering financial literacy and education in his philanthropic efforts. Brunson is an NBA player who was selected 33rd overall by the Dallas Mavericks in the 2018 draft, per Basketball Reference. He credits his parents for shaping his spending habits at a young age, in conversation with AFROTECH™. So when he signed his rookie contract, valued at $6.11 million over four years, according to Spotrac, he had the foundation to manage his money responsibly. “Once I got into the league, you’re given a lot more money. You obviously worked hard for it, but now you are responsible for making responsible decisions. It’s a whole different animal, but the principles are still the same,” Brunson, who now plays for the New York Knicks, told AFROTECH™. Brunson credits his parents, agents, and financial team with challenging him and guiding him through strategic financial decisions. The byproduct of their support has led Brunson to pursue business moves such as his endorsement deal...
Tuskegee University is working to increase access to nursing careers. Nursing Apprenticeship Program Details According to a press release, the Historically Black College and Universit y (HBCU) has approved its nursing apprenticeship program, which was established to strengthen Alabama’s healthcare workforce and expand care access. The program marks a first for a four-year HBCU in the state of Alabama. Registered through the Alabama Office of Apprenticeship within the Alabama Department of Labor, the program includes classroom instruction, paid on-the-job learning, clinical experience, and one-on-one mentorship from experienced nurses. Apprentices Will Be Paid What’s more, participants can earn wages during clinical rotations. “This apprenticeship represents a different way of thinking about how we prepare Alabama’s healthcare workforce,” said Meredith Smith, director of the Alabama Office of Apprenticeship, according to the news release. “By blending education with paid and...
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has announced the rebrand of an initiative to employ youth. According to a press release, the city’s youth employment initiative, One Summer Chicago, is being rebranded as Chicago Youth Works. Mayor Johnson has worked to grow funding and partnership opportunities for the employment initiative. In 2025, his efforts led to summer jobs for 31,119 young people who earned a collective wage of more than $30.9 million, per the release. The rebranded Chicago Youth Works is partnering with the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) . The new program name comes from input from the young people it serves, and is launching with a new tagline: “Get Paid. Get Skilled. Get Ahead.” Chicago Youth Works will employ youth aged 14 to 24, with support from local businesses, nonprofits, and city agencies, notes the release. These opportunities may include summer positions, year-round roles, or paid career exploration programming for 14- and 15-year-olds....
Morehouse College will help build a supercomputer, projected to be one of the most powerful in the Southeast, according to a news release. The Morehouse Center for Broadening Participation in Computing has received a grant from the National Science Foundation to start building supercomputer Horizon, which falls under the Leadership-Class Computing Facility (LCCF) project. Morehouse is working with an initial $5 million portion of the grant, and more funds will be disbursed to support ongoing operations. The project combines “cutting-edge technologies with advanced infrastructure to redefine what is possible in scientific computing,” according to information shared by The University of Texas at Austin, which is leading the $457 million project. Morehouse, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), will build and house Horizon and provide additional support through summer programs for middle and high school boys, a postbaccalaureate program in AI, and faculty accelerators in...
Morris Brown College has been awarded new funding to support its hospitality management program. The Historically Black College and University (HBCU) is currently led by Dr. Kevin James, who, in a conversation with Atlanta News First, joked that he had recently taken a five-day vacation. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, in January the college’s Board of Trustees removed James from his post as president “without providing specific cause or substantive explanation,” he said in a post on LinkedIn. He was reinstated on Jan. 20, 2026, and the board acknowledged that it had not complied with the procedural and contractual requirements outlined in James’ employment agreement, which has him under contract until 2029, according to his post. “We are back. We are pushing forward, and we’re very, very excited,” James told Atlanta News First. He aims for the college to become a top institution and describes the school’s era as a “hard reset,” according to the outlet. The college was recently...
Congresswoman Valerie P. Foushee has introduced legislation to ensure that Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) expand their stake in AI. According to a press release, Foushee, who is also the co-chair of the House Democratic Commission on AI and the Innovation Economy, introduced the HBCU Artificial Intelligence Research Leadership Act. The legislation would ensure that HBCUs can launch federally funded AI Research Institutes. It would require the National Science Foundation’s National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program to reserve 10% of research institutes for HBCUs. These research institutes would be operated by an HBCU or would be established in partnership with an HBCU. “This legislation expands access to cutting-edge research, strengthens the AI workforce pipeline, and creates high-quality jobs and economic opportunity in communities that have too often been left out of major federal investments. By ensuring HBCUs are full partners in our...
Several colleges and universities are withdrawing from a project designed to promote diversity among business faculty members. Founded in 1994, the PhD Project has helped more than 1,500 members earn doctoral degrees, with the goal of them teaching business in classrooms, according to its website. The project has also focused on creating gateways to scholarships and other means to help members cover the cost of pursuing a Ph.D. Many individuals have gone on to leadership roles in higher education as well. CBS News reported that the project helped support people from historically underrepresented groups across the nation. In fact Black, Hispanic, and Native Americans candidates rose from 294 at its inception to 1,700 in 2023, according to information from the project’s annual report . However, the project has been targeted under the Trump administration by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which said it violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of...
A trustee at Michigan State University (MSU) is standing firm in her demands for the institution to revisit diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and strengthen support for Black students on campus. Rema Vassar, who serves on MSU’s Board of Trustees, has published two opinion pieces outlining her concerns — one on Feb. 2, 2026, in Bridge Michigan and another on Feb. 20 in the Michigan Chronicle. In the most recent op-ed, Vassar pushed back on university officials who said she mischaracterized the state of MSU’s diversity and equity efforts. She said that over multiple years, Black students have recorded the lowest graduation rates, the highest rates of academic probation, the greatest student loan debt , and the lowest sense of belonging on campus. “These are not isolated blips,” Vassar wrote. “They form a pattern in which Black students are consistently positioned at the bottom of nearly every measure of ‘student success.'” Push For Data Transparency At Michigan State...
Myles Dantzler is making the city of Detroit proud. ClickOnDetroit reported that the parents of the eight-year-old noticed he was showing signs of excellence early on when he began asking questions and learning at a rate that other children his age typically do not. His mother, Jamilla Johnson, particularly noticed her son was learning at an accelerated rate when he began reading words she could not read and correcting her while she read books to him. Dantzler currently attends Bates Academy in Detroit, and when he is not at school, you may catch him watching YouTube videos on topics such as dinosaurs, geography, and more. Dantzler is now a member of Mensa, the world’s largest high-IQ society, reports ClickOnDetroit. Dantzler’s reading teacher, Elinka Lewandowski, described the feat as “well earned and well deserved,” per the outlet. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, to join Mensa, members must take an intelligence test and score in the top 2% of the general population. “I got one...
As the Trump administration continues to compel public colleges and universities to end diversity, equity, and inclusion ( DEI ) policies and practices, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has called for federal assistance in reviewing higher education institutions in his state. On Feb. 23, 2026, Landry announced via news release that he had formally requested the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to expand its Feb. 13, 2026, inquiry into the Louisiana Board of Regents to include all public colleges and universities statewide. In a letter to Kimberly Richey, assistant secretary at the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, Landry noted that the investigation he wants expanded concerns whether the Louisiana Board of Regents discriminates against white and Asian students in recruitment and enrollment through objectives outlined in its 2019 Master Plan. “Let me be clear: Louisiana is done with woke DEI policies. Discrimination against ANY student will not be...
Dr. Willie Underwood III is the president-elect of the American Medical Association (AMA). The Buffalo, NY, native is a Morehouse College alum who earned a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1988, according to his LinkedIn profile. This was a dream for his family and simultaneously a reality check for an education system that attempted to write him off during his adolescent years and hold him back from realizing his potential, according to the National Press Foundation. “I went from a private Catholic school that was all-Black that believed in educating me to make me the best person I could be, to a school that was predominantly white, and the teachers had a policy, ‘We’re not educating them,’” Dr. Underwood said, per the outlet. “So they took all of us, all the Black males in the school, in that third-grade class where I started, and put us in remedial classes where I’m now in kindergarten. And I was there under the guise that I had a learning disability.” Underwood went on to obtain...
Gen Z is reportedly the first generation to grow up with screens at the heart of their school life, and early research suggests it isn’t working out in their favor. As of 2024, the United States has spent $30 billion on educational technology , providing laptops and tablets to public school children to replace textbooks and support digital lessons, Vocal reports. While the goal was to modernize teaching and boost learning, neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath shared his concerns with the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on Jan. 15, 2025. During a hearing about children’s screen time, he told the committee that the heavy reliance on screens in classrooms has coincided with declining cognitive performance among students. Why Gen Z Is The First To Underperform Previous Generations Horvath explained that Gen Z is the first in modern history to score lower on standardized tests than the generation before it, even though they have more years of formal...
A federal judge has dismissed the Trump administration’s anti- DEI push in education. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, the administration sent a letter to public schools in February 2025 that discouraged race from being considered in their admissions practices, hiring processes, scholarship programs, and “all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.” This decision was informed by the administration’s belief that DEI practices discriminate against white and Asian American students. Schools that continued to uphold DEI efforts were asked to verify compliance by signing a certification or risk losing federal funding. The administration’s action was challenged by several institutions across the U.S. for allegedly violating the First Amendment, including a group of New Hampshire school districts, state and national branches of the National Education Association, a teachers’ union, and the American Civil Liberties Union, according to the New Hampshire Bulletin. In March 2025,...
Marquette University allegedly provided preferential treatment to wealthier families. A report from think tank New America examined more than 20 years of financial aid data at more than 300 selective colleges and universities. Its report centers 41 universities, 23 of which are private universities and 18 are public flagship and research institutions. Its findings were that students from low- and lower-middle-income students were encouraged to take out Parent PLUS loan debt that would be challenging to pay back. “We went from a system where the point of student aid was to help students who could not afford to go to college, to one in which they’re trying to figure out exactly what price to bring you in,” author Stephen Burd said, according to WPR. “Almost like an airline does when they’re selling their seats.” The 41 universities offered $2.4 billion in financial aid to students who weren’t in financial need in 2023, according to New America. Additionally, $2 out of every $5 spent...