FedEx/UNCF Scholarship Initiative Fund
Filed under: Blog Entries, Education, Personal Finance
The deadline is coming up soon. Get on it!
FedEx/UNCF Scholarship Program provides scholarship opportunities for high school seniors entering Historically Black College or University commencing Fall 2010. The scholarship Program is funded by the FedEx Corporation and provides need-based scholarship awards to eligible applicants who meet the following criteria:
Applicants must be graduating high school seniors at the time of application. Applicants must have cumulative high school grade point average of 3.00 or higher on a 4.0 scale.
Applicants must enroll at a four year Historically Black Colleges or Universities. Applicants must complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Applicants must be Pell Grant eligible and have demonstrated financial needs.
Deadline:
May 9, 2010
Award Amount:
$4,000
Website/Contact Info:
www.uncf.org/forstudents/scholarDetailSGA.asp?id=481
Put People on Blast With Unvarnished
Filed under: Blog Entries, Business, Community, Relationships, Society & Culture, Technology, Think Global
This site has been out for a couple of weeks, but when I heard about it, I knew I needed to share it on the blog. According to the website, Unvarnished is:
an online resource for building, managing, and researching professional reputation, using community-contributed, professional reviews.Unvarnished reviews help you get the inside scoop on other business professionals, providing candid assessments of coworkers, potential hires, business partners, and more.
By contributing Unvarnished reviews, you can share your knowledge of other professionals, giving credit where credit is due, and valuable feedback where needed.
Lastly, your own Unvarnished profile, which you may create yourself or claim one that has been created for you, helps you take control of and build your own professional reputation. Get recognition for your accomplishments and actively manage your career growth.
So basically you can leave comments about someone (good or bad) in a public forum. It’s like having your resume online for all to see and ridicule. The site is currently in beta, so you have to sign up using Facebook Connect and they will put you on a waiting list of people who’ve already signed up. I put my name in for an invitation because I want to know what you all think about me. This is social networking at its best and it will be interesting to see how they plan on managing the site once everything opens up.
PS > If you are reading this and are currently a member of the site, please send me an invite so I can bypass the waiting process. Thanks!
Facebook Help!
Filed under: Blog Entries, Community, Education, Society & Culture, Technology

I was listening to one of the many tech podcast I subscribe to and they were talking about the new Safety Center that Facebook added for its users. While geared to the best ways to stay safe on Facebook, some of the tips given can help you stay safe anywhere on the Internet. As a parent, I was pleased to see advice for parents on ways they can help their teenagers deal with predators and unwanted solicitations from other Facebook users.
There’s also a section for educators on how best to use Facebook in the classroom. I think the best question was “How can I maintain a professional presence on the site separate from my personal profile?”. The best method in my opinion is to not let them be your friend, but check out Facebook’s answer because they show you how to have the best of both worlds. I’d also recommend reading the general safety section on ways you can adjust your privacy settings.
Now all of this information is great, but it takes a lot to keep your information safe online. A Facebook friend of mine, posted comment about spokeo.com. They aggregate publicly available information from phone books, social networks, marketing surveys, real estate listings, business websites, and other public sources. They index third-party data in ways similar to Google or Bing. While not all of the data is accurate, they are able to pull a lot of information from people all over the country. You can remove your listing from the site, but this is just one of many sites that collect information about you online.
One final article that I’d recommend reading is from PC World titled, Facebook’s New Features and Your Privacy: What You Need To Know. The amount of information stored on social networking sites is ridiculous and there’s money to be made from your personal information. Don’t think Facebook isn’t looking for ways to do that. They’ve had issues with how they allowed you to set up your privacy settings, so it’s important to know what you need to do to only share the information you want with the public.
President Obama’s Weekly Address – 04/24/10
Filed under: Blog Entries, Business, Obama, Personal Finance, Politics, Technology
As the auto industry and financial markets begin to stabilize, the President says the government’s emergency interventions can now wind down. He pledges that real reform, particularly on Wall Street, must now begin.
What The President Has Signed Into Law – March 2010
Filed under: Blog Entries, Health, Our Rights, Politics
The purpose for this post is to inform you of the new laws and acts enacted by Congress and President Obama. With the advent of the Internet it’s gotten easier to watch every step our government takes. And President Obama is making some nice moves to make what they do more transparent to the American people. We elect them, so we need to make sure they are doing their job. The laws I list are posted at govtrack.us, which is a nice site for checking laws in any stage their in. As always feel free to leave any additional comments.
This was also the month history was made with the signing of the health care reform bill. There was a lot of fighting over this, but President Obama got it done. Only time will tell whether it was a good or bad idea to reform health care. To be honest, I don’t think anyone knows what will happen and there will always be people out there who want to see it fail, so they can say “I told you so”.
On Mar 2, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law:
H.R. 4691: Temporary Extension Act of 2010. To provide a temporary extension of certain programs, and for other purposes.
On Mar 4, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law:
H.R. 1299: United States Capitol Police Administrative Technical Corrections Act of 2009. To make technical corrections to the laws affecting certain administrative authorities of the United States Capitol Police, and for other purposes.
On Mar 17, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law:
S. 2968: Trademark Technical and Conforming Amendment Act of 2010. A bill to make certain technical and conforming amendments to the Lanham Act.
On Mar 18, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law:
H.R. 2847: Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act. Making appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, and Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.
On Mar 23, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law:
H.R. 3590: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. An act entitled The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This is the Senate’s health care bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Senate is co-opting this bill as a vehicle for passage of their reform and will change the text of this unrelated bill in whole in the coming weeks. They do this because the Constitution requires all revenue bills to start in the House, and their health reform plan involves revenue. So they have chosen to work off of a bill that started in the House, even if that bill is unrelated.
On Mar 25, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law:
H.R. 3433: To amend the North American Wetlands Conservation Act to establish requirements regarding payment of the non-Federal share of the costs of wetlands conservation projects in Canada that are funded under that Act, and for other purposes.
On Mar 31, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law:
H.R. 4957: Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010. To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend the funding and expenditure authority of the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, to amend title 49, United States Code, to extend authorizations for the airport improvement program, and for other purposes.
S. 1147: PACT Act. A bill to prevent tobacco smuggling, to ensure the collection of all tobacco taxes, and for other purposes.
President Obama’s Weekly Address – 04/10/10
Filed under: Blog Entries, General, Obama, Personal Finance, Society & Culture, Technology
As April 15th approaches, the President discusses several of the tax breaks for middle class families he has signed into law. Find out more about the Making Work Pay tax credit, breaks for first-time homebuyers, rewards for making your home more energy efficient and more through our Tax Savings Tool.
Grant Applications 101: What You Need to Know
Filed under: Blog Entries, Business, Community, Education, Podcasts, Society & Culture, Technology
Are you interested in learning how to write a grant? For $1000 I can teach you the secrets to grant writing!!!
Well actually I can’t. But I can point you to a website that will help you get started. Workforce3 One, is a U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration (ETA) sponsored entity that offers tools (FOR FREE) to get you started in writing your own grant proposal.
They have a really cheesy podcast called “Grant Applications 101: What You Need to Know”. While cheesy, it does dispel some of the myths of grant writing and points you to their Toolkit Homepage to get started.
From what I’ve heard, grant writing is not an easy process and it takes time and patience to actually get one. But it is a way to get funding for your project and may be worth it in the long run. For more information about the grant writing process, visit the links above.
Musical – Langston In Harlem
Filed under: Blog Entries, Community, Education, Entertainment & Sports, Society & Culture
As always, I try to keep this blog open to those wanting to pub quality events regardless of location. This one isn’t in the Dallas area, but if you’re in the NY area, let me know how it is. For more information, visit the Urban Stages website.
Urban Stages “Celebrating over 25 Years of New Works”
will present the World Premiere of the musical
Langston In Harlem
By Langston Hughes, Walter Marks and Kent Gash
Music by Walter Marks, Lyrics by Langston Hughes
Musical Direction by Barry Levitt, Choreography by Byron Easley
Directed by Kent Gash
Starring Josh Tower as Langston Hughes
Performances begin April 9; Opening April 15
At Urban Stages
New York: Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Artistic Director, Lauren Schmiedel, Managing Director) will present the World Premiere of the musical Langston in Harlem book by Langston Hughes, Walter Marks and Kent Gash, with music by Walter Marks, lyrics by Langston Hughes and directed by Kent Gash, with musical direction by Barry Levitt and choreography by Byron Easley. Langston in Harlem will begin previews on Friday, April 9; opening on Thursday, April 15, 2010 and will initially run through May 2, 2010. Urban Stages is located at 259 West 30 Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues). Tickets will be $40 ($25 during previews) and are available at www.Smarttix.com / 212.868.4444. Langston in Harlem is produced by arrangement with Langston, Ltd., Jon Kimbell/SenovvA, Inc. – Executive Producer.
Langston in Harlem is an exciting new musical about one of America’s most honored poets, Langston Hughes. Set in the African-American cultural capital of Harlem from the Harlem Renaissance through the Civil Rights movement, Langston in Harlem tells the story of Langston Hughes’ journey into manhood and his emergence as one of the most beloved and forward thinking artists of our time. This groundbreaking new musical is filled with Jazz, Gospel, Rhythm and Blues, Swing, dance and spoken-word that sings, jumps, stomps and shouts. Langston Hughes’ glorious words and poetry of love, loss, joy and the blues and the people of Harlem who inspired him, come gloriously to life, in Langston in Harlem and are once again universal and unforgettable!
President Obama’s Weekly Address – 04/03/10
Filed under: Blog Entries, Community, Obama, Society & Culture
In this week of Easter, Passover, and faithful celebration, the President offers a holiday greeting and calls on people of all faiths and nonbelievers to remember our shared spirit of humanity.





